Studio Three, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono
Engineers: Phil McDonald, John Leckie
The fifth recording session for John Lennon’s debut solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, took place on 7 October 1970.
The musicians were Lennon, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums.
They worked on four songs: ‘Look At Me’, ‘God’, ‘Remember’, and ‘I Found Out’.
They began with ‘Look At Me’. It was more of a rough jam than an attempt at a proper recording, with Lennon saying at one point that he would “have to practise about a week” to nail the guitar part. He returned to the song on 15 October.
The second song was ‘God’, which had previously been attempted on 27 September. At this time it had the working title ‘God (The Dream Is Over)’.
Twenty new takes were recorded, with Lennon playing an acoustic guitar for takes 1-11, and piano for the rest. ‘God’ was re-recorded on 9 October with Billy Preston.
Lennon had recorded two solo demos of ‘Remember’ on 6 October. On this day the full band recorded just one take, which broke down during the third verse. The master take was recorded two days later.
‘I Found Out’ was the day’s final song to be tackled. As with ‘God’, the song had previously been worked on on 27 September, with take 3 becoming the master version.
During this session Lennon recorded two vocal overdubs, and Starr added congas. These were mostly absent from the mix, but can be better heard on the 2021 super deluxe reissue of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.