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THE PAST, PRESENT 25 .IANUARY 20L4 I52.50 uss8.50 ES€3.90 CNs6.99 Thirty yeqrs on from 'Milk And Honey', 's finol qlbum, Borrv Nicolson discovers on qdventurous, restlessly creqtive spirit behind the populor myth of the settled homemqker

PHOTO BY BOB GRUEN at the Hit Factory studios on West 54th Street, New York City, October 1980

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#ffi.*':i9n*!? X 2'.:\iJARY 2014 INEW MUSICAL EXPRESS JO}IN TENNON Lennon at Hit Factory, August 198O;

the video '(Just hirty years ago this month John Lennon released his flnal Starting Overi album. At the time of his death in November December 1980, 'Milk And HoneY' was weeks from comPletion, and on its release in January 1984, it picked up where its predecessor'' had left off, reinforcing the popular myth of John's'househusband' years. Yet, while by the end he seemed to have found some measure of happiness and optimism, his iourney to that point had been nothing tike the Normal Rockwell-worthy picture of domestic bliss that has since been perpetuated. 'According to magic," says the wriier Robert Rosen, "ifyou proiect a certain message and people perceive it as truth, then it is the truth. John and Yoko's magic was successful, but it was only a tiny fraction of what was reallY going on." Who was John Lennon in the lastyear of his life? By late 1979, he was resigned to from the solitude of the Dakota building, his high-gabled ivory tower on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Occasionally, an old friend would call to tell him about a gig at CBGB or try to tempt him down to Studio 54, but he had as little interest in'scenes' as he had in being seen. He still loved reading about himself in the supermarket tabloids - even if the information was incorect, which it almost always was, it was his last tether to the life he They'd been the time when, lying he wantedto hang out with her. behind but he hadn t spoken to the to chitdhood, recalling had left - for 12 years, and the sex wasn t what it on the bed at age 14, "with my hand on my married press for years. He was dissatisfied he briefly entertained the notion had been in the beginning. In the absence of a public record, he kept mother's tit", things further. "I always think aboutthat, too." a private one, writing fastidiously in his of taking his I should have done it," he says, "presuming lournals and occasionally committing ln q buildih$ tongsaidto be haunted the years, some of she would have allowed it'" thoughts to tape, Over ghosts of its fbrmer residents, the The tapes reveal a man who is drifting bythe those tapes have surfaced, and they make flesh and purpose, unsure ofwhat he ought to Dakota;s most restless spiritwas for disturbing listening. Hls flrst entry dated without the Lennons' The birth of his son blood. When Fred Seaman ioined 5, 1979, begins with a description of be doing with himself. September event staffinFebruary 1979 asJohn's PA, he found Liverpool, but he quickly Sean in 1975 had been a life-changing hii mother's house in a man who was "bored "This is boring forJohn, andwhen his tires ofthe exercise, sighing, and depressed, who Moving onto contract with EMI exPired and I can't be bothered doing it." spent much of his time four months later, he took the subiect ofhis'6Os peers - Dylan, Jagger watchingTV sometimes the opportunity to retire and McCartneY - he talks smokingweed. The mYth and from music and devote about how "the difference between now ofthe happily retired whenever there himself to his familY' Yet a couple of years back was that househusbandwas an I while John adored Sean, was a new thing out by any ofthe aforesaid, alibi fabricated to hide the panic competition ', once the'terrible twos' used to feel a sense of and reality that John had lost out for their set in, the task of raising whereas today, "I would send his muse and motivation seem any point"' him was targelY left to albums... but there doesn t to make music." Even "not forgetting the a nanny. He still loved He dismisses them all - hadvanished. With he had a childlike dependency on his political idealism singing dwarf, Mr [Paut] Simon' - as'tompany Yoko, but a prisidential election on the horizon in thoughts meander back her - his pet name for her was 'Mother' - men". From there, his fauoured Ronald Reagan - the that left him feeling forlorn and frustrated t980, Joht former governor of Califomia' who whenever she wasn't there, which was often' Republican called for a "bloodbath ''against anti- Yoko spent her days in the downstairs office had once protestors over Democratic incumbent or away on business, negotiating deals, war - whose inauguration he had making investments andbuyingup real estate Jimmy Carter, in 1977. '!ohn was disappointed John would never set foot on. He was lonely, attended he was introduced to Carter, who didn t affection-starved and borderline-celibate' when who he was," says Seaman' "He was dissatisfred with the marriage," says seem to know "The affront was made worse by the fact that Robert Rosen, who came into possession of carter had been known to quote Bob Dylan Lennon's ioumals shortly after his death' the other hand, he'd met Reagan and Fred Seomon, Lennon's PA "He wantedto spend more time with Yoko, lyrics. On

NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS I ZS TEruUANV ZOTA

I "Tarot and magic," says Rosen, "became a way for them to conduct their lives and business affairs. They were always looking to get the upper hand in their negotiations with Records, so they applied it to that. Magic is a psychological thing - if you're dealing with fantasising about one recipe for awhile, then somebodywho believes it's real, then it's real. moving on to another. During that time he But, really, itwas money magic: Ono had so started on the macrobiotic diet. When I flrst much money that she was able to manipulate met him he could only put milk on cereal, but people into doing things." he became a pretty good cook." Just as important as tarot was numerology. Gruen also disputes the idea that John was In particular, John was fascinated with the unhappy with his marriage and that Yoko reccurrence ofthe number nine throughout had somehow'hypnotised' him into ending his life. He was born on October 9. His flrst his relationship with his mistress home was 9 Newcastle Road. ' place in 1975. "John s time with May was not a 'love flrst gig at the Cavern took on February affair'," he says. 'Maywas his secretary, and 9, 1961. Brian Epstein discovered them on like many wealthy businessmen, he slept November 9 that same year. Exactly flve years with his secretary. The whole time they were later, he met Yoko. He had written songs called together, he was in touch with Yoko every day, 'Revolution 9','One After 909'and'#9 Dream'. asking to come home. John and May were Then there was Sean, who shared his father's very close, but the title ofher book says it all - birthday. According to Fred Seaman, this was LovingJohn. She was loving him." no coincidence: 'Mother's always trying to Yet Pang has alwaYs said that their have babies on my birthday," he told him. relationship continued, in one form or other, growing until 1980. Robert Rosen says the iournals As he neqred 4o Johnwas unequivocally show that John "still carried increasingly fascinated bythe sea: he had a torch for May. He still saw her occasionally, started taking sailing lessons around Long but not as much as he wanted to, and he Island Sound, where he and Yoko owned eventually stopped because he was cheating a house, and he became engrossed in on Yoko and it was too difhcult for him to carry books about nautical warfare and celestial that on. He wanted them both, but he couldn t navigation. That summer, he tasked his sailing with finding a boat r{ found him charming and engaging. It pleased have both. May was light and fun to be around; instructor Tyler Coneys him when Reagan defeated Carter, but it had Yoko was heavy', but she nothing to do with ideology: he simply liked was survival". Pang's last Reagan better." contactwith John came The storytellers All this is at odds with the image of a happily in May 198O when he retired ex-Beatle who had found contentment called her from his hotel Lennon's confidants and collaborators inthe simple joys ofbread-baking and room in Cape Town. He homemaking, but thatthere are conflicting had travelled to South Fred Seaman Earl Slick portraits of John Irnnon in the last year of his Africa, alone, at Yoko's Served as Lennon's Personal Slick assistant from February 1979 (right) life should come as no surprise. This was a man behest she believed until hisdeath in December played guitar who had once urged that in a ofdeep contradictions, iourneying 1980, spending almost evory on'Double Fantas\/ people to' imagine no possessions" yet owned southeastern direction day in his company. ln'1992 he and'Milk And Honey', so manyof themthat one of his flve apartments wouldbe karmicallY published The Last Days of but is porhaps best known inthe Dakotaserved as a dedicated warehouse cleansing for him. This Johrr Lennon, a tenific memoir for his work with llevid Bowie, having appeared on numerous for hundreds ofthousands ofdollars'worth of was typical behaviour of his time in Lennon's service albums with him since 1974 art and musical equipment - most of it forthe Lennons: since clothes, Bob Gruen from ' right to almost every the mid-'70s, they had never used. There was a duality The legendary rock up to 2013's "'. aspect of his character, a volatile equilibrium consulted with a council photographer who met John between light and dark; "part monk", he was ofpsychics, seers and and Yoko in 1971. He became Tony Davilio fond of saying, 'and part performing flea". astrologists - the most a friend and confidant of the Served as the aranger on remains close with Fantasl/ and'Milk John's mental wellbeing may have been in influential being a tarot Lennons and 'Double Yoko to this day. ln 2OOS he And Honey', winning a GrammY question, physically at least he was looking reader named Charlie but published volume of Lennon for his work on the former. on a after himself. He still smoked cigarettes, Swan who they kept photographs titled John More recently, he hes written but aside fromThai stick mariiuana and the staff- on almost every Lennon: The New Yotk Yearc. a book, Ife Lennon Sessions, occasional magic mushroom, he had stopped deteil oftheir lives, from about his experiences of taking drugs, alcohot included. For the flrst real-estate purchases to Robert Rosen making the reconds. The author (eft) of Nowhere time in his life, he was paying attention to his potential emPloyees to Man:The Final Days OfJoln George Small Bob Gruen, whether or not it was safe djet his friend, the photographer Lennon. written from his Played keyboards on'Double recalls that shortly after Sean's birth, "John to leave the apartment. first-hand knowledge Fantasf and'Milk And Honet' and Yoko decided to cleanse their bodies by John's belief in these of Lennon's journals. and is a successful comPoser not eating solid food for 40 days - everything matters was perhaPs not His latest book is in his own right. Other artists z titled Beaverstreet: he has worked with include went through the iuicer. After a couple days, as absolute as Yoko's, but i AHistoryof Mdem , could think about he nonetheless abided bY 3 John told me that all he Pomqraphy. and Graham Parker. 3 was food, so he started readhg cookbooks, their decrees.

25 tA.NUARY eOr+ I New v JOHN LENNON John and Yoko outside the Dakota building, NYC, November 21,1980 and crew to sail to Bermuda. The destination, them, bellowing curses and half-remembered ofcourse, was not picked at random: like South sea shanties from his childhood in Liverpool. Africa, Bermuda lay southeast of New York, He had spent the last few years adrift on a sea and was deemed karmically'safe'. Coneys soon of ennui; here, in the eye of a maelstrom that all hired a boat, the Megan Jaye, a 43-foot sloop his money, celebrityand psychic advisors could captained by an experienced skipper named do nothing to quell, he flnally felt alive again. HankHalsted, and onJune4, the flve-man When the boat eventuallY docked in crew - John, Halsted, Coneys and two ofhis Bermuda, the John Lennon who stepped cousins - set sail from Newport, Rhode Island. ashore was not the same man who had The voyage started offsmooth and serene, boarded at Newport. During his fallow years but what the seers hadn t taken into account in the Dakota, John would start songs but was that the 7oo-mile tract between Newport never flnish them; now, in a rented villa on the and Bermuda is one of the most unpredictable outskirts of Hamilton, they suddenly came stretches of ocean in the world. Two days in, pouring out of him. Fred Seaman, who arrived the weather abruptly changed and the Megan with Sean a few days later and who appears on Jaye found herself in the midst of a violent some of those formative tape-recorder demos, mid-Atlantic storm, incapacitating the Coneys believes that "steering the boat through that with seasickness and leaving John and Halsted storm reawakened some primal confldence to navigate the sloop through the 2o-foot in John. I was aware that I was witnessing waves crashing offher bow. Exhausted from the rebirth ofa creative genius who d been 48 sleepless hours at the helm, t}te captain dormant for too manY Years". eventually had no choice but to turn the boat Yoko was thrilled by John s rediscovery of over to its most inexperienced crew member, his muse, and started laying the groundwork who was sceptical that his "little guitar-playing for a new album to be produced by Jack muscles" wete up to the task. Douglas, the Aerosmith producer who had Six hours later, when Halstedwoke from helped engineer'Imagine'. According to his steep, he found a man in a state of rapture. Seaman, however, while the theme of family Stood alone atthe helmwiththe elements and domesticitywas always paramount in raging around him, John raged right back at John's mind, his vision for the albums that became'Double Fantasy' and MilkAnd Honey'was originally quite different. "Yoko told John that she intended to do her Irdrcr6f(r-rflr{ same differences but in the own record, to be released '"Double Fantasf was to end be saying 'l love you'. simultaneously with his," show that we lived together he says. 'At flrst John and had separate fantasies was furious and resisted. but could be in harmony; He wasnlt inclined to two different sounds, not "'Milk And Honey' share the spotlight. Once in unison but in harmony. is an incomplete he agreed to the ide4 ln'Milk And Honey'wdre conversational medium... she upped the ante and ' showing that John and a fugitive piece perhaps, suggested they share an ! could go through the or literary remains." LR with his songs on one side and hers on the other. m Again, John resisted, but Like any posthumous she eventually got her way. release, it's a mixed bag, The concept of alternating with at least three great songs - the "heart PlaY" Lennon songs, but marred - was Yoko's friend Sam by sketchiness. Yoko's Green's idea. Yoko worried material is the real surprise: that if John's songs were 'Don't Be Scared'and Your on one side and hers Hands'are the equal of any were on the other, most of her late husband's tracks. people wouldn't bother to listen to her music, so Fantasy'to a gullible public and the myth >THE DETAIL$ Sam suggested that ifthe became acceptedtruth." Lennons arrived at >TlTtE Milk And Honey >RELEASE DATE January 2Z 1984 songs alternated, listeners Nevertheless, once the in Manhaftan >PRoDUcERs John Lennon, , Jack Douglas (uncredited) would have no choice the Hit Factory studio midtown the sessions moved >REcoRDED The Hit Factory, New York City, August-December but to listen to her songs in earlyAugust, remarkably quickly after the band oftop-end 1980 >TRACKLIsT >1. l'm Stepping Out >2. Sleepless Night; >3. too. Sam also suggested - poets session players assembled by Jack Douglas' I Don't Wanna Face lt >4. Donl Be Scared >5. invoking the Robert business partner Stan Vincent had been >6. O'sanity >7. Borrowed Time >8. Your Hands >9. (Forgive Me) and Elizabeth Browning. for asfiological compatibility, My Little Flower Princess >10. Let Me Count The Ways >11. Grow John andYoko then sold screened their is. flrst, arranger Tony Davilio thought Old With Me >12. You're The One the fairytale version of that At the genesis of 'Double this merely an inconvenient quirk later, it

NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS I ZS iaNUnnv eorq As the sessions progressed, John was growing in confldence. He was undeterred by the lukewarm critical response to his own songs on'Double Fantasy' (Charles Shaar Murray's scathing NME review wished that Lennon had stayed retired "until he had something to say that was even vaguely Althouoh John relevant to those ofus not married to Yoko p f i VO tely worried abour his Ono") and heartened by the positive response voice and his place in the post-punk to Yoko's more contemporary, newwave- musical landscape, he was always in influenced contributions, His plan was to his element when leading a group flnish a second album, titled'MilkAnd Honey', of musicians. As keyboard player in January before embarking on a lengthy George Small recalls, "It was Yoko world tour in the spring, beginning in Japan who was probably the most nervous and culminating in a triumphant return to and insecure person in the room. England, where he would sail up the Mersey After John was shot, she became on the QE2 as a conquering hero. He was also much more mellow, but at that point planning to incorporate reworked versions of she didn't like anybody fooling old Beatles numbers into the setlist - 'I want around with her directorial authority. To Hold Your Hand', 'She Loves You' and But it was such a unique concept to 'Help!'had all been mentioned, while Tony alternate her songs with John's, and Davilio recalls hearing a driving, stripped-back that's gotta be intimidating, even if version of 'Strawberry Fields Forever', "without you're mariedto him." It's been widely reported that at some point during the recording, having heard John was making music again, Paul McCartney rang to suggest a collaboration only for Yoko to refuse to put his call through. Even if this is true, it's likely that John wouldn t have appreciated the offer anyway: Tony Davilio recalls John Lennon a separate occasion "when I was sitting in the control room with John and his assistant came over to say all the orchestration and effects thatwere used that George and Ringo were on the on the original". Guitarist Earl Slick says he'd phone, and that theyt like to stop by put all of 1981 aside for the proposed tour. the studio. As I remember it, John s words were something to the effect All of those plonscametoanend of 'politelybeg them off'." when John was shot on the steps ofthe Dakota While John wasn't as estranged on December 8, 198O, having lust returned from Paul as he was from George from a session at the Hit Factory with Jack - he was enraged by how little he Douglas. His movements that day have been was mentioned in Harrison's 198O recorded in the same forensic detail as JFK's autobiography - their relationship' through Dallas in November 1963, but one remained complex. According to mystery remains: during their time at the Hit Robert Rosen, John was delighted Factory Douglas had set up hidden mics to when McCartney was arrested with record every between-takes exchange, and halfa pound ofweed in Japan earlier planned to present the tapes to John as a gift, that year, excitedly scribbling in a candid audio iournal of his comeback. Hours his journal, 'Mccartney busted in before his death, Douglas - who declined to Japan! Go directly to iail, do not be interviewed for this piece - apparently ptrss go, do not collect $200!" Yet recorded him saying something he found so it was the release of 'McCartney II' troubling, he destroyed the tape and vowed took on a more 6h;liirg signi_ficance. "I heard in May that had stoked the old competitive never to speak of it again. Controversial that one of Yoko's asl:clogers told her that flres in John, the same ones that used to spur Lennon biographer Albert Goldman theorised nobody named'Rick or'Chapman' should him into writing his best material. He was that he spoke ofplans to divorce Yoko; others play on the sessio*' i e sars. "I didn't know particularly taken with 'Coming Up', which he suggested he may have remarked on the why at the time. b:.:: aier what happened I was interpreted as Paul's cryptic call for a Beatles creepy fan he d encountered outside the penned'I Dakota. No-one will ever know, but if we're f like, 'Holy shit. =:: : ::ne.' I can't remember reunion. In response he Don't z6 exactlywhen I L:-;. but I do remember wanna Face It' - a song that bore a rhythmic going to speculate, why not speculate that, =n'; for the flrst in longer than he cared to z there was this 3a. : jl :rmed Rick who was and l1-rical tikeness to Mccartney's, and whose time peace F a friend of Ja:k's. ;-:: iras rea1ly pissed title sen ed as his answer. Ultimately, he wrote remember, John Lennon was happy, at z ri-a::ei on and in his "I love Paul like a brother, but with his past and optimistic about the future? J because Jack i:c the album ioumal, J Yoko wouldn': ::,:r l:-' I iu$ don't like him." That would be the most tragic scenario of all. r

25 -I\UARY 2014 I NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS