26 Years Ago

Twenty six years ago today we lost John Lennon.....

As I was searching for some music to post I stumbled across this interestingly labeled torrent over on Dimeadozen....

John Lennon & Friends - 1971-10-09 - "Let's Have a Party" - Syracuse, NY

Here's some info that was posted with it....

John Lennon
Yoko Ono
Ringo Starr
Phil Spector
Eric Clapton
Klaus Voorman
Allen Ginsberg
Jim Keltner
Mal Evans
Neil Aspinall

This recording dates from John's 31st birthday on October 9, 1971. Recorded in a Syracuse, NY hotel room with the above guests strumming acoustic guitars, shaking tambourines, ringing bells, and singing inebriated versions of some old Beatles, Lennon and traditional songs.

If you're looking for great music, please DON'T expect anything of the sort here. This is a very informal recording of some drunken friends having a good time celebrating a birthday. There aren't any great Clapton solos (in fact, his presence here is not 100% confirmed), though you do get to hear Ringo in 1971 trying in vain to remember the words to "Yellow Submarine".

Phil Spector is pretty loud and annoying, trying to lead everyone while sounding like a cross between Paul Schafer and Jerry Lewis' Nutty Professor. Still, this download should be very interesting to Beatles and Lennon fans -- especially to hear them tackle a mocking version of the recent Paul McCartney hit "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (!!!). Lennon seems to be quite familiar with the song and does a respectable approximation of the verses, despite the tongue-in-cheek intent.

I transferred this to CD from an old vinyl LP I had (very clean copy with no audible surface noise). I made some artwork based on some jpegs I found online, and it's included in the torrent.