Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. John Lennon’s White Album track “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” is the subject of this week’s offering.

John referred to the song as a pastiche, consisting of several different song fragments he had going around in his head in 1968, as identified below:

1. The first section includes a fingerpicking style of guitar he had recently picked up in Rishikesh India with the help of Donovan, played with a lilting pattern and including the line “She’s not a girl who misses much…”
2. The second section includes some lyrics supplied by Beatles press officer Derek Taylor which he came up with during an acid trip that he experienced with John (“She’s well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane…”).
3. The third section came from a song fragment called “I Need A Fix” built around a nice and mean sounding guitar riff.
4. John follows this up with the fourth “Mother Superior Jumped The Gun” section.
5. The fifth and final section sends off the song with a doo-wop approach of singing the title with full backing vocal accompaniment from John, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. This inspiration for this section came from the title of an American firearms magazine title of Happiness Is A Warm Gun In Your Hand that John was shown by producer George Martin.

With each section comes a change in the time signature, yet despite it’s schizophrenic nature, it came together quite well and was much admired by the other Beatles. In fact, Paul McCartney mentioned in an interview that it was his favorite White Album song.

Forty-five takes of the song were recorded on September 23, 1968 and twenty-five more the following day. Take 53 was chosen as the best of these except for the final section which was edited to it from take 65. Overdubs were added from this version to create the master. If listening to the album or CD of the White Album, the edit between the takes occurs at 1:34.

For this week’s BROW, I am sharing one of the rough mix tapes that isolates one of the overdub tracks. It contains organ for the first two sections, distorted electric guitar for the third section, hi-hat and tambourine for the fourth section, and piano for the final section. These can be heard in the released stereo and mono mixes (centered in stereo) but since the organ and piano are quite buried there, I thought you may appreciate hearing these parts of the mix a bit clearer in this isolation account. As an added bonus, I’ve prefaced this with John’s acoustic guitar demo of the song recorded on May 25, 1969 while at his and Yoko Ono’s Canadian Bed-In at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. On this same day John was recording demos for his anthem “Give Peace A Chance” just one week before recording the final version in Montreal, Quebec.

A very special thanks goes out to Spike who requested this week’s BROW and waited patiently for me to get to it.

The Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun

John Lennon & Paul McCartney, 1968

Extra info: The Beatles Anthology 3 includes an acoustic demo of John playing sections 3 and 4 sometime around the third week of May 1968 at his Weybridge home, Kenwood.

Credits for finalized version of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun:”
John Lennon: double tracked vocal, backing vocals, guitar
Paul McCartney: bass, backing vocals
George Harrison: fuzzed lead guitar, backing vocals
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine

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

1) The White Album (Remastered) 2009 2-CD remaster of original 1968 stereo LP, including “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

2) Anthology 3 2-CD compilation of alternate and out-take Beatles recordings between 1968-1969, including early acoustic demo of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun.”

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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John Lennon wrote “#9 Dream” after being inspired by a dream he had in which he heard the repeated phrase “Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé.” John never claimed to know what it meant, but used it as a repeated chorus line in the song. John had also recently worked with Harry Nilsson on his Pussy Cats album and liked a string arrangement he wrote for Harry’s cover of “Too Many Rivers To Cross” so much that he incorporated it into the song as well. The strings seemed to work perfectly with the dream-like feeling he wanted to develop for the sound and subsequently, this promo video. The voice calling to John in the song is that of his companion at the time, May Pang, who has revealed that the song went through two working titles before being officially named. The first was “So Long Ago” and secondly “Walls And Bridges” which, of course, ended up being his next album title with “#9 Dream” included as one of the tracks.

John recorded “#9 Dream” in the summer of 1974, along with the rest of the tracks on Walls And Bridges, and the album was released in September 1974. After the album’s lead single, “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” made it’s highly successful commercial run, “#9 Dream” was released as the follow up single in December 1974, and appropriately peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on February 22, 1975. In the U.K. it peaked at number 23 on the Melody Maker chart on March 8 & 15, 1975.

By the time the promo video was filmed John was no longer with May Pang and that is why Yoko Ono appears in the clip instead.

Click the image above to play the video.

Extra info: Why is the song title “#9 Dream” (why not #8, or some other number)? I have heard from various sources that both John Lennon and George Harrison were fascinated with the number 9. George had his Cloud 9 song and album and both John and his son Sean were born on the ninth day of the month. John wrote or co-wrote “Revolution 9″, “One After 909″ and “#9 Dream.” There are countless other theories and coincidences that you can Google on the Internet relating John’s past with the number. They include apartment numbers and various dates and times.

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

1) Walls And Bridges – 2010 remaster of original 1974 LP, including “#9 Dream.”

2) Power To The People: The Hits – latest hits compilation (2010) using remastered versions of all the big ones from John’s solo years, including “#9 Dream.”

3) Lennon Legend – The Very Best of John Lennon – DVD compilation of John Lennon hits, including this promo video of “#9 Dream.”

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. In early April 1969 after John Lennon had put his wedding and honeymoon exploits to verse, he was very eager to get his “Ballad Of John And Yoko” recorded. The Beatles had not had a full recording session in six months and currently George Harrison was busy shopping for his new home (he ended up moving from his Kinfauns bungalow into Friar Park 11 months later). Ringo Starr was also occupied on the set of the movie The Magic Christian where he was co-starring with Peter Sellers. On April 18th, the band were planning to meet in the studio to record George’s “Old Brown Shoe” but John did not want to wait until then. On Monday April 14th, he met with Paul McCartney in EMI Studio 3 for what would otherwise have been just a mixing session with producer George Martin, and the two of them completed the song in a six and a half hour session on their own.

“The Ballad Of John And Yoko” is a ballad in the traditional sense of a narrative poem put to song and not in the sense used in modern pop and rock music where the term usually refers to a slow and sentimental love song. The lyrics cover the events of March 16th through April 1st, 1969, to include John’s marriage to Yoko Ono in Gibraltar on March 20th. It was unusual to record without George and Ringo present but John did not want to wait and he and Paul had planned to attend the mixing session that day anyway.

The backing track was completed after 11 takes with take 10 being marked best. John’s acoustic guitar on track 2, Paul’s drumming on track 3 and John’s lead vocal on track 4 were all recorded simultaneously. During the session while Paul was drumming, John can be heard on the session tape saying to him “Go a bit faster, Ringo!” to which Paul replies “OK, George!”. Overdubs began with Paul’s bass on track 1, followed up by John’s lead guitar on track 5. On track 6, John added additional guitar to include the call-and-response licks that effectively give the song an extra edge. Paul’s backing vocals were added on track 7, and on track 8 John added the percussion effect of hitting the back of his guitar. Paul shook maracas in the second half of the song. With some help from returning sound engineer Geoff Emerick the session was completed in about 8 hours. Geoff had quit working with The Beatles nine months earlier due to the tensions that had mounted during the White Album sessions and John and Paul were happy to be working with him again.

This week’s BROW let’s us hear how the recording sounded before any of the overdubs were added. As detailed above, tracks 2, 3 and 4 included the “live in the studio” account of John’s lead vocal and acoustic guitar with Paul’s drums and that is only what we hear at this stage. The drums have been mixed low to give emphasis to the lead vocal and John’s extraneous vocalizations at the end of the song have yet to be removed.

The Beatles - The Ballad Of John & Yoko

U.S. Apple picture sleeve for The Ballad Of John And Yoko/Old Brown Shoe single

Extra info:

1) “The Ballad Of John and Yoko” was released on a single on May 30th in the U.K. (June 4th in the U.S.) and was the last #1 U.K. single for the band. In the U.S. it peaked at #8 on the Billboard singles chart. The b-side of the single was George Harrison’s “Old Brown Shoe” recorded by all 4 Beatles later in the week.

2) The original title of “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” included the parenthetical subtitle “They’re Gonna Crucify Me”, but John agreed to drop it, aware that it would not help the commercial appeal of the record to use the “crucify” word.

3) The final drumbeat in “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” was at an equal volume level with the rest of the recording on the original single. On subsequent compilations however such as the U.S. Hey Jude album or the first issuance of The Beatles 1967-1970 (aka “Blue”) album, the final drumbeat is faded down noticeably low. On the recent remasters of the Past Masters CD set, One or The Beatles 1967-1970, the final drumbeat has once again been presented in full volume.

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

1) Past Masters (Remastered) 2009 remastered 2-CD collection of Beatles singles and other non-album tracks. Contains both “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” and it’s B-side “Old Brown Shoe”.

2) The Beatles 1 2011 remaster of original 2000 CD collection of Beatles #1′s, including “The Ballad Of John And Yoko”.

3) 1967-1970 (Blue) Remastered – 2-CD 2010 remaster of original double album late Beatles hits compilation from 1973. Contains both “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” and it’s B-side “Old Brown Shoe”.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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John Lennon’s “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” was the lead off single release from his October 1974 LP Walls And Bridges and features harmony vocals and piano from Elton John. Elton was so sure it was a number one hit that he made a bet with John that if it did top the charts, John would appear at one of Elton’s concert as a surprise guest. John had not had a #1 since he began his post-Beatles career and was just pessimistic enough to agree to the wager. On November 16, 1974, the song topped the Billboard singles chart and John ended up performing the song with Elton and band 12 days later at New York’s Madison Square Garden. He also accompanied Elton on two Beatles songs while he was on stage – “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”

John’s inspiration for the song actually came from a quote by Reverend Ike (a famous black evangelist). John was watching him on television and he said “Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter. It’s whatever gets you through the night.” John loved the line and wrote it down as he often did, for later brainstorming on a set of lyrics. The studio recording of “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night” featured here was made in July 1974 and aside from John and Elton, includes Klaus Voormann on bass, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar and Bobby Keys playing the exhilarating saxophone that in my opinion “makes” the record. We actually hear more of that sax during the outro on the video as it fades a little earlier on both the single and album version of the recording.

There are actually two promo videos in existence for the song. John designed one where he lip-syncs the song while walking through Manhattan. The one seen here, designed by Yoko Ono took a more creative approach and actually brings many of John’s animated drawings to life (and yes, those copulating rabbits were originally drawn by John).

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) Walls And Bridges 2010 CD remaster of original 1974 John Lennon LP, including “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”.

2) Here & There 1996 expanded 2-CD edition of original 1976 Elton John live LP Here And There featuring live performances with John Lennon of “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”, “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and “I Saw Her Standing There”.

3) Power To The People: The Hits 2010 remaster CD + DVD hits compilation set containing video seen here and CD w/”Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Most Beatles fans are well aware of the John Lennon demos Yoko Ono gave to Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in 1994, and the magic that was breathed into them for use on the Beatles Anthology project. Although even casual fans have seen both of the resulting video clips more than once, it has been awhile since I have seen them and thought a revisit of one of them wouldn’t be out of line.

“Real Love” began as a piano demo recorded around 1979 by John with an audio cassette recorder that he sat on top of his piano. The tape Yoko Ono gave to the surviving Beatles also included “Free As A Bird”, “Grow Old With Me” and “Now And Then”, but only “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” were used for the Anthology project.

Original Beatles producer George Martin was initially offered the opportunity to produce, but declined due to his hearing limitations and Jeff Lynne, who had worked with George Harrison and the Traveling Wilburys, was given the job to co-produce with The Beatles instead.

Since John’s piano and vocal were on a single track, his voice could not be separated from the piano and so it was used on the final production. On the original demo recording, John had added a simple drum-machine beat and a second vocal track.

In February 1995, the additional work began on the demo by first carefully removing the hum, hiss and clicks from the cassette recording and transferring the mono source to two 24-track analogue tapes. George and Paul then added acoustic guitars, George the lead guitar and Ringo the drum track. Paul added two bass tracks, first playing an electric bass guitar and then adding the stand-up bass he had recently acquired, that had been used by Bill Black on Elvis Presley’s recording of “Heartbreak Hotel”. George, Paul and Ringo all added some additional percussion sounds while Paul and George sang backing and harmony vocals. Paul then recorded a vocal track as an addition to John’s lead, not to duet with him, but to strengthen the occasionally thin sound that was a consequence of the cassette recording.

The video features shots of the surviving Beatles recording the song in Sussex, mixed in with various footage taken throughout The Beatles’ career. There are actually two variations of the video but both use the same approach. The video was used in the second installment of the Beatles Anthology television mini-series and also in the Beatles Anthology VHS/DVD sets.

“Real Love” opens the Beatles Anthology 2 CD set and was also released on a CD single in 1996. One of the six original demo takes recorded by John was used in the 1988 film Imagine: John Lennon and is included on it’s soundtrack CD.

While the composition credit for “Free As A Bird” was modified to Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr due to additional lyrical development and chord structure additions, “Real Love” remained solely a Lennon composition.

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) Beatles Anthology 2 CD set 2-CD set covering Beatles years 1965-1968 and opening with The Beatles version of “Real Love”.

2) The Beatles Anthology (DVD set) 2003 5-DVD set giving expanded version of original 1995 television mini-series, including videos for both “Real Love” and “Free As A Bird”.

3) Imagine: John Lennon Soundtrack CD soundtrack of 1988 film Imagine: John Lennon, featuring acoustic demo version of “Real Love”.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week. This time around I’m having a look at an often overlooked gem from John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy album. “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him” was written and sung on the album by Yoko with background vocals throughout by John. It was recorded in sessions that took place at New York City’s Hit Factory studio during August of 1980, just a few months before John was taken from us. Additional material from these sessions that was not finalized for the Double Fantasy album was released in January 1984 on the album Milk And Honey. In October of 1984, a single was released in the U.K. with a new rendition of “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him.” It is, in actuality, the original version with Yoko’s lead vocal mixed out and John’s backing vocal brought up in the mix to make him the lead singer. The single’s B-side was another song composed by Yoko titled “It’s Alright” and is sung by John and Yoko’s son Sean. Both sides of this single also appear on a compilation tribute album to Yoko titled Every Man Has A Woman. This album contains covers of Yoko’s music by other artists, such as Eddie Money, Harry Nilsson, Elvis Costello and Roseanne Cash, as well as John and Sean, and was released to commemorate Yoko’s 50th birthday.

For this week’s BROW, I’m offering up a third mix of the song that was never officially released. It begins with the John Lennon vocal version but halfway through picks up Yoko’s vocal track blended with John’s in the form of a duet. The backing track is the same as on both officially released versions but ends abruptly due to it being sourced from a “raw” mix tape that was never polished up. That’s no reason to keep it from you though, so here it is.

John Lennon & Yoko Ono, 1980

Extra info:

1) A slowed down and even “spacier” sounding mix of this track with predominantly Yoko’s vocals appears on the stripped down 2010 remaster version of Double Fantasy.

2) Without finding the original 1984 vinyl releases, the John Lennon vocal version appears on a 1990 UK CD box set called Lennon, and it also appears as a bonus track on the 2001 remastered CD of Milk And Honey. However, it does not appear on the newest (2010) Milk And Honey remastered CD, which contains no bonus tracks.

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

1) Double Fantasy (2010 Remix + Original) – 2010 ‘stripped” mix of original 1980 LP, plus original mix remastered. Includes two versions of “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him”.

2) Milk And Honey (2001) – 2001 remaster of original 1984 LP containing John Lennon vocal version of “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him” as a bonus track (note: there is a also a 2010 remaster of this CD with no bonus tracks).

3) Double Fantasy (w/bonus tracks) – 2000 remaster of original 1980 LP, featuring “Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him” plus bonus tracks.

4) Kisses on the Bottom – Paul McCartney’s NEW “Kisses On The Bottom” CD (released Feb. 7, 2012).

5) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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On February 14-18, 1972, John Lennon and Yoko Ono did a one week co-host stint on US television’s Mike Douglas Show. This performance aired on the Feb. 14th show and was actually taped two weeks earlier on Jan. 31st. John and Yoko are joined onstage by the Elephants Memory Band to perform a song from John’s most recent Imagine album called “It’s So Hard”. Later in the year, Elephants Memory would record with the Lennons again on John and Yoko’s next album, the double LP Some Time In New York City. This first show with the Lennons also included musical guests The Chambers Brothers, attorney/political activist Ralph Nader and comedian Louie Nye. The show opens up with Mike himself singing his own interpretation of the Beatles’ Rubber Soul classic “Michelle”.

For “It’s So Hard”, John sings and plays rhythm guitar while Yoko hits a bongo drum. The Elephants Memory lineup included Stan Bronstein on sax, Richard Frank Jr. on drums, Wayne “Tex” Gabriel on lead guitar, Adam Ippolito on piano and Gary Von Scyoc on bass.

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) Some Time In New York City (remaster) – 2010 remaster of original 1972 double LP with Plastic Ono Band & Elephants Memory.

2) Imagine (remaster) – 2010 remaster of original 1971 LP with Plastic Ono Band & Flux Fiddlers. Includes classic version of title track.

3) Rubber Soul (remastered) – 2009 remaster of original 1965 stereo U.K. LP by The Beatles. Includes “Michelle”.

4) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. Forty three years ago on Dec. 11, 1968, The Rolling Stones recorded a television special to promote their Beggar’s Banquet LP. Similar to the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour theme from the previous year, the Stones went for a circus atmosphere with plenty of musical guests and circus acts, to include clowns, flying trapeze acts and even elephants. The name of the special was to be the Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, and along with the Stones the line-up planned included Jethro Tull, The Who, Marianne Faithful, classical pianist Julius Katchen, Taj Mahal and Traffic. Just before filming was to begin, multi-instrumentalist Steve Winwood quit Traffic, leaving them understaffed. To counter the crisis, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger talked John Lennon into attending for a performance or two instead.

John agreed, and along with Yoko Ono, put together his own supergroup of Eric Clapton on guitar, Rolling Stone Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell from the Jimi Hendrix Experience on drums. He dubbed the line-up as ‘The Dirty Mac’ and chose The Beatles’ White Album track “Yer Blues” as the number to perform, reasoning that it would be relatively easy for everyone to learn.

The film was roughly one hour long with each of the guest bands performing during the first half, with circus performance shorts in between bands. The second half of the show was Rolling Stones performances. The filming actually took place during an all-night party that did not end until after the Stones performed “Salt Of The Earth” at around 6:30am on December 12th. By that time, John and Yoko had left and the enthusiasm of the other guests had lost ground. Furthermore, many were of the opinion that The Who’s performance of “A Quick One While He’s Away” stole the show. For these reasons, it was never aired on television or released on home video until 1996.

For the BROW I’m featuring a Dirty Mac rehearsal performance of “Yer Blues” played sometime on December 11th before filming began. Although John is singing a guide vocal, it is barely audible and completely absent in spots. However, the guitars are loud and gritty, and the band sounds like they are ready to go.

The Dirty Mac, Dec. 1968

Extra info:

1) Steve Winwood went on to form the band Blind Faith with Eric Clapton shortly after this was filmed.

2) Nine months after the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus was filmed, Eric Clapton played “Yer Blues” again with John as part of The Plastic Ono Band. This performance can be heard on the first Plastic Ono Band album Live Peace In Toronto 1969.

Beatles music makes great gifts over the holidays. Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post, for your favorite Beatlemaniac:

1) Rock & Roll Circus – 1996 CD release of the entire show, featuring all of the bands mentioned above and The Dirty Mac’s live performance of “Yer Blues.

2) The Rolling Stones – Rock and Roll Circus 2004 DVD release of the entire show, featuring all of the bands mentioned above and a couple versions of The Dirty Mac’s live performance of “Yer Blues.

3) Live Peace in Toronto 1969 – 1995 CD remaster of original 1969 album featuring The Plastic Ono Band (John Lennon, Eric Clapton) performing “Yer Blues” live.

4) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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It was promoter John Brower’s lucky day on September 12th, 1969. He called Apple to see if John & Yoko could possibly lend some credibility to his Rock & Roll Revival Festival the following night by flying in and introducing one of the acts. Surprise! John said he’d come, but only if he could play. Brower would’ve never even considered asking for a performance. After all, none of The Beatles had performed onstage since the summer of 1966, unless you count a few songs on a rooftop at Apple. John could not consider the other Beatles to join him as Ringo had just returned from the hospital and Paul was home with his new baby, Mary, and George simply just hated touring altogether. Instead, John got in touch with his old friend Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White, who both agreed to play. He asked Eric Clapton to come along too and didn’t get an answer till the following morning, when Eric was finally reached by telegram. This five piece line up became the first incarnation of The Plastic Ono Band. Only one day after receiving Brower’s phone call, John was onstage opening with a favorite – Carl Perkin’s classic “Blue Suede Shoes,” which was also covered by Elvis Presley. John acknowledges this in the performance by doing his ‘Elvis legs’ before the crowd. The show came off quite well, and John was pleased that he was able to put a band together in a matter of hours, with the complete freedom of playing and improvising at will. In fact, he was so thrilled about it, he informed acting manager Alan Klein that he had decided to quit The Beatles.

Click the image above to play the video.

Extra info: On Dec. 12, 1969, the entire performance was released on the Apple LP Plastic Ono Band – Live Peace In Toronto 1969.

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

1) Live Peace in Toronto 1969 – 1995 stereo CD remaster of original 1969 LP of the entire performance by John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band, including “Blue Suede Shoes”.

2) John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band – Sweet Toronto – DVD release of the entire performance by John Lennon/The Plastic Ono Band, including “Blue Suede Shoes”.

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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Welcome to the Beatles Rarity Of The Week. In early 1980, during the planning stages of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy album, the two agreed to approach Jack Douglas about producing it. The Lennons had worked with Jack before, as far back as the Imagine album, where he acted as sound engineer. Jack had also worked throughout the 1970′s with an impressive list of musicians including The Who, Patti Smith, Blue Oyster Cult, Aerosmith, Miles Davis, Alice Cooper, Montrose and many others. Yoko gave Jack some demos, and Jack got very interested in the project. In 2005, he admitted that he felt like he would have a hard time making the tunes sound better than the demos, which he thought were so intimate.

A few years earlier, Jack had produced Cheap Trick’s debut self-titled album and felt like their lead guitarist, Rick Nielsen, and drummer, Bun E. Carlos, would give the perfect sound to John’s “I’m Losing You” and Yoko’s “I’m Moving On.” Rick and Bun were brought in to the sessions at the Hit Factory in New York during August of 1980 to work with John and Yoko on the two songs. While the results were good, they ended up favoring later takes done by the session band (Hugh McCraken, Earl Slick, Tony Levin, George Small, Andy Newmark and Arthur Jenkins) to use for the album. Yoko also selected a later take for the recently released stripped down Double Fantasy.

However, a ‘cleaned up’ version of a Nielsen/Carlos take of “I’m Losing You” was included on the John Lennon Anthology CD box set released in 1998, and while it has been given a punchier mix there, many of the lead guitar parts by Rick are edited out, as is the second middle eight section (Here in the valley of indecision…). This week for the BROW, I’m giving you more of a live, unmixed and unedited account, with all the rubs and no overdubs.

John Lennon at Double Fantasy sessions - Hit Factory NYC, 1980

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

1) Double Fantasy – 2000 CD remaster of original 1980 album, including “I’m Losing You”. Note with item 2 (below) a 2010 remaster of this original version is also included with the ‘stripped down’ version (so there it’s 2 for the price of one).

2) Double Fantasy Stripped Down [New Mix + Original Recording Remastered] – 2010 special ‘stripped down’ version of original 1980 album. Also includes original 1980 mix on separate disc. Includes original and ‘stripped’ version of “I’m Losing You”.

3) John Lennon Anthology 1998 4-CD box set collection of out-takes and alternates, including a different mix (than the one featured here) of the Nielsen/Carlos version of “I’m Losing You”.

4) Wonsaponatime – 1998 CD collection containing the best tracks from the John Lennon Anthology box set, including a different mix (than the one featured here) of the Nielsen/Carlos version of “I’m Losing You”.

5) Gimme Some Truth – 2010 4-CD stereo remastered themed compilation of the best post-Beatles John Lennon songs, including “I’m Losing You”.

6) Additional Amazon links for your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
Visit www.thebeatlesrarity.com for a new Beatles rarity each week, plus lots more!

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