The Last Days of John Lennon Read online

  “It’s an overtly political song about revolution and a great one”: Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 466.

  “Where’s your wife?” Spitz, The Beatles, 774.

  a waterfront bungalow: Beckie Strum, “Waterfront Property John Lennon Bought His Aunt Selling for £7.25 Million,” Mansion Global, October 4, 2018.

  “Who’s the poisoned dwarf, John?” “John’s Aunt Met Yoko and Thought ‘God, What Is That?’” Irish Daily Mail, March 21, 2020.

  “He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian”: David Sheff, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000), 189.

  “subconsciously he was saying, Go ahead, leave me”: Sheff, All We Are Saying, 189.

  “That’s something else, innit?”: Miles, Paul McCartney, 466.

  “Cary Grant on heat!” Miles, Paul McCartney, 466.

  “The whole world is watching”: Maggie Astor, “‘The Whole World Is Watching’: The 1968 Democratic Convention, 50 Years Later,” New York Times, August 28, 2018.

  Ringo evicted Hendrix: Amanda Uren, “1967: Hanging Out with Hendrix,” Mashable, April 16, 2015.

  a figure standing by their bedroom window: “John Lennon and Yoko Ono Are Arrested for Drugs Possession,” BeatlesBible.com.

  forewarned by a reporter: Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years (London: Omnibus Press, 2001), 312.

  “Ring the lawyer, quick!”: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 312.

  “a strange cocktail of love, sex, and forgetfulness”: “John Lennon: In a Hard Day’s Light Part I,” People, April 1, 2008.

  Yogi and Boo-Boo, the drug-sniffing dogs: Ed Tracey, “Top Comments: The Norman Pilcher Edition,” Daily Kos, February 8, 2018.

  LENNON AND FRIEND CHARGED IN POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA: Associated Press, “Lennon and Friend Charged in Possession of Marijuana,” New York Times, October 19, 1968.

  “It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had”: Anthony Fawcett, John Lennon: One Day at a Time (New York: Grove Press, 1976), 39.

  “a reminder that a cop was lying in wait if anyone had a party”: The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology, 303.

  suffers a miscarriage: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 314.

  “poisoned the wells of criminal justice”: Tracey, “Top Comments.”

  —

  Sheraton Centre: Pete Hamill, “The Death and Life of John Lennon,” New York, March 18, 2008.

  $82 per night: Hamill, “The Death and Life of John Lennon.”

  room 2730: Hamill, “The Death and Life of John Lennon.”

  reaches for his Walkman: James R. Gaines, “In the Shadows a Killer Waited,” People, March 2, 1987.

  “A creepy, sweaty guy recognized me”: Angie Martoccio, “5 Highlights from James Taylor’s New Audio Memoir,” Rolling Stone, February 7, 2020.

  Chapter 36

  “nothing has been more romanticized than guns”: Olivia B. Waxman, “How the Gun Control Act of 1968 Changed America’s Approach to Firearms—and What People Get Wrong About That History,” Time, October 25, 2018.

  “sort of a history of rock and roll”: John Lennon, “Lennon-McCartney Songalog: Who Wrote What,” Hit Parader, April, 1972.

  “The title of the article, which I never read, was ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’”: David Sheff, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000), 188–89.

  “I thought, what a fantastic, insane thing to say”: Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 496.

  “so sick, you know, the idea of ‘Come and buy your killing weapons’”: Paul McCartney, interview by Radio Luxembourg, November 20, 1968.

  “one of the greatest numbers on the album”: Barry Miles, “The Beatles: The Beatles (White Album),” International Times, November 29, 1968.

  “the music has three distinct phases ending with a touch of the ’50s”: Miles, “The Beatles.”

  “The firearm becomes feminine and the lyrics ambiguous”: “The Beatles: The Beatles (White Album),” Record Mirror, November 16, 1968.

  “Oh, well, by then I’m into double meanings”: Sheff, All We Are Saying, 189.

  “both avant-garde and incredibly popular at the same time”: Peter Silverton, “Ringo Starr Auctions Off the First Copy of the Beatles’ White Album: The Story of a Revolutionary Record,” The Independent, December 1, 2015.

  “four solo artists in one band”: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 315.

  “John got 00001 because he shouted the loudest”: Miles, Paul McCartney, 502.

  his copy, not John’s, is the original: Silverton, “Ringo Starr Auctions Off the First Copy of the Beatles’ White Album.”

  “Whoever gets it, it will have my fingerprints on it”: Daniel Kreps, “Ringo Starr’s Personal ‘White Album’ Sells for World Record $790,000,” Rolling Stone, December 5, 2015.

  “a little address book in Mick Jagger’s back pocket”: Kat Aaron, “Resurrected Stones Film Finds Pivot Point in Rock History,” NPR.org, July 25, 2019.

  “Oh, one that plays!”: Keith Altham, “Rolling Stones: The Greatest Show on Earth,” New Musical Express, December 21, 1968.

  “it’s nice to see and hear people working happily together”: Barry Miles, “James Taylor: James Taylor,” International Times, January 1, 1969.

  “We can’t be more number one, we can’t be more famous”: Ken Mansfield, interview by the authors, 2019.

  “Everything is about creativity”: Ken Mansfield, interview by the authors, 2019.

  “I wrote Yoko telling her that I planned to have her in the nude on the cover”: Ritchie Yorke, “John Lennon: Ringo’s Right, We Can’t Tour Again,” New Musical Express, June 7, 1969.

  “find some better bodies to put on the cover than your two”: Miles, Paul McCartney, 527.

  selling only five thousand copies in the UK: Christopher Hooton, “Two Virgins: The Story Behind John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Intentionally ‘Unflattering,’ Banned Nude Album Cover,” The Independent, November 23, 2018.

  “pornographic”: Dave Lifton, “Why John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s ‘Two Virgins’ was Seized by Police,” UltimateClassicRock.com, January 2, 2016.

  FBI to open a file on John: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 327.

  “But it was worth it for the howl that went up”: Yorke, “John Lennon.”

  “angry because he couldn’t achieve the level of spirituality he wanted”: Philip Norman, Slowhand: The Life and Music of Eric Clapton (New York: Back Bay, 2019), 204.

  “Fuck off—can’t you see I’m meditating?”: Norman, Slowhand, 204.

  “I just got so fed up with the bad vibes”: Jordan Runtagh, “10 Things You Didn’t Know George Harrison Did,” Rolling Stone, November 29, 2016.

  “a lousy name in New York and you gave off bad vibes”: Andrew Grant Jackson, “Book Excerpt: George Harrison Realizes It’s Time to Move On from the Beatles,” Rolling Stone, August 17, 2012.

  “I didn’t hit him”: Jackson, “Book Excerpt.”

  “John had a tremendous weight on his shoulders”: Ken Mansfield, interview by the authors, 2019.

  Chapter 37

  “It’s another of Paul’s projects”: Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 21.

  “I think we should go back on the road”: Bob Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography (New York: Back Bay, 2006), 804.

  The costs of running the sprawling Apple Corps: Miles, Paul McCartney, 528.

  Director Lindsay-Hogg has grand ideas: Miles, Paul McCartney, 529.

  “The Beatles were to start playing as the sun came up”: Jordan Runtagh, “Beatles’ Famous Rooftop Concert: 15 Things You Didn’t Know,” Rolling Stone, January 29, 2016.

  “a replica of the Roman Colosseum”: Runtagh, “Beatles’ Famous Rooftop Concert.”

  “go back to Liverpool”: Philip Norman, John Lennon: The Life (New Y
ork: Ecco, 2008), 578.

  “I’m warming to the idea of doing it in an asylum”: Norman, John Lennon, 578.

  “See you ’round the clubs”: Spitz, The Beatles, 806.

  “I think if George doesn’t come back”: Rob Sheffield, “And in the End,” Rolling Stone, August 17, 2020.

  “The point is, if George leaves”: Sheffield, “And in the End.”

  “What a great idea it would be to play on the roof”: Spitz, The Beatles, 815.

  “What’s the point?”: Runtagh, “Beatles’ Famous Rooftop Concert.”

  “too cold to play the chords”: Runtagh, “Beatles’ Famous Rooftop Concert.”

  “mere mortals after all”: Thomas Hobbs, “I Took the Last Ever Shot of the Beatles—and They Were Miserable,” The Guardian, February 10, 2019.

  “You’ve got ten minutes”: Runtagh, “Beatles’ Famous Rooftop Concert.”

  flush drug stashes down the toilets: Runtagh, “Beatles’ Famous Rooftop Concert.”

  “I hope we’ve passed the audition”: Marisa Iati, “The Beatles Played on a London Rooftop in 1969. It Wound Up Being Their Last Show,” Washington Post, January 30, 2019.

  “It was really just the culmination of a lot of writing and rehearsing”: Paul McCartney, interview by the authors, 2019.

  Chapter 38

  “If it carries on like this, all of us will be broke within the next six months”: Ray Connolly, Being John Lennon: A Restless Life (New York: Pegasus Books, 2018), 299.

  “That was my opening”: John McMillian, “You Never Give Me Your Money: How Allen Klein Played the Beatles and the Stones,” Newsweek, December 17, 2013.

  “the Robin Hood of pop”: Philip Norman, Paul McCartney: The Life (New York: Little, Brown, 2016), 371.

  “just a piece of paper”: McMillian, “You Never Give Me Your Money.”

  THE BIGGEST MOTHERFUCKER IN THE VALLEY: McMillian, “You Never Give Me Your Money.”

  “He was very nervous, you could see it in his face”: Jann S. Wenner, “Lennon Remembers: Part Two,” Rolling Stone, February 4, 1971.

  “knew my work, and the lyrics that I had written”: Wenner, “Lennon Remembers.”

  “anyone who knew me that well, without having met me before”: Connolly, Being John Lennon, 300.

  “I’ve asked Allen Klein to look after my things”: Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 544.

  “we favored people who were street people”: Bob Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography (New York: Back Bay, 2006), 820.

  “FYM—Fuck You, Money”: Norman, Paul McCartney, 373.

  “Rock ’n’ roll specializes in that kind of, ‘This guy’s a twerp. We’ve got to have him on our team!’”: Miles, Paul McCartney, 545.

  “Don’t go near him, he’s a dog. He’s a crook”: Miles, Paul McCartney, 545.

  “making the biggest mistake of your life”: Norman, Paul McCartney, 373.

  “We were all pissed off with each other. We certainly weren’t a gang anymore”: Frank Mastropolo, “The Day Paul McCartney Married Linda Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years (London: Omnibus Press, 2001), 337.Eastman,” UltimateClassicRock.com, March 12, 2019.

  “the sudden reality of having failed to become Mrs. McCartney”: Mastropolo, “The Day Paul McCartney Married Linda Eastman.”

  “get married on a cross-channel ferry. That was the romantic part”: The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000), 332.

  Yogi the police dog: Norman, Paul McCartney, 380.

  “Intellectually, we didn’t believe in getting married”: Spitz, The Beatles, 829.

  “John Lennon’s holding court about something or other”: Rick Wilson, “The Day I Saw John and Yoko’s ‘Bed-In’ Peace Demonstration,” The Guardian, February 26, 2017.

  “We knew whatever we did was going to be in the papers”: Olivia B. Waxman, “Behind the Photo: How John Lennon and Yoko Ono Came Up with Their Idea for a Bed-In for Peace,” Time, March 25, 2019.

  “the space we would occupy anyway, by getting married, with a commercial for peace”: Waxman, “Behind the Photo.”

  “Why not Saigon or Dallas if peace is the cause?”: Wilson, “The Day I Saw John and Yoko’s ‘Bed-In’ Peace Demonstration.”

  Allen Klein is appointed Apple’s business manager: Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years (London: Omnibus Press, 2001), 337.

  “I’m a tidy sort of bloke”: Rob Sheffield, “And in the End,” Rolling Stone, August 17, 2020.

  “Go a bit slower, Ringo”: Norman, Paul McCartney, 386.

  “one of those magic times when everything went right and nothing went wrong”: Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (New York: Gotham Books, 2006), 270.

  the Beatles’ seventeenth number-one UK hit: “The Ballad of John and Yoko by the Beatles,” Songfacts.com.

  Chapter 39

  “This is my story both humble and true”: “John Lennon—Signed, Numbered Poets Lithograph, 1969,” RecordMecca.com.

  “T is for Tommy who won the war”: Anthony Fawcett, John Lennon: One Day at a Time (New York: Grove Press, 1976), 163.

  a poetry stand in People’s Park: Clara Bingham, “The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley,” The Guardian, July 6, 2019.

  “When I first got the news it stooned me, absolutely stooned me”: Ritchie Yorke, “Bedding In for Peace: John and Yoko in Canada,” Rolling Stone, June 28, 1969.

  suite 1742 of Montreal’s stately Queen Elizabeth Hotel: Fiona Tapp, “What It’s Like to Stay in the Montreal Hotel Suite Where John Lennon and Yoko Ono Held Their Bed-In,” The Independent, May 9, 2019.

  “If I’m a joke, as they say, and not important, why don’t they just let me in?”: Yorke, “Bedding In for Peace.”

  “Violence really does beget violence”: Barry Miles, The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years (London: Omnibus Press, 2001), 345.

  “Yes, we’re really scared to go to the US because people have become so violent”: Yorke, “Bedding In for Peace.”

  “Our job is to write for the people now”: Frank Mastropolo, “When John and Yoko’s Bed-In Led to ‘Give Peace a Chance,” UltimateClassicRock.com, May 26, 2019.

  scatters flower petals daily: Tapp, “What It’s Like to Stay in the Montreal Hotel Suite.”

  four microphones and a four-track Ampex recorder: Bob Boilen, “Old Music Tuesday: 40 Years of Giving Peace a Chance,” All Songs Considered, NPR.org, June 30, 2009.

  “Sing along”: Paul Williams, “Eyewitness: John and Yoko Record ‘Give Peace a Chance,’” Q, November 1995.

  namechecked in the lyrics of John’s first solo single: Bob Boilen, “Old Music Tuesday.”

  “we don’t have a leader but we have a song—‘Give Peace a Chance’”: Richard Williams, “John & Yoko (Part 2),” Melody Maker, December 13, 1969.

  “If you’re going to have a car crash, try to arrange for it to happen in the Highlands”: “The Day John Lennon Crashed His Car in the Highlands,” Press and Journal (Aberdeen), December 8, 2015.

  “like two apparitions dressed in black”: Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (New York: Gotham Books, 2006), 279.

  “Yes, I’m okay”: Emerick and Massey, Here, There and Everywhere, 270.

  “put a microphone up over here so we can hear her on the headphones”: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 347.

  “It’s your job to keep people out of here”: Emerick and Massey, Here, There and Everywhere, 291.

  “in the middle of the Abbey Road studio, handing Yoko a small white packet”: Kenneth Womack, “In 1969 the Fifth Beatle Was Heroin: John Lennon’s Addiction Took Its Toll on the Band,” Salon, February 15, 2019.

  “Give me something funky”: Barry Miles, “My Blue Period: John Lennon,” MOJO, 1995, from original interviews on September 23 and 24, 1969, at Apple.

  “Don’t worry; I’ll do t
he overdubs on this”: Emerick and Massey, Here, There and Everywhere, 285.

  “It’s an upbeat, rock-a-beat-a-boogie, with very Lennon lyrics”: Ritchie Yorke, “George Harrison Talks About the Beatles’ Album, Abbey Road,” Detroit Free Press, September 26, 1969.

  “he was a tailor and I was a customer who had ordered a suit and never returned”: Adam Clark Estes, “John Lennon Wrote ‘Come Together’ for Timothy Leary but Pot Ruined It,” Gizmodo, August 8, 2014.

  “Can you play those chords backward?”: David Sheff, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000), 191.

  “one of the most beautiful things we’ve ever done”: Yorke, “George Harrison Talks About the Beatles’ Album, Abbey Road.”

  “name it Everest and pose for the cover in Tibet”: Emerick and Massey, Here, There and Everywhere, 297.

  “Let’s just step outside and name it Abbey Road”: Emerick and Massey, Here, There and Everywhere, 297.

  the photographer, Iain MacMillan: June Scott, “Iain MacMillan,” The Guardian, June 20, 2006.

  Only one photograph shows them stepping perfectly in time: “The Scot Who Took the Beatles’ Abbey Road Photo,” BBC News, August 8, 2019.

  “wasn’t impressed enough to want to make a record”: Earl Caldwell, “Record Producer Rejected Manson,” New York Times, October 24, 1970.

  “raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock ’n’ roll record you’ve ever heard”: “Helter Skelter,” BeatlesBible.com.

  “‘I think we should do a song like that; something really wild’”: Miles, The Beatles Diary, 319.

  Chapter 40

  “Leave John alone!”: Thomas Hobbs, “I Took the Last Ever Shot of the Beatles—and They Were Miserable,” The Guardian, February 10, 2019.

  Tittenhurst Park: Linda Serck, “Beatle John Lennon’s Time at Tittenhurst Park in Ascot,” BBC News, May 11, 2011.

  a disturbing package: Hobbs, “I Took the Last Ever Shot of the Beatles.”