Plastic Ono Band not only predicted the intersection of the avant-garde and rock that would take place in the second half of that decade, the album would sound. A step in the right direction, but only a step. It sounds like outtakes from Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, which may not seem so bad but means that Lennon is falling back on ideas that have lost their freshness for him. Still, the single works and I hope he keeps on stepping. Favorite Plastic Ono Band outtake: 'One Day (at. In May 1969, John & Yoko bought Tittenhurst Park, an eighteenth-century Georgian mansion on a seventy-acre estate in Ascot, England. It was there that John recorded most of his demo's for the album John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band, as well as the final version of Imagine in 1971. In the fall of 1971, the Lennon's relocated to New York City, first.
John Lennon'The Alternate Imagine'
1971 Studio Outtakes, Rehearsals, Demos
Tracklist:
01 I´M The Greatest (1:53) Take 2 Early version, incomplete lyrics - At end, 'Well, it wasn't good enough'
02 San Francisco Bay Blues (1:14) Outtake, acoustic version
03 How?/Child Of Nature/Oh Yoko! (4:26) Piano Demo Medley, late 1970 - early 1971
![Band Band](https://classicrockreview.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/john-lennon-plastic-ono-band.jpg)
04 Oh My Love (1:21) Acoustic home demo with preliminary lyrics referring to Yoko's miscarriage, late 1968
05 Oh Yoko! (4:37) Acoustic guitar demo, mid 1969
Choosing to collaborate more fully with Phil Spector than he had on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon began recording the Imagine album during the Power To The People sessions at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, between 11 and 16 February 1971.
Lennon retained Klaus Voormann from the Plastic Ono Band sessions, but Ringo Starr was unavailable. In his place Lennon recruited Jim Gordon, formerly of Derek And The Dominos, and also added saxophonist Bobby Keyes to play on Power To The People. The group recorded six other songs: It's So Hard, I Don't Want To Be A Soldier, a cover of The Olympics' Well (Baby Please Don't Go, an early version of I'm The Greatest, and two by Yoko Ono - Open Your Box and O Wind (Body Is The Scar Of Your Mind).
Of the six songs, It's So Hard and I Don't Want To Be A Soldier appeared on Imagine, although the latter was later re-recorded. Their lyrics matched the emotional intensity that ran through John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, suggesting Lennon was considering repeating the formula for its follow-up. However, work stalled on the project, and Lennon committed himself to other projects for three months.
Work on Imagine began in earnest between 24 and 28 May 1971, at Ascot Sound Studios, Lennon's recording facility at the Tittenhurst Park mansion he shared with Yoko Ono. In those five days a total of eight songs for Imagine were recorded: the title track, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, Gimme Some Truth, Oh My Love, How Do You Sleep?, How?, and Oh Yoko!.
The sessions normally began around 11am and finished in the early evening. Lennon typically assembled the musicians around him, taught them the chords and explained the arrangement he had in mind, and recording ended when Lennon, Ono or Phil Spector pronounced themselves to be happy with the results. Lennon always sang guide vocals with each take, which he later replaced by overdubbing a final version.
The cast list for Imagine was more extensive than for John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. George Harrison appeared on several tracks, as did pianist Nicky Hopkins, Badfinger guitarists Joey Molland and Tom Evans, and respected session drummer Jim Keltner.
During the May sessions the musicians also recorded an unreleased cover version of San Francisco Bay Blues, plus four songs by Yoko Ono: Mind Holes, Mind Train, Midsummer New York, and Mrs Lennon. The songs were included on her 1971 album Fly, released as a counterpart to Imagine but, unlike her Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band release before it, with a quite separate identity to Lennon's album.
Lennon and Ono had been documenting their private and public appearances as audio or filmic records since 1968. The Imagine sessions at Ascot were no different. The sessions were filmed by a camera crew which captured around 60 hours of footage.
A full-length documentary film was planned, to be called Your Show then Working Class Hero, but the project was shelved as Lennon and Ono worked on the Imagine promotional film in July and September 1971. The footage was, however, used as the basis for the 1998 biopic Imagine: John Lennon, and a documentary released in 2000, Gimme Some Truth: The Making Of John Lennon's Imagine Album.
Recording for Imagine was completed in early July 1971, with the addition of saxophone and string overdubs in New York City's Record Plant East studio. The saxophonist was King Curtis, who recorded his contributions for It's So Hard and I Don't Want To Be A Soldier in less than an hour. Sadly, King Curtis was murdered on 13 August 1971, shortly before Imagine was released.
The strings were performed by members of the New York Philharmonic orchestra, whom Lennon dubbed The Flux Fiddlers. Arrangements for Imagine, Jealous Guy, It's So Hard, How Do You Sleep? and How? were scored by Torrie Zito. With recording complete, the album was mixed quickly and prepared for release.
The release
Imagine was issued on 9 September 1971 in the United States, and on 7 October in the United Kingdom. It topped the charts in both countries.
It was also the first Apple album release in quadrophonic, a four-channel system which was an early form of surround sound. The format was issued on LP and eight-track cartridge.
John Lennon's second solo album was his greatest commercial success. On it he tempered some of the more abrasive and confrontational elements of its predecessor, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, offering instead a more conventional pop collection that contains some of his best-loved songs.
Imagine begins with the title track, John Lennon's most famous song. One of his most idealistic moments, Imagine suggested a world without religion, nation or possessions, asking instead that people see themselves as agents for change without traditional dogma or ideology.
If Imagine was an attempt to reach beyond the political norms, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, It's So Hard and How? returned to the personal introspection of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Lennon's demons clearly hadn't been vanquished, but he had learnt to temper them and couch them in more palatable form.
Plastic Ono Band Members
Gimme Some Truth saw a return for Citizen Lennon, marking the next step in a transition towards political polemics that would reach a peak on 1972's Some Time In New York City. It was a journey he had begun with 1968's Revolution, but began to focus on properly from Power To The People, released six months prior to Imagine. Gimme Some Truth remains one of Lennon's most powerful musical statements, launching a full-blooded attach on the hypocrisy of authority figures, and still able to pack a considerable punch decades after its release.
Oh My Love and Oh Yoko! were love songs for Lennon's wife, the first of which was written at the beginning of their relationship in 1968 and was co-credited to Ono.
And then there was How Do You Sleep?, the most notorious of Imagine's songs. An undisguised attack on Paul McCartney, it was as far from living life in peace that it was possible to Imagine Lennon.
The song was written in response to various coded messages Lennon claimed were on Paul and Linda McCartney's 1971 album Ram, particularly in the songs Too Many People, Dear Boy, Three Legs and The Back Seat Of My Car.
Although McCartney later claimed the messages had been confined to Too Many People, the damage had been done. Lennon launched a full-scale broadside at his former songwriting partner, accusing him of being surrounded by sycophantic 'straights', having achieved nothing more than writing Yesterday, and trashing his recent works as 'muzak to my ears'. As a final blow, he suggested those believers of the 'Paul is dead' myth were actually right.
Early pressings of Imagine included a postcard showing Lennon holding the ears of a pig, a clear parody of McCartney's pose on the cover of Ram. The pair eventually settled their differences, although their friendship never recovered the closeness it once had.
Download this bootleg here
Also known as | Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band |
---|---|
Origin | New York, New York, United States |
Genres | Psychedelic rock, experimental rock, soul |
Years active | 1967 – c. 1976 |
Labels | |
Associated acts | John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Plastic Ono Band, Carly Simon, Chris Robison |
Elephant's Memory (also billed as Elephants Memory, without the apostrophe) was an American rockband formed in New York City in the late 1960s, known primarily for backing John Lennon and Yoko Ono from late 1971 to 1973. For live performances with Lennon and Ono, the band was known as the Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band.
History[edit]
Formation and early career (1967–1972)[edit]
Elephant's Memory was formed between 1967 and 1968, by Stan Bronstein (saxophone, clarinet, and vocals) and Rick Frank Jr. (drums). In 1968, they briefly added Carly Simon as a vocalist. By 1969, the line-up had expanded to include John Ward (bass), Chester Ayers (guitar), Myron Yules (bass trombone), R. Sussmann (keyboards), Michal Shapiro (vocals), Guy Peritore (guitar and vocals), and David Cohen (guitar, keyboards, and vocals),and Michael Rose on guitar
Two of the band's songs, 'Jungle Gym at the Zoo' and 'Old Man Willow', appeared on the 1969 soundtrack to the film Midnight Cowboy. Elephant's Memory received a gold disc for their contribution to the soundtrack.[1]
In 1970, the band had a minor hit single with the song 'Mongoose' on Metromedia Records, peaking at #50 on the Hot 100 on 17 October 1970 but at #5 on WCFL on 23 November 1970.[2] Between 1970 and 1973, the line-up remained more or less constant around Bronstein and Frank, together with guitarists Wayne 'Tex' Gabriel, keyboardist Adam Ippolito and bassist Gary Van Scyoc.
Work with Lennon and Ono, and later career (1972–1976)[edit]
Plastic Ono Band Outtakes Photos
Known around the Greenwich Village area as a politically active street band, Elephant's Memory backed Lennon and Ono on the double albumSome Time in New York City during recording sessions in March 1972. The album was released in June 1972 in the United States, and in September 1972 in the UK.
Later in 1972, they were billed as the Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band and performed with Lennon and Ono on various TV shows, albums and concerts. On August 30, 1972, with the addition of John Ward on bass and Jim Keltner on drums, the band played with Lennon and Ono at the famous One to One Concert organized by Geraldo Rivera, to benefit the Willowbrook State School for mentally handicapped children. The concert was filmed and recorded, later released in February 1986 as the album Live In New York City. On September 4, they played live again with Lennon and Ono at the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon, performing 'Imagine', 'Now or Never' and 'Give Peace A Chance'.[1]
In April and May 1972, the band recorded their second self-titled album, produced by Lennon and released on the Beatles' Apple Records label, together with an accompanying single 'Power Boogie'. Billboard called it a 'selection of good, strong unpretentious rock.[3] It also contains various contributions by Lennon himself on guitar and vocals. This album has never been re-issued on compact disc. From October to November, the band recorded material for Ono's double album Approximately Infinite Universe Mount and blade warband damage types. , released in January 1973.
On September 5, 1973, the band appeared at the Hells Angels' Pirates Party held on the SS Bay Belle, together with the Jerry Garcia Band.[contradictory] The Pirates Party was later featured in the 1983 documentary filmHells Angels Forever.
The line-up of Elephant's Memory included at various times, Daria Price on castanets, Davey 'Crabsticks' Trotter on Mellotron, Robert O'Leary on bass, and John La Bosca on piano. However, the line-up that recorded Angels Forever in 1974, was Stan Bronstein and Richard Frank, plus Gary Van Scyoc on bass, Chris Robison and Jon Sachs.
Plastic Ono Band
In 2010, Van Scyoc and Ippolito appeared in LENNONYC Nexus 2.3.4 full torrent download. , a documentary about John Lennon for the PBS American Masters series.
In May 2010, guitarist Wayne 'Tex' Gabriel died at the age of 59.[4]
Discography[edit]
- Island in the Sky (1968, album by The Tuneful Trolley)
- several members of Elephant's Memory performed the brass heard on the LP.
- Midnight Cowboy soundtrack (1969), songs 'Jungle Gym At The Zoo' and 'Old Man Willow'
- Elephant's Memory (1969)
- Take It to the Streets (1970)
- Some Time in New York City (1972), John Lennon & Yoko Ono album, Elephant's Memory did session work
- Elephant's Memory (1972), produced by John Lennon & Yoko Ono
- Approximately Infinite Universe (1973), Yoko Ono album, Elephant's Memory did session work
- Bio (1973), with Chuck Berry
- Angels Forever (1974)
- Our Island Music (1976), credited to Stan Bronstein/Elephant's Memory Band
- Live in New York City (1986), with John Lennon, recorded in 1972
References[edit]
- ^ abTobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 234. CN 5585.
- ^'WCFL Big 10 Countdown'. Oldiesloon.com. November 23, 1970. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
- ^'Billboard Album Reviews'(PDF). Billboard. September 30, 1972. p. 63. Retrieved August 2, 2020.
- ^[1][dead link]
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