More Lennon stuff on the way
Published June 21, 2003
from: London Spy
Almost a quarter of a century after the murder of John Lennon, a previously unheard collection of the former Beatle's music is to be released.
Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, is planning to create a new album of songs from demo tape recordings made by her husband during the final years of his life.
The tapes are expected to be reworked by modern musicians, with Lennon's original vocals.
"I have to wait for the right moment to do this," Ono tells the German magazine Stern. "He was a songwriter and he wanted the songs to be presented correctly."
Ono hasn't been without success herself recently. Last month, she had a surprise number one hit in the US Billboard charts with a dance remix of Walking on Thin Ice, a song she first recorded with Lennon in 1980.
The prospect of new Lennon material, meanwhile, is causing much excitement: "John was notorious for recording demos, only to then throw them into the back of the cupboard," says Beatles biographer Keith Badman.
"Yoko has a lot of material and would have kept quiet if she didn't think it was good enough to be released."
Meanwhile, relations between Ono and Lennon's former collaborator Sir Paul McCartney have been particularly frosty recently, following Macca's decision to reverse the pair's songwriting credits to McCartney-Lennon on a recent live album.
Badman adds: "Yoko will be asking modern musicians to work on the songs - but I don't think Paul should expect a call.''
Marty's band, Growing Old Disgracefully, can be found at: Disgraceful Music. His Cthulhu tales can be found at Temple of Dagon. 
- More Lennon stuff on the way
- Published: June 21, 2003
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- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: Pop
- Writer: Marty Dodge
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Paul has dropped this crusade now - heis no longer pursuing the reversal of credits. Please see this post for more.
And my reply to this post demonstrates that maybe Paul had historical precedent as well as the right to change the order of the credits. It's not as if Paul was suddenly claiming credit for John's "In My Life" or trying to remove Lennon's name from "Yesterday"... I wonder if any of these Lennon demoes were recorded before 1970. It would be interesting to see whether the contracturally required "Lennon-McCartney" credit would be attached in such a case...
Paul sounded a bit like a money-grubber at first, but having heard both sides of the story, I side with Paul. It's ridiculous that Yoko Ono makes more money than Paul from a song that even John Lennon clearly said that Paul McCartney wrote.
It doesn't matter now, since Paul dropped his efforts, but that just demonstrated how much of a shrew Yoko is to me.
"Yoko has a lot of material and would have kept quiet if she didn't think it was good enough to be released."
Or, of course, if she felt she could make a buck or two...
I have a great portrait of Lennon on my site jimboartmusic.com
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The change to McCartney-Lennon is one of the pettiest things ever to help tarnish a legacy for the sake of .............. ?
I don't care how justified he feels in doing it, he didn't need to. Period. It dropped my respect for the man down a notch or two.