Power To The People | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I’ve been doing some work adding Lennon recording sessions to the history section. I’ve done JL/POB and Mind Games , and I’m currently on the Imagine era.

There’s a bit of oddity surrounding the Power To The People sessions. Here’s what I’ve managed to find out:

In the Imagine super deluxe box set book, p76-77, it says the backing track was recorded at Ascot Sound Studios (ASS) on 22 January 1971, then taken to Abbey Road (EMI) that same evening for the choir and footstomps to be added. p77 has ASS and EMI tape boxes with writing showing that it was made at both studios on that date. However, p116 of the book says it was recorded at ASS on 22 Jan with the choir overdub at EMI on 15 February 1971, so there’s a contradiction.

Lennonology has nothing for 22 Jan. In fact, it says the Lennons were in Japan from 13-25 January. The book says Power To The People was recorded at ASS on 15 February, and mixed at EMI on 22 Feb. There’s no mention of a second session, let alone two on the same day in January.

I’m tempted to go with the official source being correct, seeing as they have the tape boxes with the dates on, but it is peculiar.

The big Imagine John Yoko book that came out in 2018 has another tape box on p452 which is the stereo master mix, dated 3/1/71 (presumably 1 March, as it also has 3/5/71 written on it). But that was likely prepared for the single to be cut (it also mentions the b-side), so the dates don’t matter too much.

Lennonology has 12 February as the date of Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn visiting Tittenhurst, and it’s known that Lennon composed Power To The People shortly after their meeting (most sources say the day after). But the big Imagine book AND the album box set book (p74) has Polaroids of them and Lennon at the house, taken by Dan Richter and dated 21 January in both books, which seems the more likely date. Confusingly, there’s a note on the back of one of the Polaroids that says: “Power to Yoko! Peace to Yoko! Love to Yoko! From John Feb 18 71. John and Yoko Forever!” This is described as “with birthday dedications to Yoko”, which explains that last date.

My hunch is that Lennonology is incorrect. It’s making me wonder what else in that book might be wrong, so I’ll probably wait for more Lennon box sets before I do the rest of the recording sessions. But I can’t square the Japan trip, which presumably the authors researched based on contemporary press reports etc. If the Lennons were in Japan from 13-25 January, they can’t have had the two January recording sessions in England, but the tape boxes and dates, plus the Ali/Blackburn meeting supposedly on 21 Jan, in the official books suggest otherwise. Anyone got any theories?