Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon Album) - History

History

In 1969, Lennon composed the song "Come Together" for The Beatles album Abbey Road. Inspired by the Chuck Berry tune "You Can't Catch Me", it bore too much of a melodic resemblance to the original—and Lennon took the third line of the second verse ("Here come old flat-top") for the new lyric. Publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit for infringement, and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in December 1973.

In the meanwhile, Lennon had split with Yoko Ono and was living in Los Angeles with his personal assistant, May Pang. Nostalgia was a popular trend on film with American Graffiti and television was readying a spinoff series, Happy Days (Lennon and Pang had even visited the set). To avoid having to return to New York, Lennon agreed to record an album of oldies as his next release (following Mind Games) and include at least three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue. In turn, Levy dropped the suit.

Lennon teamed up with producer Phil Spector to record the album. When news got around that Lennon was in Hollywood making a record, every musician wanted to be part of the sessions. Many of them were, as evidenced by the extensive line-up. But the sessions quickly fell into disarray—fuelled by alcohol. Spector once showed up dressed in a surgeon's outfit and shot a gun in the ceiling of the studio, hurting Lennon's ears. On another occasion, a bottle of whiskey had spilled on the A&M Studio's mixing console causing future sessions to be banned from the facility. Then Spector disappeared with the session tapes and would not be heard from for several months. Spector made one cryptic call to Lennon, claiming to have the "John Dean tapes" from the recent Watergate scandal; Lennon deduced that Spector meant he had the album's master tapes. When an auto accident on 31 March 1974 allegedly left Spector in a coma, the project was put on indefinite hold.

In May 1974, Lennon returned to New York with Pang and began writing and recording a new album of original material, Walls and Bridges. Just as these sessions began, Al Coury, then-head of A&R/promotion for Capitol Records retrieved the Spector tapes for $90,000. Not wanting to break stride, Lennon shelved the tapes and completed work on Walls and Bridges.

With Walls and Bridges coming out first, Lennon had reneged on his deal with Levy and he threatened to refile his lawsuit. Lennon explained to Levy what had happened, and assured him that the covers album was indeed in the works. Lennon then recalled the session musicians from Walls and Bridges to complete the oldies tracks.

To assure him progress was being made, Lennon gave Levy a rough tape of the sessions to review. Levy took the tapes and pressed his own version of the album called ROOTS: John Lennon Sings The Great Rock & Roll Hits on his record label, Adam VIII, then proceeded to sue Lennon, EMI and Capitol for $42 million for breach of contract.

Capitol/EMI quickly ordered an injunction and Lennon quickly finished work on his version of the album. In February 1975, Capitol Records rush-released the official Rock 'n' Roll, at a slightly reduced retail price, but the delays had taken a toll on sales. The nostalgia wave had peaked, and other artists such as David Bowie and Bryan Ferry had already released oldies projects, making it less of a novelty.

Not long after the album appeared, Lennon reconciled with Ono, and she soon became pregnant. Determined not to lose another baby after three consecutive miscarriages, Lennon decided to halt his musical career for his family. Sean Lennon would be born that October (on his father's 35th birthday); following the release of Shaved Fish (a compilation album culled from Lennon's singles between 1969–1975), Lennon would not return with a new release until 1980.

A second single, "Ain't That a Shame" b/w "Slippin N Slidin" (Apple 1883) was announced, promotional copies were pressed, but was never released.

Lennon said this about Rock 'n' Roll: "It started in '73 with Phil and fell apart. I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles and I finally finished it off on me own. And there was still problems with it up to the minute it came out. I can't begin to say, it's just barmy, there's a jinx on that album."

The album was briefly reissued in the UK by the budget label Music for Pleasure with an alternative cover. In the US, it was reissued in October 1980 to coincide with Lennon's 40th birthday.

In 2004, Yoko Ono supervised the remixing of Rock 'n' Roll for its reissue, including four bonus tracks from the ill-fated Spector sessions. Other leftovers from the sessions had already appeared, as part of Menlove Avenue (a 1986 collection of Lennon outtakes and demos) or the John Lennon Anthology box set. In 2010, the original album mixes were remastered.