Of
the four Beatles, John Lennon has the fewest number of live appearances
as a solo artist and only two with the Plastic Ono Band. The story
behind this appearance in Toronto is well known. Not having a real
band, Lennon hastily recuits Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman and Alan White
and rehearses on the plane going to the concert. The Rock And Roll
Revival was meant to be a showcase for the artists from the 1950's like
Chuck Berry and Screamin' Jay Hawkins and an appearance by The Doors.
But the show is chiefly known for Alice Cooper and the chicken incident,
and John Lennon's forty minute set.
The
results are pretty good given the circumstances. "Blue Suede Shoes"
and "Money" are performed very slow. "Yer Blues", while not as
confident a delivery as on the Rock And Roll Circus from
December 1968 is pretty good nonetheless. "Cold Turkey" on the other
hand sounds very sloppy here. The latter half of the set, with Yoko
Ono's two songs "Don't Worry" and "John, John" have been target for
many vicious attacks. I have to admit that I liked her contribution.
The final track in particular "John, John" is twelve minutes of mostly
guitar feedback which doesn't sound much different than King Crimson in
the Lark's Tongues era. Her screaching in the first half of the set is a bit much to take but it does work in the second half.
Misterclaudel
have issued an excellent audience recording of the event. They didn't
use a tape source for this as that is probably no longer available.
This was one of the earliest bootlegs, coming out soon after Great White Wonder and Live'r,
but was made obsolete by the Apple release. The vinyl copy they used
is very good with only hints of surface noise and the occasional pop and
crack. But overall this is a great sounding, front row recording with
the emphasis upon Lennon's vocals and we can enjoy the show without the
final mixing evident on the official Apple release.
No comments:
Post a Comment