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John Lennon
The Lost Lennon Tapes Volume Eight

Album US 1988 on Bag Records label
Rock (Rock’n’Roll, Pop Rock)

Basic good ol' rock 'n' roll is the major theme of this installment of the Lost Lennon Tapes. To kick things off John and The Elephant's Memory Band rip through chuck Berry's Roll Over Beethoven. Continuing along in the same vein, they next tackle Jerry Lee Lewis with a medley of his numbers, Whole Lotta Shakin' and It'll Be Me. Some never before-aired outtakes of radio spots for The One-To-One Concerts are next one of which incorporates a raucous live-in-the-studio take of New York City mercifully we've edited out as much of obnoxious Geraldo Riveria's comments as possible). God Save Oz is the complete demo, with vocals by John. Beatles John and Rolling Stone Mick introduce John's back-up band on the legendary Rolling Stones Rock 'N' Roll Circus (Eric Clapton, lead; Keith Richard, bass; Mitch Mitchell, drums; Lennon, rhythm). An instrumental jam by that line-up is then performed. (The definitive recordings of the Rock 'N' Roll Circus performances of Yer Blues and the wild jam with violin Her Blues can be found on the Yin Yang LP, Bag Records #5071). Buddy Holly's influence on John is in evidence on side two of this collection. For starters we go way back to 1958 and present the one-of-a-kind acetate by The Quarrymen (John on lead vocal), That'll Be The Day. Unfortunately, only the beginning and ending of this track are available, but at least it's presented here in the best quality and longest version to date. The next group of songs (tracks 2-7--all originally made famous by Holly) were performed live with acoustic guitar in the St. Regis Hotel in New York in 1971. They comprise part of the soundtrack to a John & Yoko experimental film called Clock. On Volume Four of this series we featured some of John's Bob Dylan parodies. The Dylan connection is explored again this time around, first with Lennon's Dakota tape of the folk standard Corrina, Corrina-- John's rendition is apparently based on the arrangement used on the Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Another of John's many Serve Yourself takes is next. But the real coup is the soundtrack to the outtakes of John's appearance in Dylan's film Eat The Document. John only appears in the finished film for a few seconds, but all of the dialog between himself and Bob that was filmed is presented here. You won't hear this stuff on the radio--Dylan is suppressing it and will not allow it to be aired. He probably doesn't like the part where you can hear him vomit. Our side closers are both Dakota recordings. Side one concludes with Lennon's 'mind movie' material, Maurice DuPont-Agent Provocateur Du Jour, R.E.T. (further adventures of which are slated for future volumes of this series). Side two's capper is a father-son collaboration. Note on cover backside: "Jacket printed in Canada".

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