The final studio album released by John Lennon before his five-year retirement into househusbandry, Rock ‘N’ Roll was a collection of cover versions of 1950s and early 1960s songs recorded during the legendary Lost Weekend.
It started in ’73 with Phil and fell apart. I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles and I finally finished it off on me own. And there was still problems with it up to the minute it came out. I can’t begin to say, it’s just barmy, there’s a jinx on that album.
Rolling Stone
The roots of the album went right back to 1969, when Lennon wrote the song ‘Come Together’ for The Beatles’ album Abbey Road. The opening line, “Here come old flat-top”, was taken from Chuck Berry’s 1956 song You Can’t Catch Me, and both songs were based around blues chord sequences.
Come Together is me, writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing. I left the line in ‘Here coes old flat-top.’ It is nothing like the Chuck Berry song, but they took me to court because I admitted the influence once years ago. I could have changed it to ‘Here comes old iron face,’ but the song remains independent of Chuck Berry or anybody else on earth.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The song’s publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit agains Lennon for copyright infringement, and the case was due to be heard in December 1973. Wishing to avoid going to court, Lennon reached a settlement in which he agreed to record at least three songs owned by Levy’s Big Seven Music Corporation on the album which followed Mind Games.
Lennon reneged on his deal with Levy. When Walls And Bridges was released towards the end of 1974 it didn’t contain the promised three songs. It did, however, end with a throwaway version of the Levy-published Ya Ya featuring the 11-year-old Julian Lennon on drums. Lennon’s opening words – “Let’s do sitting in the la la and get rid of that!” – showed how seriously he was taking the legal threats.
Levy was unamused, and threatened to refile the lawsuit. Eager to avoid this, Lennon agreed to press on with the earlier project, which had earlier stalled after Phil Spector had disappeared with the tapes.
In the studio
A parallel can be drawn between Rock ‘N’ Roll and The Beatles’ Get Back project, which was eventually released as Let It Be. Both were an attempt to revert back to basics; both became mired in recriminations and disillusionment; and both had their releases delayed, with another studio album issued in the meantime.
The Rock ‘N’ Roll album was recorded in two distinct stages. The first took place in October to December 1973 in Los Angeles with Phil Spector producing, and the second in New York in October 1974, produced by John Lennon.
Mind Games had been Lennon’s first solo album to be recorded without Spector. However, for the as-yet-untitled oldies project he reinlisted the help of his former collaborator
On the Rock ‘N’ Roll it took me three weeks to convince him [Spector] that I wasn’t going to co-produce with him, and I wasn’t going to go in the control room, I was only… I said I just want to be the singer, just treat me like Ronnie. We’ll pick the material, I just want to sing, I don’t want anything to do with production or writing or creation, I just want to sing.
The Lennon Tapes
The first wave of Rock ‘N’ Roll sessions began on 17 October at A&M Studios in Los Angeles. Spector recruited dozens of musicians to perform, but the casual environment quickly descended into drunken chaos. It was the middle of Lennon’s infamous Lost Weekend, his 16-month separation from Yoko Ono, and he was fast becoming better known for his drunken antics than for his music.
The first song they did for that album was ‘Bony Moronie’. By this time we had waited for Phil for three hours, and now everybody’s blitzed. By the time John came to sing his guide vocal he was half drunk – and there’s Phil, waving around this wand. He had a wand to conduct proceedings. Every day was something different. You see the man come in one day dressed as a doctor, the next as a karate expert.
Uncut magazine
Spector produced nine songs for Lennon, although only four – ‘You Can’t Catch Me’, ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’, Bony Moronie and ‘Just Because’ – made it on to Rock ‘N’ Roll. ‘Here We Go Again’, ‘Angel Baby’, ‘To Know Her Is To Love Her’ and ‘Since My Baby Left Me’ were released on the 1986 posthumous collection Menlove Ave, while ‘Be My Baby’ was included on the 1998 box set John Lennon Anthology.
who walked in front john when the album cover was shot thanks
Read to the end of the article.
I have a bootleg of Roots. At least I think it’s a bootleg.
I too have what I think is a bootleg copy. However, it includes a clean version of _Darling Boy (Beautiful Boy). Does your have that? Anyone know if it comes from the same source as (presumably the tapes Levy had) the rest of Roots?
I bought my copy in 1976 so obviously my Roots does not contain Beautiful Boy. As for the source, one can only guess.
I also have a copy of the Roots album bought at the time from a pen pal. I always assumed it was real but like someone said here, not sure it was real. I was very happy to get it.
Rock n Roll contains some great covers by John Lennon and his band. Stand By Me is a classic and a great interpretation. Slippin and Slidin is brilliant as is Peggy Sue. Angel Baby that is on the remastered CD but not on the original album is also great. Yoko Ono deserves huge compliments , along with people like Allan Rouse for the job they have done on the rerelease over the years of the whole John Lennon catalogue.
IMO, There should be two releases : Rock’nroll 1 and rock’nroll 2. The first one would include the 9 songs recorded in Oct 73 plus “rock’n,roll people” and “here we go again”, and the second one the Oct 74 recordings plus “Move over Mrs L”. perhaps a double album!
I have never cared much for this album. Considering the title and Lennon’s history, I wish he would have Ripped It Up for real instead of releasing a bunch of watered down versions of songs that never were RnR anyway.
Can’t disagree at all. I had this album once – listened to it twice, tucked it away for several years, and pitched it in the trash during a move. No energy, no focus. Bland, start to finish.