Walls and Bridges

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Walls and Bridges
Studio album by John Lennon

Publication
(s)

September 26, 1974 ( US ) ,
0October 4, 1974 ( UK )

Label (s) Apple Records , EMI Group

Format (s)

LP , MC , CD , download

Genre (s)

skirt

Title (number)

12

running time

46 min 2 s

occupation
  • Arthur Jenkins: Percussion
  • Jesse Ed Davis: guitar

production

John Lennon

Studio (s)

Record Plant-East , New York, USA

chronology
Mind Games
1973 		Walls and Bridges Rock 'n' Roll
1975

Walls and Bridges ( english , walls and bridges') is the fifth solo studio album by John Lennon after the separation of the Beatles . At the same time, including the three avant-garde albums with his wife Yoko Ono and the live album by the Plastic Ono Band, it is John Lennon's ninth album. It was released on October 4, 1974 in the UK and on September 26, 1974 by Apple Records in the USA .

History of origin

In October 1973 John Lennon and his meanwhile partner May Pang left New York for Los Angeles , where they did promotion work for the album Mind Games , then John Lennon did a number of rock 'n' from October to December 1973 'Roll songs with Phil Spector for a scheduled album in Los Angeles. The recording sessions were constantly interrupted by increasing alcohol consumption and Phil Spector took the tapes with him after the project was canceled, so that publication was not possible. The rock 'n' roll album was completed a year later, in October 1974, with John Lennon as producer.

On March 12, 1974 there was a reprimand from the Troubador Club of John Lennon and Harry Nilsson , who had disturbed a performance of the Smothers Brothers while drunk, this incident as well as the relationship with May Pang was made public through the press.

Then John Lennon decided to become musically active again, in which he wanted to produce the new album Pussy Cats by Harry Nilsson. The recordings extended from March 28, 1974 to April 1974 in the Burbank Studios and the Record Plant West Studios in Los Angeles. Lennon contributed his composition Mucho Mungo and arranged some of the songs, including Many Rivers to Cross , whose string arrangement he used for his composition # 9 Dream . John Lennon completed the album in June 1974 in New York at Hit Factory Studios , and it was released in August 1974. John Lennon and Harry Nilsson were pictured as dolls on the cover in a doll's house.

During the recording of the album Pussy Cats there was the only known musical collaboration with Paul McCartney after the separation of the Beatles. McCartney, who briefly visited John Lennon in Los Angeles with his wife Linda , was invited by Lennon to a full-day jam session , which was also attended by Stevie Wonder . During the recordings, Lennon sang the lead and played guitar. Paul McCartney sang the secondary voice and played the drums. The recordings took place on March 28, 1974 at Burbank Studios and were only released on bootlegs . Another musical collaboration with Paul McCartney that John Lennon had planned was not realized.

Two other songs were created during the recording of Pussy Cats : Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup) produced by John Lennon and sung by Mick Jagger , the song did not appear on the compilation album The Very Best of Mick Jagger until October 2007 ; the second song is (It's All Da-Da-Down To) Goodnight Vienna , a Lennon composition that was intended as a demo for Ringo Starr's album Goodnight Vienna . In August 1974, following the recordings for the album Walls and Bridges , John Lennon sang the song Only You (And You Alone) during the recordings for the album Goodnight Vienna , both songs were published in November 1998 on the compilation album John Lennon Anthology .

Then Lennon began work on Walls and Bridges , the recording sessions took place in July and August 1974 in New York. As with Mind Games , John Lennon produced the album himself again, the studio musicians were referred to in their entirety as the Plastic Ono Nuclear Band , while John Lennon explained his musical involvement behind various pseudonyms such as “Dr. Winston O'Boogie ”,“ Dr. Winston O'Reggae ”,“ Rev. Fred Ghurkin ”and“ Booker Table & The Maitre D's ”.

The first test recordings for the album took place on July 13, 1974 at Record Plant East Studios with the following line-up: John Lennon (vocals, guitar and piano), Jim Keltner (drums), Jesse Ed Davis (guitar) and Klaus Voormann (bass) . In contrast to the published versions, the recordings were kept minimalist, and in some cases the sung texts also varied. On the compilation album Menlove Ave. The following five songs were released: Steel and Glass , Scared , Old Dirt Road , Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out) and Bless You , another five songs were released on bootlegs.

Some songs reflected his changed life situation, for example the lyrics of Going Down on Love   and What You Got deal with   the separation from his wife Yoko Ono.

The album also contains love songs to Yoko Ono, Bless You   and to his then partner May Pang Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox) .

Scared   and Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)   reveal John Lennon's fears.

Steel and Glass   is originally addressed to his former manager Allen Klein , in later interviews John Lennon relativized these statements or suggested that the song could also be addressed to himself.

The joint composition with Harry Nilsson Old Dirt Road   and # 9 Dream   deal with dream sequences.

Beef Jerky is an instrumental song, while John Lennon's son Julian plays the drums on the hinted song Ya Ya .

Elton John sang with John Lennon on the single Whatever Gets You Thru the Night   in a duet , on Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox) he sang the background voice.

In late August 1974 Elton John re-recorded the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds with John Lennon at Caribou Ranch Studios , Colorado . John Lennon sang the background vocals and on the chorus, he continued to play guitar. When the Lennon composition One Day At a Time was re-recorded from the Mind Games album , John Lennon only played guitar. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds appeared with the B-side One Day At a Time in November 1974 as an Elton John single and reached number one on the US charts.

Elton John made a bet with Lennon that the single Whatever Gets You Thru the Night would hit number one. After Elton John won the bet, John Lennon paid off his betting debt by performing at an Elton John concert on November 28, 1974 at Madison Square Garden and singing the following three songs: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds , Whatever Gets You Thru the Night and I Saw Her Standing There . It was to be John Lennon's last concert appearance. The song I Saw Her Standing There was released in February 1975 as the B-side of the Elton John single Philadelphia Freedom , all three songs of the performance appeared as a single in March 1981 and on October 4, 1990 on the compilation album Lennon . Elton John released remixed versions of these three tracks in March 1995 as the B-sides of his CD single Made in England . After the Elton John concert, John Lennon and Yoko Ono met for the first time after their separation, from January / February 1975 they lived together again in their apartment in the Dakota Building .

Another song from the recording sessions, Move Over Mrs. L , wasn't released until March 1975 as the b-side of Stand By Me , the first single from the rock 'n' roll album.

The record company Capitol Records as well as John Lennon advertised the album intensively, so John Lennon gave several lengthy radio interviews, on September 28, 1974 he even worked as a radio presenter for the New York radio station WNEW.

In addition to the single Whatever Gets You Thru the Night , the album also reached number one on the US Billboard charts, making it the second and last number one solo album during John Lennon's lifetime.

In the USA, a quadraphonic mix was also sold on 8-track cassettes .

Cover design

The cover is a picture that John Lennon painted at the age of eleven. A Liverpool FC football match is pictured . An alternative cover of Walls and Bridges on the CD released in 2005 shows Lennon with five glasses on his nose. The photos are from Bob Gruen.

Re-releases

  • It was first published in CD format in July 1987. The CD is accompanied by a 16-page booklet with illustrations containing the lyrics and information about the album.
  • In November 2005 the album was re-released in a remastered and remixed version (except for the songs: Old Dirt Road , Bless You , Scared and Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out) ) with two bonus tracks and an interview. The remix took place in 2005 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 have already been made on Menlove Ave. (Test recordings of the titles: Steel and Glass , Scared , Old Dirt Road , Nobody Loves You [When You're Down and Out] and Bless You ) and the box set John Lennon Anthology have been released. The CD comes with a twelve-page illustrated booklet containing information on the album and the lyrics to the song.
  • 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 a 16-page illustrated booklet is enclosed, which contains information about the album and the lyrics. The design comes from the company Peacock and Karla Merrifield.

Track list

  • page 1
  1. Going Down on Love - 3:54
  2. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night - 3:28
  3. Old Dirt Road ( Harry Nilsson / John Lennon) - 4:11
  4. What You Got - 3:09
  5. Bless You - 4:38
  6. Scared - 4:36
  • Page 2
  1. # 9 Dream - 4:47
  2. Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox) - 2:55
  3. Steel and Glass - 4:37
  4. Beef Jerky - 3:26
  5. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out) - 5:08
  6. Ya Ya (with John Lennon's then eleven-year-old son Julian on drums, Dorsey / Lewis / Robinson) - 1:06
  • Bonus title
  1. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night (Live with Elton John ) - 4:23 (appeared on the 2005 re-release)
  2. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out) (Alternate Version) - 5:07 (appeared on the 2005 re-release)
  3. John Interview (by Bob Mercer) - 3:47 (appeared on the 2005 re-release)

Single releases

Whatever Gets You Thru the Night

The first single Whatever Gets You Thru the Night / Beef Jerky was released on September 23, 1974 in the USA and on October 4, 1974 in Great Britain and Germany and became the first number one hit in the USA for John Lennon.

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 .

Whatever Gets You Thru the Night's promotional single, distributed in the UK , featured an B-side interview entitled: Interview With John Lennon by Bob Mercer and a Message To The Salesmen.

# 9 Dream

The second single # 9 Dream / What You Got was released on December 16, 1974 in the US and Germany and on January 31, 1975 in the UK.

The promotional single was published in the USA as follows: on the A-side is the shortened mono version and on the B-side the shortened stereo version of the A-side of the purchase single. Promotional singles of the B-side What You Got were also produced in the USA.

Chart placements

year album Chart placements
DE AT CH UK US
1974 Walls and Bridges 41 - - 6th 1
year Single release Chart placements
DE AT CH UK US
1974 Whatever Gets You Thru the Night 42 - - 36 1
1974 # 9 Dream - - - 23 9

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) Silver record icon.svg silver 60,000
All in all Silver record icon.svg1 × silver
Gold record icon.svg1 × gold
 560,000

literature

  • Chip Madinger, Mark Easter: Eight Arms To Hold You - The Solo Compendium . 44.1 Productions 2000, ISBN 0-615-11724-4 , pp. 97-104.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Album: Pussycats
  2. ↑ Lennon and McCartney recording session March 1974 ( memento of the original from December 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.gibson.com
  3. ↑ Pictures John Lennon and Paul McCartney 1974
  4. ↑ Text: Going Down on Love
  5. ↑ Text: What You Got
  6. ↑ Text: Bless You
  7. ↑ Text: Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)
  8. ↑ Text: Scared
  9. ↑ Text: Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)
  10. ^ Text: Steel and Glass
  11. ↑ Text: Old Dirt Road
  12. ↑ Text: # 9 Dream
  13. ↑ Text: Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
  14. ↑ 7 "-Single Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
  15. ↑ 7 "-Single: Philadelphia Freedom
  16. ↑ 12 ″ Live Single: I Saw Her Standing There
  17. ^ Elton John single: Made in England
  18. ^ Radio interview with John Lennon
  19. ↑ German 7 ″ vinyl single: Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
  20. ↑ Promotion 7 ″ vinyl single: Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
  21. ↑ Promotion 7 ″ vinyl single: Interview With John Lennon by Bob Mercer and a Message To The Salesmen
  22. ↑ German 7 ″ vinyl single # 9 Dream
  23. ↑ Promotion 7 ″ vinyl single # 9 Dream
  24. ↑ Promotion 7 ″ vinyl single What You Got