Couple of twofer’s for you on this Tuesday – Elton and John Lennon and two videos. Got your boogie woogie britches on? Then let’s rock a little!
A site I enjoy visiting, This Day in Rock History, talked yesterday about John Lennon making his last public performance on 28 November 1974. I went looking for a video of that event but was only partially successful.
Although John did not die until 8 December 1980, six years previously he hit the stage at Madison Square Garden as part of a bet/debt repayment to Elton John. This from Wiki:
“On 28 November 1974, Lennon made a surprise guest appearance at Elton John’s Thanksgiving concert at Madison Square Garden, in fulfillment of his promise to join the singer in a live show if “Whatever Gets You thru the Night“, a song whose commercial potential Lennon had doubted, reached number one.”
I found the following video only to learn that it is a movie version made after the concert with actors playing key roles. It was produced and edited by Yoko which explains why she gets so much screen time.
However, the audio included in the video here is from the actual concert. John and Elton are great, but listen for Dee Murray on bass and the Muscle Shoals Horn guys doing their thing on sax. Leads me to conclude that the video should have had more of the Muscle Shoals’ guys and less of you know who.
John and Elton also did Lucy in the Sky at that concert. Elton would subsequently record and release and have a hit with it a few months later. I couldn’t find any movie video of that one either as I guess maybe Yoko couldn’t figure out a way to either interject herself in there or change the lyrics to “Yoko in the Sky With Diamonds.”
Buzzy always comes to my mind when I think of John Lennon for the following reason. We were in London visiting the British Library when I saw the following on display:
As I took a photo of it, Buzzy asked me “What’s that?”
I told him “The lyrics of one of my favorite Beatles songs written by John Lennon “In My Life.”
Buzzy shrugged and said “Never heard it.” A Beatles fan, Buzzy was not.