Authors: Ken Bielen Ben Urich
heard, especially near the end, and pulsing strings support the chorus.
As enjoyable as it is to hear this version, the rhythm box still intrudes—but,
unless some other performance by Lennon of this song surfaces, this is the
closest we will get to how he may have envisioned the song. A simple version
with only piano and voice by Mary Chapin Carpenter, stylistically much like
Lennon’s demonstration recording, became an adult contemporary hit in
1996.
As on
Double Fantasy,
Ono gets the last word in a production that is harsher
and fuller sounding than her other tracks on the album, more so in view of
the demo recordings that precede it. “You’re the One” sets a strident tone
with Ono vocally providing a percussion line. The song tells of a romantic
pair’s link having the strength of nature and the universe’s inevitability. At
first, the refrain of “how do I tell you you’re the one?” refers to the difficulty
of talking about the depth of the connection between the two. Yet a middle
stanza talks about the couple in the past tense, shifting the implications of the
questions considerably.
Curiously, the 2001 remastered and reissued CD version of the album
has bonus cuts that would have been more appropriate for inclusion on
Double Fantasy.
Lennon’s lead vocal version of “Every Man Has a Woman
Who Loves Him”—a song of Ono’s from
Double Fantasy
on which she sang
lead—is appended to the album after “You’re the One” as if it were part of
the continuing dialogue. This version of the song was originally released on
an album and as a single in 1984 and is discussed in the next section.
Also included on the
Milk and Honey
album is a home demo version of
Lennon performing “I’m Stepping Out,” simply called “Stepping Out” in
this form. A demo version by Ono of her
Double Fantasy
song “Moving On”
is also included, plus approximately 22 minutes of Lennon’s last interview,
given only hours before his death. In it, Lennon (and, to a limited degree
at the start, Ono) discuss how they composed some of the songs on
Double
Fantasy,
how they met, the social role of an artist, and their hopes for the
future. Strangely, it is taken not from a reedit of the original interviews, but
from an edit prepared for a radio broadcast that occasionally cuts to some of
the songs from the album. In the original broadcast, the songs were overlaid
with the interviews to blend from the speaking to the music, and musical
fragments still remain.
I Don’t Wanna Face It, 1981–1988 93
“Every Man Has a Woman”
The Lennon single “Every Man Has a Woman”—with the flip side being the
solo recording debut of his son Sean performing a composition of Ono’s titled
“It’s Alright”—was released in November 1984, along with an album of the
same name comprising Ono compositions performed by various other artists.
In the album’s liner notes, Ono explains that Lennon had planned an album of
other artists performing Ono’s work as a surprise present for her, and that he
had recorded the track without her knowing. The track does not sound like an
entirely new recording, and, since Lennon was reportedly remixing this song
for an Ono EP during the last weeks of his life, he may have remixed it for his
contribution to the future project as well, but this is conjecture.
This song was one of Ono’s more lackluster efforts on
Double Fantasy,
and here “Every Man Has a Woman” sounds like a remixed and reedited
version of the same track. A brief instrumental passage has been omitted, and
Lennon’s supporting vocals from the original have been mixed to the front.
Ono’s lead vocals have been eliminated, while her voice is clearly heard in
parts of the chorus. It also does not sound as though Lennon recorded an
additional new vocal track.
Like the original, the song traipses along well enough in counterpoint to
the melancholy tone and performance. Corresponding to the title, the verses
expound upon the inevitability of romantic pairing while the chorus voices a
fearful hesitancy in accepting the personal reality of such a generalization, stat-
ing “why do I run when I know you’re the one?” The music may have been
designed to straddle the two dimensions of hesitancy and inevitability, but,
instead of providing the needed supporting tension, it becomes droning.
In both Ono’s and Lennon’s versions, the track is an innocuous misfire,
and—regrettably, but not surprisingly—the single failed to chart. In the early
2000s, however, a series of remixes of songs throughout Ono’s career became
dance-track hits, and a lyrically revamped remix of this song—including refer-
ences to homosexual partnering and romance—was one of them. Ono also
included Lennon’s original version as a bonus track on the 2001 CD reissue
of
Milk and Honey.
Ono’s
Every Man Has a Woman
album also included a version of her
“Now or Never,” a song she had included on her
Approximately Infinite
Universe
album. This version was recorded during those sessions, and Lennon
is credited as co-producer with Ono. Rather than Yoko’s lead vocals, as on
the original, a children’s choir is featured, sounding much like the chorus of
“Happy Xmas (War Is Over).” The idea gives extra contrast and urgency to
Ono’s interrogative lyrics, as if a very aware child were chastising the adults
for what they were permitting the world to become.
Lennon’s Appearances on Other Ono Releases
After his slaying, recordings of Lennon appeared on multiple releases, legal
and otherwise. As the technique of electronic sampling began and intensified,
94 The Words and Music of John Lennon
fragments of Lennon’s voice and music, with and without The Beatles, were
used. This is by no means a comprehensive accounting, but rather a short
look at the more interesting examples used by Yoko Ono in the five years
after Lennon’s killing. Not surprisingly, Ono has used Lennon’s voice on
later occasions as well, and the more notable examples are mentioned in the
appropriate sections of this work.
Ono’s first posthumous use of Lennon’s voice was on “It Happened,” a
song of hers from the mid-1970s, which was reused as the flip side of “Walk-
ing on Thin Ice.” Ono used a fragment of dialogue recorded as she and Lennon
strolled through Central Park being filmed for promotional footage to be
used for songs from the
Double Fantasy
album. Sound from a few seconds
of the footage later turned up as a bonus cut on the CD reissue of
Double
Fantasy.
Lennon can be heard taking the part of a startled fan, saying, “John
Lennon! I can’t believe it!” He also jokes about the set up of the filming. He
comments, “Well, here we are, just two average people” and emits a short
laugh that seems to be looped to approximate the fake laughter engaged in
by The Beatles in the bicycle scene in
Help!
though it plays much briefer. The
spoken introduction to the song ends with Lennon directing the filming by
suggesting that he and Ono “bleach out into the sunset.”
Lennon’s voice next appeared on “Never Say Goodbye” from Ono’s
It’s
Alright (I See Rainbows)
album of 1982. In the middle of the song, Lennon
can clearly be heard yelling “Yoko!” from what sounds like a moment from
their “John and Yoko” piece that makes up half of the
Wedding Album.
He
says her name in a myriad of ways on that original recording. In this instance,
Ono selected a full-fledged scream, and, given the context of his killing and
this particular song, it is as harrowing as it is ironic.
As discussed previously, it is not precisely clear to what degree Lennon had
input into Ono’s recordings that make up the
Milk and Honey
album. “Don’t
Be Scared” was reportedly recorded with Lennon’s involvement and, on the
Onobox
set, Ono includes enough of the lead-in so that Lennon can be heard
asking Ono, “Mother, you listening?” In what might have been an attempt
to make Ono’s cuts from the
Milk and Honey
album better match Lennon’s
cuts by seeming less polished and to have been recorded when Lennon’s
cuts were, Ono added Lennon’s voice to the fadeout of her song “You’re
the One” recorded, according to the
Onobox
booklet, in 1983. He is heard
shouting in a near monotone, “Good night Sean, see you in the morning.”
Posthumous Releases, 1985–1988
Even though there were still numerous Lennon recordings in various
stages of professionalism and completion, all future Lennon releases would
consist of live performances, studio outtakes, and demo recordings. Some
would be excellent in terms of quality and content, others would be lacking
in both, and many would fall somewhere in between. Casual fans might only
I Don’t Wanna Face It, 1981–1988 95
have interest in the cream of the crop, but serious fans welcomed anything
they could get. Even the most esoteric piece had something to offer, and the
sheer amount and consistent quality only enhanced Lennon’s posthumous
reputation as a creative force of integrity and perseverance. Eventually, the
amount of material that emerged from his home recordings made Lennon’s
claim of creative dormancy from 1975 to 1980 true only if taken to mean he
did not complete any material in a professional recording studio.
Live in New York City
The 1986
Live in New York City
album was an edited version of The Plas-
tic Ono Band with Elephant’s Memory’s One to One concerts held in 1972
to raise money for and awareness of the situation of mentally handicapped
children in New York. The album is gleaned from portions of the afternoon
show, which Lennon half-joking calls “the rehearsal.” To create a single disc
album in 1986, Ono cut her feature numbers out, whereas two of her num-
bers (more were performed) are available on the video release. The encore is
also edited significantly. Why, in the ensuing decades, the best performances
of the concerts have not been reedited to fit a full CD (or parts of two)
is unfathomable. With the abbreviated Toronto appearance, these two per-
formances were Lennon’s only full-fledged post-Beatles concerts, and legal
issues—whatever they may be—should have been surmounted. The true joy
of the album is that, faults and all—and no one expects perfection at a live
show—it is both fun and interesting to hear Lennon perform these songs
live. The CD reissue sounds edgier than the vinyl and video releases, both of
which have a slightly muddy sound in comparison.
The album begins with the chant of “Power to the People,” which blends
into a rousing version of “New York City” that shows off the band to good
effect and once again puzzles the listener as to why the song was not a single
release at the time. In a nod to the journalist Geraldo Rivera, whose inves-
tigations spurred the event, Lennon changes the lyric “waitin’ for Jerry” to
“waitin’ for Geraldo.” “It’s So Hard” follows and is performed with a nice
rolling lilt with Lennon’s vocals having real emotional flourish.
The
John Lennon Anthology
collection featured three performances from
the second show, with all three numbers demonstrating that the later show
was tighter musically and that Lennon took more care with his vocals. “It’s So
Hard” is one of three on the collection and keeps a more solid rhythm while
losing none of the lilt. Lennon adds a few howls of emphasis to his vocals.
A live version of the couple’s 1972 single follows on the 1986 release,
with “Woman Is the Nigger of the World” and, on the video release, Ono’s
“Sisters, O Sisters.” On these, as throughout the album, Lennon’s rhythm
guitar work, where it is discernable, is top notch. Lennon switches between
guitar and electric piano later in the concert.
“Woman Is the Nigger of the World” is also available from the evening
show and is also a superior performance. In the first performance, Lennon
96 The Words and Music of John Lennon
had forgotten his lyrics “while telling her not to be so smart, we put her
down for being so dumb.” Instead he sings, “while putting her down for
being dumb, we put her down for being dumb.” This time he admits he is
defeated by his memory and sings, “this is the one that I can never remember
but you get the message anyway.”
“Well Well Well” is taken at a brisker pace than it is on the
Plastic Ono
Band
release, and, in the live setting, it is all the better for it. It is one of the
stronger numbers on the album. A perhaps too-ragged version of “Instant
Karma!” prompts Lennon to remark that “we’ll get it right next time” before
an equally ragged version of “Mother.” Lennon is straining at the vocals and
chokes off a couple of times before getting to the throat-wrenching finale.
The starkness of the studio version is a little undercut by the band, and Len-