40 Year Itch : Ah Bowakawa Pousse Pousse

 

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Recorded during the so called "Lost Weekend", Walls and Bridges reveals John Lennon missing his then estranged wife Yoko ( "Bless You", "Going Down on Love" "Move Over Ms. L", which was dropped the last minute) and, perhaps, missing The Beatles ("#9 Dream" has Jesse Ed Davis mimicking George Harrison's slide guitar and there's some jabberwocky nonsense reminiscent of "I Am the Walrus"). His companion at the time, May Pang, has said one of my favorite songs on the album,  "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradise)" , is about her. His spirits may have been down, but this was hardly a creative slump for a Beatle that had recorded two solo albums, produced another ( Nilsson's Pussycats) and worked on a third ( the Phil Spector project Rock n Roll)



      The big single from the album is "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", a rocking duet with Elton John who bet Lennon it would be his first #1 hit. To pay off the bet, Lennon made what would be his last concert appearance November 28 performing the single, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There" at Madison Square Garden.

BONUS:

John and Julian Lennon visit the set of Happy Days

40 Year Itch : John Lennon AM Radio Jock

  On September 27, 1974 John Lennon DJ'd the morning shift at KHJ-AM in LA. He took listener requests ( "It's Only Love" from Rubber Soul, the only song I ever did I didn't like. We might play it. I'll have to suffer) , read live ads, played tracks off his new Walls and Bridges album and generally mucked about. It's a great listen to the wittiest Beatle ...having a great time!

40 Year Itch: Spirit in the Tables

I think I was more in a morass mentally than Yoko was. If you listen to Walls And Bridges you hear somebody that is depressed. You can say, ‘Well, it was because of years of fighting deportation and this problem and that problem,’ but whatever it was, it sounds depressing. The guy knows how to make tables, but there’s no spirit in the tables. I’m not knocking the record. But I’m saying it showed where I was. It’s a reflection of the time.
-John Lennon

    On July 13-14, 1974, at the tail end of his self-described "Lost Weekend" and after producing Nilsson's Pussy Cats,   John Lennon and his band entered New York City's Record Plant to go over new tunes--most of which would appear on Walls And Bridges. Lennon was not only rehearsing the songs but he banned alcohol and drugs from the studio. This Beatle was all business. Guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, bass player Klaus Voorman and drummer Jim Keltner would eventually be augmented by other musicians ( among them Nicky Hopkins on piano and vocals from both Harry Nilsson and Elton John) as well as heavy production that --to the ears--weighed down the final product. Lennon had a great voice. He was one of the few who never appreciated that fact. The only song recorded that day to not appear on Walls And Bridges is "Move Over Ms. L" which was pulled from the album at the last minute. In 1975, another version became a B side to "Stand By Me".