“This incredible tape”: the John Lennon songs his producer couldn’t do justice to
The producer’s job should be to enhance whatever they have in front of them. The musician might be the ones writing the songs and putting their heart and soul into every note, but the producer should have enough clout to realise what isn’t working and whether or not to move on to something different when a song isn’t quite ready for primetime. But for someone like John Lennon, most producers knew that they needed to take into account his lineage before even stepping behind the board.
When Lennon left The Beatles at the dawn of the 1970s, it only made sense that he would work with someone like Phil Spector, who would later be convicted for the murder of Lana Clarkson. After all, George Martin had been his only producer prior to then, and since anyone else would have been too intimidated, getting one of the biggest names in production behind the board was the only person who seemed qualified enough to tell a Beatle what to do.
However, around the time of Rock n’ Roll, Lennon started to figure out who he was really dealing with. Spector had already been a bit frightening before he had hits, but after firing off a gun during the recording sessions and then running off with the tapes of the record, he was slowly turning into more of a menace in the studio half the time, which may explain why bands like Ramones didn’t have one kind word to say about him when working with him on End of the Century.
Since Lennon was out of a record contract after working on Walls and Bridges and serving as the producer for his last few albums, he knew all he needed was a break. His time was much better served at home being the kind of husband and father he never got to be during his Beatle years, and when the songs started pouring out again, he seemed far happier than he had ever been.
Although Mind Games and Walls and Bridges already had a dark undercurrent thanks to his temporary separation from Yoko Ono, the beginnings of Double Fantasy sounded like him putting his life back together. He had never had time to get off the musical roller coaster since his 20s, so him being able to be content taking the slow route on tunes like ‘Woman’ and ‘Watching the Wheels’ was a breath of fresh air.
Lennon already had the tunes at his disposal, but when giving them to Aerosmith and Cheap Trick producer Jack Douglas, he said that there was never going to be a way to top what he had played on acoustic guitar, saying, “[Yoko] handed me this envelope. [It was] this incredible tape of John singing and playing acoustic guitar. All I could think of was how can I ever make this any better than it already is.”
While Double Fantasy did eventually get a glossy sheen to a lot of the tunes, the Acoustic album released later was a much different experience. Since the takes on this stripped-down affair are much rougher than what ended up on Double Fantasy, it’s about as close as we’re going to get to hearing Lennon’s creative process, being midway through tunes like ‘Watching the Wheels’ and ‘Beautiful Boy’ and woodshedding different pieces as he goes.
Although Douglas did a phenomenal job introducing Lennon to the 1980s, he didn’t necessarily need to do much to get the best out of him. Even though his time on Earth was criminally short after the album finished production, Lennon seemed at peace, and you can hear that satisfied state of mind on every single tune.
