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Post by OldFred on Feb 9, 2011 7:29:29 GMT -5
Don't know if this has been posted here before, but found this 1980 John Lennon interview on the Hoffman Board. In part three John talks about Paul's music, remarking how much he likes McCartney's studio version of 'Coming Up' which had been released that year:
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Post by Jason I on Feb 9, 2011 8:00:31 GMT -5
Yeah seen it before. It's good. Just a shame about the star wars sounds
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Post by Joe Karlosi on Feb 9, 2011 8:15:14 GMT -5
Don't know if this has been posted here before, but found this 1980 John Lennon interview on the Hoffman Board. In part three John talks about Paul's music, remarking how much he likes McCartney's studio version of 'Coming Up' which had been released that year: Yup. I saw it ages ago, and I have referenced it many times before. John is asked if he's ever surprised by something Paul's done, and John asks something like, "Can you be surprised by your borhter?". I've always liked that warm sentiment.
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Post by winstonoboogie on Feb 9, 2011 21:14:16 GMT -5
Yeah seen it before. It's good. Just a shame about the star wars sounds Yeah. :-( Too bad they can't edit them out! I can't hear John half the time!
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Post by John S. Damm on Feb 9, 2011 23:12:44 GMT -5
This is fascinating as it is a rare videotaped interview of John from 1980.
Question: 1980 film footage of John is relatively scarce and we've read that John himself had destroyed film footage of him recording parts of Double Fantasy because he thought that he looked anorexic.
Why wasn't John doing the television talk show circuit to promote Double Fantasy? I don't think that he appeared on one single show to promote that album! By Dec. 8th that album had been out for a couple weeks or more and the SO single had been out even longer.
John did several print and radio interviews but as far as I know, no television ones. Has the reason for this strange absence from television ever been explained? I mean it was late 1980, not 1962 when it was rarer for pop stars to get on t.v. Wouldn't it have been nice to have some television interviews of John from November/early December 1980?
And I wonder why no SNL musical appearance the first week of DF's release? That would have been even cooler than interviews.
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Post by Panther on Feb 10, 2011 3:23:36 GMT -5
Why wasn't John doing the television talk show circuit to promote Double Fantasy? I don't think that he appeared on one single show to promote that album! By Dec. 8th that album had been out for a couple weeks or more and the SO single had been out even longer. I guess you know more about this period than I do, but my guess -- judging by things he said at the time and by this very interview, above -- is that he was still tired of the competition-nature of being an ex-Beatle in 1980. He says pretty clearly in the interview here that he long ago gave up trying to be more popular than Paul McCartney, and I think he meant it. But being an ex-Beatle, the gemini side of him also craved mass acceptance, and I think it was John's thing to sort-of put out a record to test the waters and see if people liked it. What I mean is, I don't think he was ever going to pre-plan a huge marketing / public appearances blitz, at least not without knowing if his record was a hit or not. John's ego was fragile, and he hated going public with a stiff record, as he had done at the One-to-One concert. Just that one performance turned him off the Elephant's Memory band and effectively ended his entire career as a live performer.
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Post by Jason I on Feb 10, 2011 7:58:50 GMT -5
This is fascinating as it is a rare videotaped interview of John from 1980. Question: 1980 film footage of John is relatively scarce and we've read that John himself had destroyed film footage of him recording parts of Double Fantasy because he thought that he looked anorexic. Why wasn't John doing the television talk show circuit to promote Double Fantasy? I don't think that he appeared on one single show to promote that album! By Dec. 8th that album had been out for a couple weeks or more and the SO single had been out even longer. John did several print and radio interviews but as far as I know, no television ones. Has the reason for this strange absence from television ever been explained? I mean it was late 1980, not 1962 when it was rarer for pop stars to get on t.v. Wouldn't it have been nice to have some television interviews of John from November/early December 1980? And I wonder why no SNL musical appearance the first week of DF's release? That would have been even cooler than interviews. From what I understand he had a lot of big things planned for the new year. He'd already spoken to all the members of his studio band and sounded them out to be available for a big come back tour, and they were going to finish off tracks for Milk And Honey (which would have undoubtedly included a full orchestral version of 'Grow Old With Me' ) If he was willing to out on a big tour, he may have thought about doing some tv promotion work then?
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Post by OldFred on Feb 10, 2011 8:40:31 GMT -5
Here's a bit of little known trivia: John Lennon was a big fan of the Uncle Floyd Show, a local New Jersey show that also went over the New York airwaves from a UHF station and over cable that was a bizarre and fun parody/tribute to the Kiddie shows of the 1950's and 1960's like Soupy Sales, Chuck McCann and many other local kiddie shows from the period. The Uncle Floyd show garnered a loyal cult following and known and unknown Rock bands and stars made appearances on the show like the Ramones, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, David Johansson and others. John Lennon used to watch the show and loved it's wackiness. When David Bowie was in New York to perform on Broadway in 'The Elephant Man', he used to hang out with John and they'd watch the Uncle Floyd show together. When 'Double Fantasy' came out, there were serious talks of John Lennon making an appearance on the Floyd show and arrangements were being made. Then, December 8th happened. That night the Floyd cast were taping a show when the news broke and there was a local band getting ready to tape their segment and when they heard they all broke out in tears. About a week or so later Floyd presented a fan tribute to John Lennon on his show. In 1981, Floyd and his TV cast were doing a series of sold shows at the famous Bottom Line night club when David Bowie came in and sat at one of the tables. I was there that night and nervously approached Bowie and asked if I could take his picture and he graciously said yes. I told him I saw him in 'The Elephant Man' and how much I enjoyed his performance and he appreciated that. After the show, Bowie went backstage to visit with Floyd and the cast. I learned later that Bowie was a fan of Floyd's through his visits with John Lennon. Bowie later wrote a song in tribute to Uncle Floyd titled 'Slip Away'. My picture of David Bowie at the Uncle Floyd Bottom Line show, 1981. Joey Ramone of the Ramones with his brother at a Bottom Line Uncle Floyd show. d
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Post by mikev on Feb 10, 2011 8:51:38 GMT -5
This is fascinating as it is a rare videotaped interview of John from 1980. Question: 1980 film footage of John is relatively scarce and we've read that John himself had destroyed film footage of him recording parts of Double Fantasy because he thought that he looked anorexic. Why wasn't John doing the television talk show circuit to promote Double Fantasy? I don't think that he appeared on one single show to promote that album! By Dec. 8th that album had been out for a couple weeks or more and the SO single had been out even longer. John did several print and radio interviews but as far as I know, no television ones. Has the reason for this strange absence from television ever been explained? I mean it was late 1980, not 1962 when it was rarer for pop stars to get on t.v. Wouldn't it have been nice to have some television interviews of John from November/early December 1980? And I wonder why no SNL musical appearance the first week of DF's release? That would have been even cooler than interviews. I thought I read somewhere that John and Yoko were in discussions to host SNL in Feb. 1981. This was the beginning of a lame period for SNL so who knows.
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Post by mikev on Feb 10, 2011 8:55:00 GMT -5
Here's a bit of little known trivia: John Lennon was a big fan of the Uncle Floyd Show, a local New Jersey show that also went over the New York airwaves from a UHF station and over cable that was a bizarre and fun parody/tribute to the Kiddie shows of the 1950's and 1960's like Soupy Sales, Chuck McCann and many other local kiddie shows from the period. The Uncle Floyd show garnered a loyal cult following and known and unknown Rock bands and stars made appearances on the show like the Ramones, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, Paul Simon, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, David Johansson and others. John Lennon used to watch the show and loved it's wackiness. When David Bowie was in New York to perform on Broadway in 'The Elephant Man', he used to hang out with John and they'd watch the Uncle Floyd show together. When 'Double Fantasy' came out, there were serious talks of John Lennon making an appearance on the Floyd show and arrangements were being made. Then, December 8th happened. That night the Floyd cast were taping a show when the news broke and there was a local band getting ready to tape their segment and when they heard they all broke out in tears. About a week or so later Floyd presented a fan tribute to John Lennon on his show. In 1981, Floyd and his TV cast were doing a series of sold shows at the famous Bottom Line night club when David Bowie came in and sat at one of the tables. I was there that night and nervously approached Bowie and asked if I could take his picture and he graciously said yes. I told him I saw him in 'The Elephant Man' and how much I enjoyed his performance and he appreciated that. After the show, Bowie went backstage to visit with Floyd and the cast. I learned later that Bowie was a fan of Floyd's through his visits with John Lennon. Bowie later wrote a song in tribute to Uncle Floyd titled 'Slip Away'. My picture of David Bowie at the Uncle Floyd Bottom Line show, 1981. Joey Ramone of the Ramones with his brother at a Bottom Line Uncle Floyd show. d Uncle Floyd also had a significant role in Good Morning Vietnam.
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Post by John S. Damm on Feb 10, 2011 12:24:29 GMT -5
Why wasn't John doing the television talk show circuit to promote Double Fantasy? I don't think that he appeared on one single show to promote that album! By Dec. 8th that album had been out for a couple weeks or more and the SO single had been out even longer. I guess you know more about this period than I do, but my guess -- judging by things he said at the time and by this very interview, above -- is that he was still tired of the competition-nature of being an ex-Beatle in 1980. He says pretty clearly in the interview here that he long ago gave up trying to be more popular than Paul McCartney, and I think he meant it. But being an ex-Beatle, the gemini side of him also craved mass acceptance, and I think it was John's thing to sort-of put out a record to test the waters and see if people liked it. What I mean is, I don't think he was ever going to pre-plan a huge marketing / public appearances blitz, at least not without knowing if his record was a hit or not. John's ego was fragile, and he hated going public with a stiff record, as he had done at the One-to-One concert. Just that one performance turned him off the Elephant's Memory band and effectively ended his entire career as a live performer. Those are good points, panther. Historically John was never afraid to plug albums and he did so with good cheer for Walls And Bridges and even in the famous 1973 filmed interview with Elliot Mintz, John kept dropping the name of Mind Games to Mintz's chagrin as at some point in the outtake footage, he chides John to get serious! ;D But yeah, maybe by 1980 he wanted to let the record sink or swim on its merits but there was a blitz by John of "print" media as the initial Newsweek article was huge and then there was the really big, upcoming Playboy interview and as just released last month in its entirety, John did a Dec. 1980 Rolling Stone interview, bits of which we got post-humusly. John was doing media to plug the album, just not television! I think your guess though is a good one. As Jason notes, we were about to get a whole lot of John and Yoko in 1981 what with a tour that sounds like it would have happened......... mikev notes a possible SNL gig in February and that is consistent with the discussed tour. After I posted the above last night, I read in the recent RS with John on the cover where Yoko wrote that by November-December 1980 they were exhausted because they worked fast and furious on DF to get it out for Christmas. That is Yoko's exact statement. They knew for sales they wanted to hit the holiday market Maybe they were simply resting for the remainder of 1980 and gearing up for a big 1981 push! Still, John and Yoko on Carson or Today or SNL or Friday Night or Good Morning America or what not in November 1980 would be so very treasured by us fans today in light of subsequent events.
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Post by OldFred on Feb 10, 2011 15:08:53 GMT -5
Here's a point I neglected to add to the Uncle Floyd post. I think the reason John was considering making an appearance on the Uncle Floyd show was because it would have been so out there. Everyone was expecting John to make an appearance on one of the Big Three Networks' shows like the 'Tonight Show' or 'Saturday Night Live'. For him to appear on an obscure comedy show that went out over the UHF air waves and could only be clearly seen on cable TV would have greatly appealed to John's wicked sense of humor. Floyd's humor was very close to the Goon Show which Lennon adored and I believe that was part of the reason Floyd's show appealed to John.
{A Side Note: I would post some Uncle Floyd video clips, but Floyd owns all videos of his show and is very protective of his copyrights, so very few examples of his show are up on YouTube, just some non-show clips of Floyd playing the piano and other non-show appearances. I was briefly a cast member of his show and Floyd is adamant that no clips be posted without his approval or permission.}
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Post by Jason I on Feb 10, 2011 15:11:31 GMT -5
I guess you know more about this period than I do, but my guess -- judging by things he said at the time and by this very interview, above -- is that he was still tired of the competition-nature of being an ex-Beatle in 1980. He says pretty clearly in the interview here that he long ago gave up trying to be more popular than Paul McCartney, and I think he meant it. But being an ex-Beatle, the gemini side of him also craved mass acceptance, and I think it was John's thing to sort-of put out a record to test the waters and see if people liked it. What I mean is, I don't think he was ever going to pre-plan a huge marketing / public appearances blitz, at least not without knowing if his record was a hit or not. John's ego was fragile, and he hated going public with a stiff record, as he had done at the One-to-One concert. Just that one performance turned him off the Elephant's Memory band and effectively ended his entire career as a live performer. Those are good points, panther. Historically John was never afraid to plug albums and he did so with good cheer for Walls And Bridges and even in the famous 1973 filmed interview with Elliot Mintz, John kept dropping the name of Mind Games to Mintz's chagrin as at some point in the outtake footage, he chides John to get serious! ;D But yeah, maybe by 1980 he wanted to let the record sink or swim on its merits but there was a blitz by John of "print" media as the initial Newsweek article was huge and then there was the really big, upcoming Playboy interview and as just released last month in its entirety, John did a Dec. 1980 Rolling Stone interview, bits of which we got post-humusly. John was doing media to plug the album, just not television! I think your guess though is a good one. As Jason notes, we were about to get a whole lot of John and Yoko in 1981 what with a tour that sounds like it would have happened......... mikev notes a possible SNL gig in February and that is consistent with the discussed tour. After I posted the above last night, I read in the recent RS with John on the cover where Yoko wrote that by November-December 1980 they were exhausted because they worked fast and furious on DF to get it out for Christmas. That is Yoko's exact statement. They knew for sales they wanted to hit the holiday market Maybe they were simply resting for the remainder of 1980 and gearing up for a big 1981 push! Still, John and Yoko on Carson or Today or SNL or Friday Night or Good Morning America or what not in November 1980 would be so very treasured by us fans today in light of subsequent events. It really is all so tragic and it makes me mad just thinking about it now. Those 5 years out of showbiz I think had done John the world of good, he sounded absolutely rejuvenated in those radio interviews and he really came across as a very wise man who knew the score with media, and was at peace with himself and what he wanted in life and in music. 1981 would have been a magical year for John, he had a ton of new songs in the works, and what with his world tour with his great new band and his fully realised 'Grow Old With Me' (he wanted to see it become a wedding standard).. it's just a desperate shame that the world missed out on it all.
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Post by vectisfabber on Feb 10, 2011 20:28:56 GMT -5
There was the Andy Peebles interview for the Beeb, too.
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