John Lennon wrote The Ballad Of John And Yoko during his honeymoon in Paris with Yoko Ono in March 1969. Although the word ‘ballad’ is commonly used to describe a slow love song these days, this song is referred to as ballad from a more traditional definition, meaning a narrative poem set to music. John’s poem chronicles events that surrounded his new marriage to Yoko, as well as the ‘bed-in’ at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel and ‘bagism’. After writing it, John got the idea that he wanted to record it immediately and brought the song to Paul McCartney’s home to discuss it. Despite the appearance of George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the promo film, George was on vacation (as well as busy with buying his new home at Friar Park) while the song was recorded and Ringo was busy filming the movie Magic Christian. John and Paul recorded the song without them on April 14, 1969 with Paul playing bass, drums and singing backing vocals. John handled the lead vocal, of course, as well as the lead and rhythm guitar. I should note that Paul’s drumming and John’s vocal and rhythm guitar were all recorded simultaneously, just like in the old days. Paul also plays the maracas as one of the overdubs. This session also marked the return of Geoff Emerick as recording engineer. He had quit working with the group during the White Album sessions nine months earlier due to the tensions within the group. At one point in the session during Paul’s drumming, John says “Go a bit faster, Ringo!” Paul responds with “OK, George!”. The song was released as an Apple single, backed with George Harrison’s Old Brown Shoe on June 4, 1969. This was the first Beatles single in the U.K. to be pressed in stereo instead of mono (the first stereo single in the U.S. had been Get Back which was released earlier in the year). Some radio stations in the U.S. refused to play The Ballad Of John and Yoko, stating that it was sacrilegious. This was due to it having the words ‘Christ’ and ‘crucify’ in the chorus. Much of the footage in this promo film for the single was recorded in January 1969, during the Get Back sessions.

Click the image above to play the video.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Past Masters (Remastered)
– 2009 remaster featuring all of the non UK album tracks from The Beatles EMI catalog including The Ballad Of John And Yoko

2) 1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered
– 2010 remaster of original 1973 Beatles hits compilation on 2 CDs featuring The Ballad Of John And Yoko

3) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

9 people think this is FAB!

Click here if this is FAB!

Click here if you change your mind.

Related posts:

1. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – The Ballad Of John And Yoko (sans overdubs) Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. In early April 1969 after John Lennon had put his wedding and...
2. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Revolution 1 (Take 20) Welcome to BROW. I’m going to assume that most reading have some familiarity with the double Apple LP The Beatles...