Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)

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Rock and roll
Studio album by John Lennon

Publication
(s)

February 17, 1975 ( US )
February 21, 1975 ( UK )

Label (s) Apple Records

Format (s)

LP , MC , CD , download

Genre (s)

Rock and roll

Title (number)

17th

occupation
  • Jesse Ed Davis: guitar
  • Jim Calvert: guitar
  • Eddie Mottau: acoustic guitar
  • Michael Hazelwood: acoustic guitar
  • Gary Mallaber: drums
  • Arthur Jenkins: Percussion

production

John Lennon and Phil Spector

Studio (s)

  • 1973: A&M Studios-Hollywood, Record Plant West-Los Angeles
  • 1974: Record Plant-East , New York-USA
chronology
Walls and Bridges
1974 		Rock and roll Shaved Fish
1975

Rock 'n' Roll is the sixth solo studio album by John Lennon after the Beatles split up . It is John Lennon's tenth album , including the three avant-garde albums with his wife Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band's live album. It was released on February 21, 1975 in the UK and on February 17, 1975 in the US .

Emergence

Morris Levy , the boss of Roulette Records , sued against a possible copyright infringement by Lennon after he admitted in an interview that the Beatles song Come Together was based on Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me and the line “Here come old flat- top ”has been taken over literally. Should Lennon agree to publish at least three songs on his next album, which Levy will sell, he would drop the lawsuit. While Lennon Levy's music catalog rummaged through, however, he met his old favorite songs on so many that he chose an entire album exclusively covers record.

While working on the album Mind Games , Yoko Ono and John Lennon separated, Yoko Ono then asked May Pang, his secretary and press agent, to accompany Lennon. In October 1973 John Lennon and May Pang left New York for Los Angeles , where they did promotion work for the album Mind Games and then recorded an album with oldies with Phil Spector at A&M Records Studios . The working titles of the album were Oldies but Moldies and Back to Mono .

It was originally planned that Phil Spector would take over the entire production activity and John Lennon only the vocal part. The recording sessions with Phil Spector from October 17 to December 14, 1973 were complicated by various incidents. Spector had a large ensemble of musicians rehearse at the beginning of each recording, then the instrumental recordings took place, only towards the end, mostly late at night, when John Lennon sang the songs. Often times the musicians and John Lennon were drunk, making the recordings on the album seem conflicted and disorganized.

John Lennon and Phil Spector are said to have behaved so badly during the session, also because of their alcohol consumption, that they had to leave the A&M Records Studios on November 28, 1973, among other things because Phil Spector was handling a pistol in the studio and even once lap. On December 3rd, 11th and 14th further recordings took place in the Record Plant West Studios, where the studio work on the album was finally stopped.

Phil Spector disappeared with the tapes and John Lennon didn't know what happened to Spector and the recordings for months until Phil Spector called him and said he had the John Dean tapes, which was a reference to the Watergate affair . Shortly thereafter, on March 31, 1974, Spector fell into a coma after a car accident . During the recording sessions, the following songs were completed, with only the first four later selected for the album:

  1. Just Because
  2. You Can't Catch Me
  3. Sweet Little Sixteen
  4. Bony Moronie
  5. Angel Baby (Publication: Menlove Ave. )
  6. Since my Baby left Me (Publication: Menlove Ave. )
  7. To Know Her is to Love Her (Publication: Menlove Ave. )
  8. Here We Go Again (Publication: Menlove Ave. )
  9. Be My Baby (Publication: John Lennon Anthology )

With Here We Go Again is a Lennon composition, which was arranged by Phil Spector.

After the interruption of the recording, John Lennon was musically idle. During this time he and Harry Nilsson were expelled from the Troubador Club on March 12, 1974 after they had disrupted a performance by the Smothers Brothers while drunk. After this incident, John Lennon decided to become musically active again. So he used the time from March to June 1974 to work with Harry Nilsson on his album Pussy Cats , then from July to August 1974 the recordings for his new studio album Walls and Bridges followed . John Lennon then worked with his former bandmate Ringo Starr on his album Goodnight Vienna and on the Elton-John single Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds , a song by the Beatles .

Probably shortly before the recording of his new album, John Lennon received the tapes of the Phil Spector sessions back, but he only dealt with these after the completion of Walls and Bridges and found that only four songs in his opinion were suitable for publication would be. He decided to go back to the studio with the Walls and Bridges studio musicians ( Ken Ascher , Jesse Ed Davis, Eddie Mottau, Arthur Jenkins, Klaus Voormann and Jim Keltner ) to complete the rock 'n' roll album. From October 19 to 21, 1974 the band rehearsed in a country house owned by Morris Levy, some of these test recordings were released on bootlegs , including the three songs C'mon Everybody , Thirty Days and That'll Be the Day , which were later were not recorded in the studio. The actual recordings then took place from October 21 to 25, 1974 at Record Plant-East in New York City, where the following songs were created:

  1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
  2. Stand by Me
  3. Medley: Rip It Up / Ready Teddy
  4. Ain't that a shame
  5. Do You Wanna Dance?
  6. Slippin 'and slidin'
  7. Peggy Sue
  8. Medley: Bring It On Home to Me / Send Me Some Lovin '
  9. Ya ya

He sang the song Just Because from the Phil Spector recordings again, at the end of which he said goodbye to his audience.

Note from John Lennon
John Lennon (right) during a radio interview, 1975

The original plan was for the rock 'n' roll album to be released in April 1975, but due to the release of the album John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits - Roots in early February in the USA, the release date was changed to 17 February 1975 preferred.

John Lennon recorded two music videos in March 1975 for the songs Stand by Me and Slippin 'and Slidin' at Record Plant Studios, in which Lennon re-recorded the vocals. The music videos were first broadcast in Great Britain on April 18, 1975 during the television program The Old Gray Whistle Test .

On April 8, 1975 John Lennon was interviewed by Tom Snyder on his television show Tomorrow , which was televised on April 28, 1975 in the United States. In later years the interview was published on VHS cassette in May 1981 and on DVD in April 2008.

On April 18, 1975 John Lennon had his last live appearance on the television show Salute to Sir Lew - The Master Showman , where he sang the songs Slippin 'and Slidin' , Stand by Me and Imagine , on June 13, 1975 it was televised on the UNITED STATES.

The album achieved gold status in both the USA and Great Britain .

Cover design

The photo for the album cover was taken on this street in 1961
The doorway where John Lennon was photographed

Since the album Lennon was primarily a memory of his youth, he chose for the cover an old, in Hamburg by Jürgen Vollmer captured photo from the early days of the Beatles.

Withdrawal from the music business

In January / February 1975 John Lennon moved back together with Yoko Ono in the apartment in the Dakota Building . On October 9, 1975 - Lennon's 35th birthday - Lennon and Ono became parents of their son Sean Taro Ono Lennon . On the same day, after four years of fighting the US authorities, John received the green card .

Before John Lennon left the music business until August 1980, he recorded the song Fame with David Bowie in New York's Sigma Sound Studios in January 1975 , in which Lennon was a co-composer and also sang. The single reached number one in the US charts and was released in June 1975. He also played guitar in the reinterpretation of the Beatles song Across the Universe , both songs appeared on the David Bowie album Young Americans .

In 1975/1976 John Lennon recorded several demos of his new compositions at home, some of which are available on bootlegs , including: She's A Friend of Dorothy’s , Sally and Billy and Tennessee . On October 24, 1975, the first compilation album by John Lennon was released with the title Shaved Fish .

On January 1, 1976, a John & Yoko interview with Elliot Mintz was recorded and aired on the radio from January 26 to February 1, 1976.

John Lennon had his last studio assignment for the time being during the recording of the Ringo Starr album Ringo's Rotogravure on June 12, 1976, Lennon contributed the as yet unreleased original composition Cookin '(In the Kitchen Of Love) along with piano accompaniment.

The Lennons gave another interview on October 4, 1977 at the Okura Hotel in Tokyo , in which they stated that their current priorities are family life and the upbringing of their child and that they will therefore retire from the music business until their son Sean is five become.

From 1977 to 1980, John Lennon recorded songs at home, including demo recordings that were used for the upcoming album. The majority of the songs were published officially or on bootlegs in later years.

The next joint album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono was released under the title Double Fantasy in November 1980.

Re-releases

  • It was first published in CD format in May 1987. The CD comes with a four-page booklet containing information about the album.
  • In October 2004 the album was re-released in a remastered and remixed version with four bonus tracks. The remix took place in 2004 at Abbey Road Studios under the supervision of Yoko Ono. The remix engineer was Peter Cobbin. Steve Rooke was responsible for the remastering. Allan Rouse was the project coordinator. Further recordings of the sessions with Spector were already on Menlove Ave. (for example: Here We Go Again ) and the box set John Lennon Anthology (for example: Be My Baby ). The CD comes with a four-page booklet containing information about the album. On the occasion of the re-release, the nine title promotional compilation album Two Sides of Lennon for the albums Acoustic and Rock 'n' Roll with comments by Yoko Ono was released in the USA .
  • In October 2010 the album was re-released in a remastered version, this time in the original mix. The remastering took place in 2010 at Abbey Road Studios by Paul Hicks and Sean Magee. Allan Rouse was the project coordinator. The album has a cardboard cover that can be opened and an eight-page illustrated booklet is enclosed with information about the album. The design comes from the company Peacock and Karla Merrifield.

Track list

page 1

  1. Be-Bop-A-Lula ( Gene Vincent , Tex Davis) - 2:39
  2. Stand by Me ( Leiber / Stoller , Ben E. King ) - 3:26
  3. Medley: Rip It Up / Ready Teddy ( Robert Blackwell , John Marascalco ) - 1:33
  4. You Can't Catch Me ( Chuck Berry ) - 4:51 +
  5. Ain't That a Shame ( Fats Domino , Dave Bartholomew ) - 2:38
  6. Do You Wanna Dance? ( Bobby Freeman ) - 3:15
  7. Sweet Little Sixteen ( Chuck Berry ) - 3:01 +

Page 2

  1. Slippin 'and Slidin' ( Richard Wayne Penniman , Eddie Bocage , Albert Collins , James H. Smith) - 2:16
  2. Peggy Sue ( Buddy Holly , Jerry Allison , Norman Petty ) - 2:06
  3. Medley: Bring It On Home to Me / Send Me Some Lovin ' ( Sam Cooke ) / ( John Marascalco , Leo Price ) - 3:41
  4. Bony Moronie ( Larry Williams ) - 3:47 +
  5. Ya Ya ( Lee Dorsey , Clarence Lewis, Morgan Robinson) - 2:17
  6. Just Because ( Lloyd Price ) - 4:25 +

Bonus title

  1. Angel Baby ( Rosie Hamlin ) - 3:44 (appeared on the 2004 re-release) +
  2. To Know Her Is to Love Her ( Phil Spector ) - 4:31 (appeared on the 2004 re-release) +
  3. Since My Baby Left Me ( Arthur Crudup ) - 4:40 (appeared on the 2004 re-release) +
  4. Just Because (Reprise) - 1:25 (appeared on the 2004 re-release) +
Note: Titles marked with a + are from Phil Spector's recordings

Single releases

Stand By Me

The single Stand By Me / Move over Mrs. L was released on March 10, 1975 in the USA and on April 18, 1975 in Great Britain and Germany. The single version was remixed in February 1975.
The promotional single was published in the USA as follows: the mono version is on the A side and the stereo version of the A side of the sales single is on the B side .

Ya ya

In Germany, another single Ya Ya / Be-Bop-a-Lula was released in June 1975 .

Be-Bop-a-Lula

The single was released in Spain and Japan with the A-side Be-Bop-a-Lula and the B-side Ya Ya . The single Be-Bop-a-Lula / Move over Mrs. L was released in France and the single Be-Bop-a-Lula / Stand By Me was released in Italy .

More singles

  • In June 1975, two further promotional singles Ain't That a Shame (Mono) / Ain't That a Shame (Stereo) and Slippin 'and Slidin' (Mono) / Slippin 'and Slidin' (Stereo) were broadcast to radio stations in the USA distributed, but they did not appear as regular sales singles.
  • The promotional single Slippin 'and Slidin' / Ain't That a Shame was produced in Mexico in 1975
  • On April 4, 1977, the single Stand By Me / Woman Is the Nigger of the World was released again in the United States .

Chart placements

year album Chart placements
DE AT CH UK US
1975 Rock and roll 37 - - 6th 6th
year Single release Chart placements
DE AT CH UK US
1975 Stand By Me 22nd 19th - 30th 20th
1975 Ya ya 47 - - nv nv

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region Award Sales
Awards for music sales
(country / region, Award, Sales)
United States (RIAA) United States (RIAA) Gold record icon.svg gold 500,000
United Kingdom (BPI) United Kingdom (BPI) Gold record icon.svg gold 100,000
All in all Gold record icon.svg 2 × gold
 600,000

John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits - Roots

In November 1974, John Lennon gave a recording tape of the as yet unreleased album Rock 'n' Roll to Morris Levy, who commissioned the production of an LP entitled John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits - Roots . The long-playing record was advertised on American television, among other things, and distributed via mail order from the beginning of February 1975 . However, the sale was stopped in March 1975 due to lawsuits from EMI / Capitol. By this time, 1270 LPs and 175 8-track cassettes had been sold. A lawsuit followed (January 12 to July 13, 1976) that resulted in Lennon being awarded $ 45,000 in damages  . In the following years the LP was often re- pressed as a bootleg . Musically speaking, John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits - Roots only contains longer versions of individual tracks and two songs (Angel Baby and Be My Baby) that were only officially released in 1986 and 1998, respectively.

The track list was as follows:

  1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
  2. Ain't that a shame
  3. Stand by Me
  4. Sweet Little Sixteen
  5. Medley: Rip It Up / Ready Teddy
  6. Angel baby
  7. Do You Wanna Dance?
  8. You Can't Catch Me
  9. Bony Moronie
  10. Peggy Sue
  11. Medley: Bring It On Home to Me / Send Me Some Lovin '
  12. Slippin 'and slidin'
  13. Be my baby
  14. Ya ya
  15. Just Because

literature

  • May Pang: Instamatic Karma , St. Martin's Press 2008
  • Chip Madinger, Mark Easter: Eight Arms To Hold You - The Solo Compendium . 44.1 Productions 2000, ISBN 0-615-11724-4 , pp. 90-94 and 104-109.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Single: Fame
  2. ↑ USA promotion CD: Two Sides Of Lennon
  3. ↑ German 7 ″ vinyl single: Stand By Me
  4. ↑ Promotion 7 ″ vinyl single: Stand By Me
  5. ↑ German 7 ″ vinyl single: Ya Ya
  6. ↑ Spanish 7 ″ vinyl single: Be-Bop-a-Lula
  7. ↑ French 7 ″ vinyl single: Be-Bop-a-Lula
  8. ↑ Italian 7 ″ vinyl single: Be-Bop-a-Lula
  9. ↑ USA promotion 7 ″ vinyl single: Ain't That a Shame
  10. ↑ USA-Promotion-7 ″ -Vinyl-Single: Slippin 'and Slidin'
  11. ↑ Mexican promotional 7 ″ vinyl single: Slippin 'and Slidin' / Ain't That a Shame
  12. ↑ USA 7 ″ vinyl single: Stand By Me / Woman Is the Nigger of the World