Music In My Shoes
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Music In My Shoes
December 8: John Lennon, Loss, and Legacy, And The Beatles Anthology E108
A smiling John Lennon on Monday Night Football. A blunt 1970 interview that cut through the post‑Beatles haze. A late‑night Bermuda epiphany triggered by the B‑52s. We stitch together these scenes to tell a clear story of return, risk, and the ache of what never happened.
We revisit Lennon’s sharp takes on early solo albums, then jump to Howard Cosell’s halftime chat where “It’s always in the wind” floated a reunion hope. From there we follow the thread to Double Fantasy: phone‑call songwriting with Yoko, the decision to interleave their tracks, and the electric but shelved Cheap Trick‑backed version of I’m Losing You. The music reveals a man choosing domestic honesty over spectacle, and that choice rings loud on Watching The Wheels and Beautiful Boy. We also sit with the shock of December 8, 1980—how news broke live on TV, how radio turned into a vigil, and how listeners discovered deep cuts and new meanings in the days that followed.
The legacy keeps evolving. Anthology 1 brought Free As A Bird to life from a worn cassette, reminding us that imperfections can feel truer than polish. New restoration tools now separate voices from tape hiss, reframing classics without erasing their warmth, and sparking debate around releases like Now And Then. We dig into early Beatles gems, Pete Best’s late payday, and why Rubber Soul still feels like the band’s great hinge moment. Seasonal staples make an appearance too—Lennon’s reflective Happy Xmas and McCartney’s gloriously divisive Wonderful Christmastime—because these songs hold our calendars as much as our hearts.
Come for the stories, stay for the connective tissue: how culture, technology, and memory keep Lennon present. If this journey moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves The Beatles, and leave a quick review so more listeners can find these conversations.
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Living is easy with eyes closed, makes understanding all you see. That was Vic Thrill kicking off episode 108. As always, I'm thrilled to be here with you. Let's learn something new or remember something old. On December 8th, 1970, John Lennon did an interview with Rolling Stone magazine to promote his new record, John Lennon Plastik Ono Band. And he talks about the other Beatles solo albums that had come out recently. And I just thought this was kind of interesting. Okay. Again, this is 1970. The Beatles broke up in the spring of 1970. So they're not the super friendliest at this point. There's definitely some animosity between John and Paul, and Paul and John and George and Paul, and you know, things are going on. So on Paul McCartney's self-titled album, Lennon called it rubbish. Ooh. And rubbish is a pretty big word. Yeah. It's not a nice word.
SPEAKER_04:Aaron Ross Powell No, it's what they call trash, if anybody doesn't know out there. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02:That is correct. He preferred George Harrison's All Things Must Pass to the McCartney album, but then follows it up with Personally at home, I wouldn't play that kind of music. I don't want to hurt George's feelings. I don't know what to say about it. Ooh. That's pretty rough.
SPEAKER_04:That is. It's not like George put out, you know, some kind of completely different type of music. I mean, it was still somewhat in the vein of what the Beatles were doing.
SPEAKER_02:Well, a lot of it was music that John and Paul had said no to when he was with the Beatles that we talked about on a couple episodes ago, you know?
SPEAKER_04:So that's why, probably.
SPEAKER_02:When asked about Ringo Star's Bukus, he said it was good, but said he wouldn't buy it, you know. I don't feel as embarrassed as I did about his first record, Sentimental Journey. Wow. Talk about like taking knives and putting them in people's backs. I mean, that's just crazy. So four years and one day later, on Monday night football, December 9th, 1974, John Lennon appeared at halftime of a Washington Redskins at Los Angeles Rams game at the LA Coliseum. So this is before the Rams, you know, the Rams were in LA, then they moved to St. Louis, and then they moved back to Los Angeles. This is when the Rams were originally there. Yeah. So the late great Howard Cosell interviewed John, asking him at one point, will the Beatles ever reunite? John responds, you never know, you never know. I mean, it's always in the wind. And I watched the video of it as he's answering. You know, sometimes you hear these things and you know, what's in the context, you know? Right. What what what is it, you know? But I watched it, and you know, the interview, John was kind of happy, smiling and, you know, comparing rugby and soccer to American football. And then, you know, Howard quickly gets that, you know, questioning. I'd like, you know, he's probably been waiting all day to ask him. Yep. And I just thought it was really cool. It's always in the wind. You know, we don't know what that means, but you know, is there the possibility in his mind maybe something could happen?
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:You know, we know it didn't, but it's kind of surprising it never did. I think it is. I do. I think so. So what's really interesting is that John Lennon wasn't the scheduled halftime person. The halftime person was going to be Governor Ronald Reagan of California, who actually was on. But what happened is before he came on and before John came on, Ronald Reagan was showing and describing to Lennon how American football works, what it's all about, how it goes with his arm around them. And these are people that are as politically different as any two people can be. Right. Yet they're laughing and having fun and putting their their differences aside so that one can show the other what the game is all about.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was a different time.
SPEAKER_02:Very different time in 1974. So John and Yoko Ono spoke with Rolling Stone almost six years to the day later and ten years after 1970s interview on December 5th, 1980. And it was at the Dakota where they lived, the apartment building in New York City on West 72nd, and they spoke about John and their son Sean vacationing in Bermuda, and Yoko was still up in New York. For those who don't know, John and Yoko were once part of a a company that owned dairy farms in upstate New York. I didn't know that. And I think it was called Dreamland, if I'm not mistaken. Okay. And a lot of it was in Delaware County. And I have relatives that live in Delaware County, and I remember at the time hearing from them John Lennon owns this property and John Lennon this. And you know, at the time, are they telling me that because they know I like John Lennon and I like the Beatles? You know, I don't know. But as I got older and was able to research, it was really true. They were part of this, you know, conglomerate that was buying up a lot of the local, you know, dairy farmers, buying up and and making it, you know, part of this one big uh company. So Yoko had to stay up in New York and work on it. John and Sean go to Bermuda, but what ends up happening is they start writing songs because they're kind of missing each other. Or they're writing songs about when they had been broken up for a year and a half, you know, earlier in the 70s. And they would talk on the phone, and it would, you know, John would be like, Oh, I got this song, and he would say this song, and they talk the next day, and Yoko would have like a song answering it, or a song that's similar to that, you know, from her point of view, and just kind of going back and forth. And they would sing it to each other, and you know, one night, John said he's sitting at a dance club. Again, he's in Bermuda, and upstairs they're playing disco music, and downstairs he suddenly heard Rock Lobster by the B-52s. And it was the first time that he ever heard it. It sounds just like Yoko's music. So I said to myself, it's time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up. And out of that came the Double Fantasy album. That was one of the kick in the pants for John to get back. You know, he had been out of the music business for five years. He hadn't made anything since 1975. Raising his son Sean, and he heard the B-52s. There are a lot of similarities between some of the B-52s, the singing and the noises that they make compared to Yoko Ono on some of her albums. And that's when John was like, you know, Yoko's made it, you know, people are imitating her. And, you know, imitation is what the greatest thing of of flattery. Right. So, you know, pretty cool thing. That's what ended up getting them. You know, the axe is a guitar. I know you know that, Jimmy, Mr. Guitar Man over there.
SPEAKER_04:Aaron Ross Powell Well, and Ricky Wilson's guitar work on that song is m awesome. So I'm sure John was feeling that too. Like, man, I need to get back doing that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Without a doubt. You know, between that and and hearing, you know, uh Kate and Cindy sing and making, you know, similar sounds as Yoko Ono, he was all ready to go. And Fred. And Fred. Yeah. Well, Fred was more probably like John Lennon.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean, he was a good singer. He's the lead singer on that song, so I wanted to mention Fred.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Fred Schneider. Fred Schneider of the B-52s.
SPEAKER_04:We're on a first name basis.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. So three days later, on December 8th, 1980, John did a photo shoot with Annie Liebowitz for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. And it ended up coming out in January of 1981 is when the issue was released. And then later, his final interview with Dave Sholin and Lori Kay of RKO. And at one point in the interview, John said, We're going to live or we're going to die. I consider that my work won't be finished until I'm dead and buried. And I hope that's a long time. That night on Monday Night Football, during a game between the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins, Howard Cosell shared with the world, Remember, this is just a game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most famous of all the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. I was watching the game because back then you always watched Monday night football. It didn't matter what teams were on. And I went to bed about 10 minutes before Howard Cosell came on to announce. And I remember my mother calling up to me and telling me what she just heard, you know, because she knew it was important. And I was kind of like, what are you talking about? You know what? And I come down, and you know, now I'm putting on the different TV channels and everything and finding out that John Lennon really was shot. And I had just turned 14 in November. This is December 8th, and I couldn't imagine that someone would shoot John Lennon. Like, why would that possibly happen? You know, could not understand it what whatsoever.
SPEAKER_04:And why did he do it? He was a fan, right?
SPEAKER_02:He was a fan. He was a fan, but then he had um Mark David Chapman. He ended up thinking that John was a phony because he lived, you know, in a rich house and had a a lot of money. And just like every other, you know, famous person, musician or or whatever, that's what you do. You have money when you're famous, you know? And, you know, he just had some issues with it. So it was just one of those things that, you know, I just could not fully understand it. So after the interview that I was just talking about, John went outside of the Dakota, Mark David Chapman handed him a double fantasy album, the album that was out at the time, and John signed it, John Lennon 1980. And a person happened to take a picture of it. And it made the front page, I don't remember if it was the Daily News, it was probably the New York Post, or it could have been both. I I I don't remember. And it was just so eerie when you actually saw that to see a picture of him signing an album for someone that he ends up killing.
SPEAKER_04:That's just so awful. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:So afterwards, you know, they go to uh John and Yoko go to the studio and they're they're working on a song. They get dropped off by a limousine. It's, you know, it's a few minutes before 11 o'clock at night. And Yoko gets out first, and you know, like I said, the Dakota apartment building, she's headed towards the lobby so that she can go in. She's first. John was grabbing some cassettes of what they had recorded that night so that he could kind of listen to it at home. And Mark David Chapman says, Mr. Lennon, and then shoots him, hitting him four times. Missed the fifth time. And uh Mark David Chapman doesn't leave. He just pulls out a copy of the Catcher in the Rye and just starts reading it.
SPEAKER_04:And that and that's yeah, Holden Caulfield in that book, his big thing is everyone's a phony.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And unfortunately, you know, it's just we lost someone that was, I think, a great musician with a great band that changed so much of what was going on for us as people, you know, and and anyone that listens to music, you know, you have to be able there's certain people or groups that you have to give credit to for being able to take it from this and move in the needle all the way over here. And John Lennon and the Beatles are are definitely some of those people. If you look in America when the Beatles hit it big, it was right after JFK was assassinated. And America's looking for something different. You know, get their minds off of it, look at something positive. What's the future? And then the Beatles and they come to JFK Airport. I don't know that it was called JFK then. Maybe it was. I think they actually named the JFK Airport like immediately after. I think it was Idlewild Airport. I thought I never knew that. If I'm not mistaken. And then they're on the Ed Sullivan show, and everybody in the world was watching that show. And now we are 16 years later, and now John Lennon has been assassinated, and and now he's gone. And it, you know, as a 14-year-old, it was just too much to understand what was going on.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:So I have a newspaper, I delivered the newspaper back in the day, we've talked about that before. And I have a newspaper from that uh from the next day, and I have it framed, it's in my basement. So it's the actual paper that I've had since December 9th, 1980, that I have framed, and I have it on a wall that's away from windows, so the sunlight doesn't get to it. And, you know, it just talks about, you know, like John Lennon and, you know, it's got a picture of Yoko Ono. I I think, if I'm not mistaken, there's a pic um David Geffen is with her, consoling her. And it's just something that I've I've had up, and you know it's been important to me because I remember as I went to deliver the newspaper and you see something in print, because back then in print it was real, you know? That meant something was real. And I just was kind of like, wow. Now I remember every rock station in New York, and and could have been everywhere, I don't know, but in New York, where I live, just went John Lennon, that was it. So whether it was a Beatles song that John sang, or it was a John Lennon solo song, that was it. That's all you would hear on the radio. And I learned so much about songs that I didn't know anything about, especially a bunch of the John Lennon solo songs. And because they were just playing these songs over and over, and you know, I'm, you know, I'm a loser. That's one song that I wasn't particularly thrilled with that song, but I heard it so much during that period right after um, you know, John's death, that I love that song, you know. I really do love that song. There's there's just so many songs, I can't even go into it. Um, but it's like uh just was like a total shock, never expecting something like that. You you know everyone is going to die. There's no question about that. But to have this guy that is camped out in front of the Dakota and waiting for every chance to get an autograph, and waiting for every chance to, you know, obviously, you know, to to end someone's life is just crazy. And it's still crazy to me 45 years later. Like I still don't understand it.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and how like somebody can be so important to the world and one crazy person can end that.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And I think you know, you you talked a little bit about the Beatles not getting back together. One has to think that in the last 45 years that John lived, that they would have. They would have done something. Paul and John would have done something. Now I I'm sitting here and speculating, but I think that they would have. I really do. That's my opinion. I do believe that. And who knows what would have happened, you know?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think they probably would have. You know, I think at that point, though, around 1980, Paul and John still were wanting to do their solo stuff, so it just needed a little more time.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell Yeah, and I agree. You know, um John in one of his interviews, he talked about he wasn't ready to go out live. He wanted to put another album out, another solo album. They were working on one, which became Milk and Honey, that came out, you know, a few years after his death. And he's like, Yeah, like I don't know that I want to play Madison Square Garden. You know, I might want to play a small place, but you know, that might be tough to do to play a small place. And, you know, John Lennon never really ever went on tour. George Harrison only went on two tours. 1974, he did a North American tour, his only tour of America. And then he did Japan. It was either 91 or 92. I don't remember exactly what year. And he um all he did is he said to Eric Clapton, Hey, can your band, hey, can we just go play Japan? That's what they did. John never toured. He did a few shows here and there, and not many full shows. He would do benefits where he would play a few songs. So I don't know how comfortable he was because he hadn't really done anything since the Beatles' 1966 tour, you know, their last tour. But I think that that we would have seen it. You know, we we've talked about John Lennon joining Elton John on Thanksgiving 1974 and seemed to have a blast. And about a year later, about 11 months later, that's when his son Sean was born, and he decided, hey, I'm gonna step back from everything that I'm doing, and I'm just gonna spend time with Yoko and my son and raise him for the five years and just enjoy every minute because he could. You know? Not everybody can do that, but he could, and he did. And then, like we talked about, all of a sudden he had the I need to get back out there, and and he did. And I think that a lot of good things, you know, would have come from that. I really, really do. Six years earlier, he's on Monday night football, and he's smiling, and he's laughing, and Howard Cosell's asking him, Will the Beatles ever reunite? And then Howard Cosell is the one telling so many people that he's gone. The Beatles Anthology 1 came out November 20th, 1995, so 30 years ago, and it was rarities, outtakes, live performances from 1958, I believe it was, until 1964. And the Beatles actually released a song for the first time in 25 years. Not a song, but a new song. The first time they released a new song in 25 years. And that was Free as a Bird. Now, Free as a Bird was a 1977 home demo that John had made. And it was on cassette, and it wasn't the best quality, and it kind of sat at the house, and then when they decided that they were going to do this anthology project, you know, they talked to Yoko and said, Hey, do you have anything? We'd kind of like to make some music, and lo and behold, they were able to do this song. I think this song is fantastic. Because at the time there was no new Beatles music in so long. And 25 years later, after I think Long and Winding Road might have been the final single that came out, you had this song that John was singing, and even though the quality of his voice wasn't the best, I fully accepted it because it was John Lennon. It was all you could do. That was that was it, you know?
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And I thought that Paul, George, and Ringo were absolutely fantastic. Paul and George singing verses along with John, George doing a guitar solo, Ringo on the drums, knowing it's Ringo playing. And it it was just such a great song. And that opened up the album, and then it was, you know, just all these songs in spite of all the danger, which was a um McCartney Harrison song that they recorded July 12th, 1958. Where, you know, Iowa saw to the Beatles, you know, the Beatles I knew started in 1960, and then in 62, you know, they started to Hamburg, Germany, and then '63, they were huge in England, and '64 they're in America. And now you're listening to a song from 1958. Right. The quality, again, is not very good, you know. But it doesn't matter because it's the best that you have. It's the only thing that you have. It's not like I made a copy and it's not that good, and I can find another copy somewhere, you know.
SPEAKER_04:I wonder if with the technology nowadays, if they can make that sound better than they could in, what was it, 1995? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and it's funny that you bring it up because they have re-released the Beatles anthology, came back out again over Thanksgiving weekend, 30 years later, and they have enhanced some of the songs because of the fact that they did not sound good. One of them being free as a bird, another one being in spite of all the danger. And they have gone in and they're able to, you know, remove the voice completely, you know, and and again, I don't understand all the technology on how they do everything. I I don't even understand how you do all the editing, Jimmy. And, you know, for them to be able to just take a voice off of a cassette and leave all the hisses and everything else out when they couldn't do it before, you know, technology just keeps getting better, and be able to do it and then, you know, remaster the song, and now you have the 2025 mix of it, and they've done that. And it's and I don't know how many of the songs they did, but they did a bunch of them, including those two. Now, John sounds much clearer, but I still like the original one because it brings back the memories of what it was like when I first heard it 30 years ago, and what what it meant to me at that time.
SPEAKER_04:And it kind of sounds more like he's really doing that on a cassette in his apartment versus, you know, it's been at a studio and sounds more perfect.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Ross Powell Exactly. And that that means a lot to me that they're able, you know, they're able to do that. And you know it was him in his apartment, and you know the wrestler in the studio, just like you said, and you you accept it because you can't do any better than that. And that is, I think, what makes the song so good. I mean, it is an excellent song. I absolutely love that song. I truly, truly do.
SPEAKER_04:Because you didn't like the one that they released last year.
SPEAKER_02:So now and then I did not, and this now and then was actually in worse shape than Free as a Bird. And there was another song that they released uh in 1996, Real Love. And now and then was in the worst shape to the point where George Harris is like, I'm not even gonna do this. This we're this is terrible. Like we're almost forcing it to happen and just stopped it. And a bunch of people say that if George was alive today, that song would probably not be out. Even though the technology 30 years later, they're able to do different things, and they did the same thing where they're taking the voice and you know, AI and you know, doing all of this. I I didn't like the song at all when it first came out because it's so different. It doesn't sound like the Beatles at all. But then it definitely started to grow on me a little bit because it is the Beatles. And I mean, I read a lot of things. People I know wrote things, you know, rubbish. We'll just we'll use that very nice word. Some of it was not nice. But you know, I liked it. I could see through it much better after listening to it a little bit more and just kind of stepping back for a minute, you know. You know how you hear a song sometimes that knocks your socks off and you just want to hear it forever?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:When I first heard it, it did not knock my socks off, and it was just like, what? And I just made an effort. I'm gonna listen to it a bunch and give it its due and then make my decision on what I think from that. So that's what that is. So if we look at this anthology here, ain't she sweet? Uh, the Beat Brothers, the Beatles, but they call themselves the Beat Brothers because they recorded with a guy by the name of Tony Sheridan, and it was Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. The Beat Brothers were whoever was recording with Tony Sheridan. Okay. Didn't matter who it was. So Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, they do a song called My Bonnie. My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, My Bonnie Lies Over the Sea. I mean, I think a lot of people know that song. Scottish song. I don't know. Is it Scottish? Yeah. Oh, okay. So they did this song called Ain't She Sweet, which I absolutely love. And, you know, it's an early, you know, 60s song, but I just like it. You know, Ain't She Sweet? You see her walking down that street, you know. It's just a it's just a corny song, but it's good. Speaking of corny, they uh have on this album Three Cool Cats, which was part of the DECA audition on January 1st, 1962. I mean, I could go on, there is I I don't even know how many songs on this album, but Love Me Do is on here, and Like Dreamers Do, uh Lend Me Your Comb. Let me your comb was another one of those songs that a ton of those early 60s bands, when they were learning how to play, they would all do that song. And, you know, it has performances, live performances, it's got um, you know, just outtakes, you know, that they did. And one of them that I think is is super cool is when they do And I Love Her. And it's take two. So it's actually, you know, when you listen to it now, it's just a slow kind of love song. But this has got rock and drums in it. It's like a little faster tempo. I actually like it better. The guitar solo's pretty much the same, but it's just like a rock version of, and I love her. I just think it's kind of cool. A Hard Day's Night, it's take one. The first time that they put it, you know, to tape, it's like a little bit slower. It doesn't have the same oomph to it. And it it's just Beatles Anthology One is just really cool. And they all are. Anthology 2, Anthology 3 came out in 1996. There's just so much to see when you're watching the TV show because Thanksgiving weekend, 1995, they had the three parts here in America, and you could watch it. Now it's on um Disney, and uh it's uh I think it's a nine-part thing. They added additional on the ninth episode. I haven't seen it yet. I've only seen like the first seven episodes. But it's really cool to relive and to go through. And this is what is just kind of crazy when you think about it, is that I was really super excited about this because it had been 25 years since the Beatles broke up. I'm now talking about this 30 years after this came out, which is 55 years after the Beatles broke up. Yeah. Just crazy. One thing I thought would be cool to point out is Pete Best was the original drummer from 1960 to about August of 62. And he wasn't really on any official albums or anything. So, like, he didn't really make any money from all of that time. He's on 10 songs on Anthology One. And I looked up and did research, and no matter what I researched, no matter what source, it all came back that he made about$9 million off of Anthology One. That he finally made money in 1995. Man.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, isn't that crazy? Talk about bad timing. You know, leaving the Beatles then, I guess maybe it wasn't his choice.
SPEAKER_02:It wasn't his choice. He got sacked. He was he just didn't fit into what the Beatles were or wanted to become, had a different personality, and they thought Ringo was a much better choice. Hey, you know what, Jimmy? Let's revisit more music in my shoes. So the Beatles rubber soul album, probably my favorite Beatles album, and you know, the older I get, the more I believe that it is, was released December 3rd, 1965, so that's 60 years ago. And I'm gonna talk about the North American release because we've talked about this before. There was the North American, there was the UK version. I've just seen a face, one of my favorite all-time songs, great song, Norwegian Wood, You Won't See Me. And this is a song that Paul McCartney wrote about Jane Asher. He was dating Jane Asher, the actress at the time, and this was about her. Think for yourself, George sang. The word Michelle. I mean, everybody knows Michelle, you know, sings some of that French. I don't know if it's real French or not, but he does. Um, It's Only Love. To me, that's kind of John Lennon thinking he's kind of Bob Dylan when he does that song. Girl, I'm looking through you, another Paul McCartney about Jane Asher song. In my life, there are places I'll remember all my life, though some have changed. Everybody knows that song. That is a fantastic song.
SPEAKER_04:That was at one point voted the greatest song of the 20th century. I can't remember what the source was, but it was like by songwriters voting, and they said, Yeah, that's that's the best pop song of the 20th century. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02:I can't argue with that. I I can't, not at all. Wait and run for your life. And Run for Your Life is a song that later on John kind of says he wishes he didn't write, he didn't like it. Um, and that is that. Speaking of that is that, tick-tick-tick, it's Minute with Jimmy.
SPEAKER_01:It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy. It's time for a minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy, Minute with Jimmy.
SPEAKER_04:So we're talking about the Beatles, and in 1970, the Beatles released their second to last single, Let It Be, which is one of my favorite Beatles songs. And the common knowledge about Let It Be is that Paul had a dream about his mother who had died when he was 14, and she told him, just let it be. And that, you know, he was kind of going through a stressful time, and he decided, okay, I'm gonna write a song about that. She really comforted me. And there's actually another story, though. I don't know if you've heard it, that the Beatles road manager, Malcolm Evans, Mal, said, No, when we were, uh, he said this in 1975 on a talk show. When we were meditating over in India, Paul had a vision of me coming to him, and I'm the one that said, let it be. And that's what he wrote the song about. So everybody kind of laughed it off, like, oh, that's there's no way that's true. Well, on the Beatles anthology, there's actually a version of Piggies when they're rehearsing that, and Paul rehearses his new song, Let It Be. And sure enough, in that, he says, Brother Malcolm comes to me. In the time when he would say, Mother Mary. Oh. And so, like, well, maybe Malcolm wasn't lying.
SPEAKER_02:That is pretty cool. You know, Mal Evans really was a big part of the Beatles, a totally unsung person, and was there to help them do everything that they needed, whether they needed something to drink, something to eat, or whatever they needed done, he was there from the beginning to the end.
SPEAKER_04:They they said that John Lennon could just yell, socks, Mal, and he'd have to run to the store and buy John some socks.
SPEAKER_02:That's what his job was. That was a really good minute with Jimmy. Thank you. You're welcome. My name was Jim G. So I mentioned John Lennon Plastic Ono Band album. It came out December 11th, 1970. And when John Lennon was killed, this was one of those albums that I was hearing a lot of the songs from that I didn't know. And I went and bought a cassette of it, and I would listen to it over and over because none nobody I knew my age knew any of these songs. And I wanted to learn as much as I could about them. And it's um an album that he did after he went to uh primal scream therapy, where he went back to his childhood. You know, his mother had died, I think she was hit by a car, his uh Aunt Mimi raised him, his father had left, you know, just all these different things. And he he went back and relived traumatic things from his youth through uh a therapist over a pretty long period of time, and then this is the album, most of it, he wrote this album after that and released it. Mother, Hold On, I found out. I mean, just by the titles, you can already see, you know, he's talking about, you know, some traumatic things. Working Class Hero. And Working Class Hero is probably the only song that I actually knew on this album at the time. Isolation, you flip the cassette over, remember, love, well, well, well, look at me, God, my mummy's dead. And in the song God, you know, he talks about he doesn't believe in the Beatles, he doesn't believe in Elvis, he doesn't believe in Zimmerman, Zimmerman being Bob Dylan, uh, he just believes in me, Yoko and me, not me. I'm just paraphrasing what he said. Right. And that, you know, he had moved on and and moved, you know, into a different reality, you know, and he talked about the dream is over and and realizing the 60s are done and the dream that so many people had, it's over. We're we're now in a whole different place now. And this album really is something that I've listened to. It's great. Uh Ringo is actually the drummer. Klaus Vormann, who I've mentioned a ton. You've you've probably never heard of Klaus Vorman before me, Jimmy.
SPEAKER_04:No, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_02:And I've talked about him a ton uh about different things that he's been part of. And he did the anthology album covers, I believe. He was part of the team that did that. He was the best. Bass player on the John Lennon Plastic Ono band. If you listen just to the music, because it's John Lennon, it's Ringo Starr, it's Klaus Bormann, and it's these three people, and you're like, this is just fantastic. You know, I know there's overdubs where they add extra instruments, but man, Ringo, Ringo doesn't sound like Ringo Star. He sounds like a rock drummer when he's on this album.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:All right. And the bass is just this thump and bass and John on, you know, guitars and pianos, and it's just really, really good. And it was something that was just so different than what I knew about John Lennon. I think that's really what made me enjoy it so much because it was like a new album coming out, even though it was 10 years later, almost to the day that I first started listening to it. John Lennon released Happy Christmas, December 1971. So this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just begun. And that's a song that I just look forward to at Christmas time. I love it. My mother sings her heart out when she hears that song. It was not popular at first when it came out, but as the years have gone on, it's become more popular. But a song that's probably even less popular than that is Paul McCartney's wonderful Christmas time, that was released November 16th, 1979. Paul plays all the instruments. He recorded it during the time he was getting ready to do uh McCartney 2. And it's kind of a love-hate song. People either love it or they hate it. I happen to be in the camp of I Love It, Jimmy.
SPEAKER_04:You know, I I think it's kind of cheesy, but I kind of love it.
SPEAKER_02:Why would it be cheesy? The mood is right, the spirits up. We're here tonight, and that's enough.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I mean, I can appreciate the sentiment. It's just the the the way that he's playing the synthesizer, it just kind of sounds like you know, when you walk into the organ store at the mall and you hit the button and it plays a song, and like, wow, that that's playing by itself. It almost sounds like that.
SPEAKER_02:That whole McCartney 2 album is kind of like that. I don't think it's a very good album at all, other than coming up, which I don't even like the coming up studio version. I like the live version. I think the whole album is like that. But when it's a Christmas song and it's cheesy, I'm all over that. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time. And then finally, I just wanted to hit on Double Fantasy. So Double Fantasy had come out November 17th, 1980, right before John Lennon was killed. It had the single, just like starting over, which ended up going to number one. On that song, I liked it, but I wish that it didn't start out so slow. It has like a like maybe chimes that start off like ding, ding. And then the song starts off slow and then it kicks in. And from the point it kicks in, it's a really good song. I just don't like the beginning part of it. Kiss, Kiss, Kiss, a Yoko Ono song. So what they did is John would have a song, then next it would be Yoko Ono. Initially, they wanted to have John on one side and Yoko Ono on the other. You know, people realize no one's gonna play side two. So let's go John, Yoko, John, Yoko.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, if you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding.
SPEAKER_02:There you go. Back then, when you have records, you know, you're not getting up to pick up the needle all the time because you don't want to break your needle or you don't want to scratch the record, so you're kind of listening to it. But Kiss Kiss Kiss is actually an excellent Yoko Ono song. If you haven't listened to it, give it a try. It was big in the dance clubs. And you listen to it and you can hear the B-52s, not them, not them, but Yoko doing her, which you think is the B-52s. Okay. And it's a really, really good song. I like it. Cleanup Time. I'm not going to go into all the Yoko songs. I'm Losing You. So I'm Losing You was one of the songs that while he's in Bermuda, he can't get a hold of her. And then the feelings come back of, you know, when they had separated. He writes that. So what's also cool about I'm Losing You is Jack Douglas, the producer, who knew Cheap Trick, brought in Rick Nielsen and Bunny Carlos to be part of the band for that song. And for another song of uh Yoko Onos. And it was much heavier and it was definitely cool, but they ended up not using it. Rumor has it is because Yoko thought that Cheap Trick's people were asking for too much money. Uh-huh. So they re-recorded it. But what's funny, when they re-recorded it, everybody had headphones on listening to Cheap Trick play it as they're playing their instruments. And it wasn't as heavy. You know, the album wasn't a heavy album, like I just said, it started with like chimes, was you know, just like starting over. But that's just like a cool story. I mean, I'd I'd like to know some more about that. Uh Beautiful Boy, beautiful boy. I used to sing to my kids when they were young. I have girls, but I would sing to them instead of Beautiful Boy, I would sing Beautiful Girl. And as they were going to sleep, it was one of the songs that I would sing to them. And, you know, they'd smile, and the next thing you know, they're sleeping as I would sing it. You know, before you go to sleep, say a little prayer, and you know, through the whole thing. Watching the wheels, one of my all-time favorite songs. And watching the wheels, it's like I just feel what he's saying. You know, people think I'm crazy doing what I'm doing. And it is just a it's just such an authentic song because he's being so 100% honest about how he feels. It's just super cool. Great song. Woman, a song he sings about, Yoko, Dear Yoko. Um, and then it ends up with Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him and Hard Times Are Over by Yoko Owen Owen. Both of those are pretty good songs. I believe Elvis Costello did a cover of Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him. I I think he did, if I'm not mistaken. I think I had it on cassette, like some sort of, you know, um compilation or so. And I'll have to check that out. I know that was a ton of stuff. I just think it's really cool that the Beatles have so much that has happened in November, so much that's happened in the month of December, and so much that happened around December 8th that was instrumental for John Lennon from 1970 all the way through 1980, all these different things that we talked about, you know, in the beginning of the show. So listen, if you have anything that you'd like to add, if you have a question, you can reach out to us at musicinmyshoes at gmail.com. Please like and follow the Music in My Shoes Facebook and Instagram pages. That's it for episode 108 of Music in My Shoes. I'd like to thank Jimmy Guthrie, show producer and owner of Arcade 160 Studios, located here in Atlanta, Georgia, and Vic Thrill for our podcast music. This is Jim Bog, and I hope you learned something new or remembered something old. We'll meet again on our next episode. Until then, live life, and I do mean live life, and keep the music playing.
