Thursday, October 10, 2013

40 Year Itch: The Lost Weekend Takes to the Air





John Lennon( who would have turned 73 yesterday) could not have been a very happy person in the 1970's. In the years following "Imagine", he comes across as an angry man at war with the world, himself and Yoko. Eventually Yoko said enough and sent him packing to the West Coast with assistant May Pang. Perhaps everybody was hoping an affair with a young woman and the California sunshine would have a renewing effect. Instead Lennon spent a good deal of the time partying too hard and even getting into fights with fans. Lennon had no respect for his fans. So you can imagine what it must have been for him to be trapped in the middle of an airplane full of them. According to Pang, in an article for the UK Mail, that's what happened:

In early October 1973, John and I went to Las Vegas for a few days. We flew there from Los Angeles on a shuttle booked by our friend Elliot Mintz, who came with us. 

Our seats were in the middle of the aircraft. Everybody was going nuts over John, who looked at Elliot and said: "Why are we back here in the middle of all this?" 

When Elliot explained there was no first-class section, John snapped: "Please think before putting me in this situation again!"




    At least "The Lost Weekend" was a productive time for Lennon who recorded both his Wall and Bridges (featuring his only US #1 solo hit "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" and "#9 Dream") and Rock 'n'Roll albums. He also produced Harry Nilsson's Pussy Cats. Should we continue this blog into 2014, we'll be getting into a few more "Lost Weekend" moments including a visit from Paul McCartney that resulted in a recorded jam session.

No comments:

Post a Comment