40 Year Itch : You're the One to Blame

Photo by Jurgen Vollmer, Hamburg GER

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    In February of 1975, John Lennon released Rock'n'Roll, one part tribute to the music he loved as a teen; one part court settlement for borrowing a few lines from a Chuck Berry song for the Abbey Road track "Come Together".  Lennon especially rocks out on the Fats Domino hit "Ain't That A Shame", clearly inspiring Cheap Trick's version on Live at Budokan.

"Ain't That A Shame" was the first rock 'n' roll song I ever learned. My mother taught it to me on the banjo before I learned the guitar. Nobody else knows these reasons except me.
-John Lennon



   One day, we were listening to John Lennon’s Rock ‘n’ Roll album, and one of the songs on there is Ain’t That A Shame. ‘Hey, if it’s good enough for John Lennon…’
-Rick Nielsen, Cheap Trick




By the way, those blurry figures in the photo above are Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stu Sutcliffe, from a photo shot back in the Hamburg days.