Double Fantasy

Like the day that John F. Kennedy was shot, or when Man first walked on the moon, many people remember the day that John Lennon died with astonishing clarity. I do, as well.

I had offered to assist an American film-maker, Ray, with some time-lapse photography of Sydney's city skyline, which he was going to use to end the documentary he'd shot in Australia...as the sun went down on our December Summer's night.

So, as we were working, shooting 1 frame (1/24th of a second of finished film) every minute on a building top in Kings Cross, the red light district of the city. Looking out at the skyscrapers, we started hearing Lennon and Beatles music coming from what seemed like hundreds of households and as the sun went down, Ray and I knew what had happened without having to see the news*.

 John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy 

And so to Double Fantasy when I heard the first single, Just Like Starting Over. 

"Hmm. Retro, very 50s, my God, it's so nice to hear Lennon again...and he sounds...good..." I thought...but it was just so good to hear Lennon again. I'd missed him!

"...the last, the night before the sessions, the last rehearsal was at the Dakota. He sits down at the Fender Rhodes and he plays Starting Over and I said, 'Where'd that come from?' He said, 'Oh, I dunno, it just kinda came.' He said, 'You think it'll make it to this record?' I said, 'Make it?' I said, 'It's gonna be the first single.' I said, 'It's gotta be the first song on the record. You know, come on, it's perfect.' Double Fantasy Producer Jack Douglas (thinking he had already heard all the demos for the album) 

Of course, when the album came out, things were different. Yes, Starting Over was nice but there were really only two stand-out tracks for me. The first was Woman, when, for once, Lennon didn't sound grovelling in a love song for Yoko but instead sounded mature, contrite and tender. Compare Woman to the love songs on Mind Games and you'll see what I mean. There's a world of difference!

Woman had been planned for Christmas release but when Lennon was murdered, it became a massive hit, #1 in most parts of the world.       

There were also two pretty good Lennon tracks on Double Fantasy, Watching the Wheels, & Beautiful Boy...

John Lennon: Real Love, drawings for his young son, Sean 

"...The drawings are adorable and colorful. The captions are cute and funny. My daughter loves looking at each page. It's really worth buying..." Amazon reviewer LJskyora02

.... and two pretty ordinary tracks, Clean Up Time & Dear Yoko.

Oh, I almost forgot, there were six awful tracks from Yoko. O.K., make that five, Kiss, Kiss, Kiss was interesting in an 80s synth-dance-pop kinda way (and Yoko's dramatic orgasm was kinda pervy in a fun way).

In other words, Double Fantasy was almost half a decent album and Yoko Ono was, most definitely a goose! Goodness me, she was by then in her early 40s...and she was still carrying on like an idiot! She couldn't sing...she certainly couldn't write songs...

...And then Lennon was shot. Suddenly Lennon's good set of songs became elevated to "remarkable" because we couldn't believe some nutter had shot...a genius. The Double Fantasy Lennon tracks were played relentlessly and Beatle John was finally canonised...with Yoko getting some kind of bizarre sympathy vote as being listenable.

That was then, when the world was in a state of shock. These days I think most people would agree with my assessment, Lennon's good...but could be even better....and Yoko's crap! The tragedy is that Fred Seaman (see Lennon books), his personal assistant of two years felt the real Lennon was just beginning to emerge...and that some great music was coming.

  John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy

"...I was practically waiting in the record store as they took this out of the box. I loved it, and still do. It is very much of it's time (late 1980) and it is hard to listen to without remembering with horror what happened 3 weeks after it's release, and thinking of what could have been..." Amazon reviewer David Robinson

"...This was John Lennon's last album to be released in his life, and the album is pure magic. His voice on each song is flawless, and the music is beautiful..."Amazon reviewer VD2400

"...For years people have been calling this album a 'masterpiece' but what's so great about it? This is the sound of a man and his woman holed up in their apartment for far too long. Really, is this the best Lennon could come up with after five years?...These simple songs about domesticity may have had a certain charm at the time but Time has not been kind to this CD...." Amazon reviewer Music freak

"...I like all the songs on here including the Yoko songs...especially the funniest track, Walking On Thin Ice. In it, it has Yoko screaming 'Ai Ai Ai Ai!!!'..." Amazon reviewer Erin Jackson

In February 1982, Double Fantasy won a Grammy for Best Album Of The Year. 

N.B. The Remastered edition of Double Fantasy now includes Yoko's best-ever rock song, Walking On Thin Ice, the track that the Lennon's were working on the day he was killed, see Posthumous releases

David Scherff: John Lennon, the Playboy interview

"...The most valuable part of this book, in which John systematically goes through almost every Beatles and solo Lennon song, is a concession John granted after blowing Playboy's scoop by giving an interview to Newsweek magazine. We get John's feelings about each of the songs as well as the memories triggered by them, what was going on in that period of his life and how they were written.

Though John continues with the superficial model of 'John songs' and 'Paul songs', we see that the truth is more complicated, they wrote the best of the Beatles 'one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball... both playing into each other's noses'..." Amazon reviewer My Uncle Stu

For more info, see: 

• wikipedia Double Fantasy
• The Double Fantasy mystery video, August
• John Lennon's Newsweek interview, September 
• photographer Annie Leibovitz on the famous and much-loved Rolling Stone  cover shot from December that appeared on the cover of the issue directly after Lennon was shot. Personally, I've always considered it creepy!
• Yoko Ono ordered to pay royalties to Double Fantasy producer, Jack Douglas, April 1984
• fantastic interview with Double Fantasy producer Jack Douglas in 1999 on John, the wrongly vilified Fred Seaman, recording the album, Yoko virtually sayin f*** you about Jack's royalties, Lennon planning to write with McCartney? etc.
• Chris Hunt has hobbled together this article from a number of unacknowledged but well known sources: The Making Of Double Fantasy, 2005. Nevertheless, it's pretty good.
• English (and possibly childishly racist) comedy from Steve Riks about a bogus John living at the Dakota, getting bored with Yoko's cooking

*see tributes for John Lennon, 1940-1980 for the world's reaction to Lennon's shooting