The John Lennon album Elton John refused to play on: “I don’t think the time would be right”
Music is never meant to be an exclusive practice. Any artist can be measured based on how well they worked with others, and whether it’s with their backing group or some new face on the scene, it’s always healthy to pull from other creatives to see where music will be heading in the future. Although Elton John had been more than happy to contribute to any artist that he fancied, arranging music for John Lennon’s posthumous album Milk and Honey was far too close to the bone for him.
Then again, the idea of getting a call to perform on an ex-Beatle’s album is the musical equivalent of someone getting knighted. Most artists dream of this kind of golden ticket, and even if you weren’t that comfortable in your own skin, you probably wouldn’t shake a stick at the idea of at least trying it out.
And out of all people, John was probably the closest that the 1970s had to the Beatles brand of songwriting. There were artists like ELO who had openly copied some of their recording techniques and approach to harmony, but John’s unique sensibilities behind the piano had notched up just as many iconic melodies as the Fab Four.
It’s not like Lennon wasn’t a fan, either. He had previously praised ‘Your Song’ for being one of the only good things to come out of the early 1970s, and John should be given a special spot in Beatles history for letting the former Beatle take a final bow when guesting with him at Madison Square Garden in 1975.
By the time Lennon was murdered, though, he had just started getting back into music with Double Fantasy. The album had begun a song dialogue between him and his wife, Yoko Ono, so Milk and Honey was part two of what they were talking about. Especially since the first album ended with the morbidly ironic ‘Hard Times Are Over’, Yoko’s decision to take some of Lennon’s songs out of the can to flesh them out would have been like watching his final goodbye.
But while John was more than happy to play on tracks like ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’, he got cold feet when it came time for him to perform anything with Lennon’s voice on it, saying, “I didn’t think the time would ever be right. Trying to work out how to finish songs John Lennon had started writing – I wouldn’t be so presumptuous. And the idea of putting my voice on the same record as his – I thought it was horrible. Yoko was insistent, but so was I.”
While the end result of Milk and Honey might not have been what Yoko had in mind for it, hearing John’s raw vocals are actually a much better way to see him out. He was already getting used to being a house husband and stepping away from his rock and roll persona, so hearing him with an acoustic guitar gives the impression of him being right there in the room with you as he strums away for his wife and son, Sean.
And Elton would eventually find time to pay tribute to his friend as well, writing the tune ‘Empty Garden’ for his next album as a sendoff to his collaborator and musical hero. The idea of a joint album between John and Lennon would have been fantastic but sometimes deserves to be left alone rather than glossed over.
