A follow-up to my posting of the 4th, “A dark week in early December”, noting that the 4th is Frank Zappa’s death day, the 8th — today — John Lennon’s (and the 6th Wolfgang Mozart’s, but he doesn’t figure in today’s story). Now Kyle Wohlmut has posted on Facebook a Guitar World 10/8/17 story “John Lennon and Frank Zappa Jam in New York City in 1971” by Damian Fanelli:
Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Frank Zappa
On June 6, 1971, former Beatle John Lennon performed at New York City’s Fillmore East with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.
It was a strange night, as you’ll see (and hear) in the clip below [in the Guitar World story]. For starters, Yoko Ono also “performed” with Lennon and the Mothers.
In reality, all she did was scream her head off, just as she did when Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band performed in Toronto in 1969.
And then there were the odd song choices; they played a little something called “Scumbag,” another little something called “Jamrag” and an actual song, Walter Ward’s bluesy “Well (Baby Please Don’t Go),” which featured Lennon on vocals and Zappa on lead guitar. It was the highlight of the jam, for sure.
“For those of you in the band who have no idea what’s about to happen, this is in A minor, and it’s not standard blues changes,” Zappa says as he introduces “Well (Baby Please Don’t Go).” “But it’s close.” “This is a song I used to sing when I was at the Cavern in Liverpool,” Lennon adds. “I haven’t done it since.”
December 9, 2017 at 2:00 pm |
[…] Zwicky shares a report of a 1971 jam session of John Lennon with Frank […]