Blogpost #28

Welcome back, Beatle people! We're presenting a month-long celebration of John Lennon's birthday as well as the anniversary of the first Beatles single to be released in Britain.

John Lennon was born October 9, 1940, and so was his son Sean (not a coincidence, as it was later revealed). All month long, we'll be listening to excerpts from his final interview taped hours before his death. The interview was conducted in Lennon's New York office by Dave Sholin of San Francisco's KFRC in the early afternoon of December 8, 1980. Dave and three staffers flew back home that evening with two 90 minute cassettes filled with John and Yoko's revealing commentary; by the time the plane landed, Lennon was dead.

Dave had little time to mourn his passing; he suddenly had to deal with dozens of requests for media interviews as 'the last man to interview John Lennon'. With the help of engineer Ron Hummel and writer Laurie Kaye, the historic interview was expanded into a three-hour radio special titled "John Lennon: The Man, The Memory" that first aired December 14, 1980.

In February of 1984, Silhouette Records compiled a two-LP package titled "Reflections and Poetry" using lengthy excerpts from Dave's special (taped off the air without his permission) with newly added narration from New York radio deejay Bob Miles. It was released in June 1984 in a limited edition of 10,000 copies which sold out within two months. Plans for a repress were foiled by Yoko Ono's attorneys on the grounds that her voice was used without her permission. A British record label simply reedited the material to eliminate any trace of Yoko's voice, and issued it on CD as "The Last Word". Having heard both the CD and vinyl versions of the repackaged interview, I can assure you that the vinyl is definitely more listenable and more complete.

The original two-LP package will be presented in its entirety over the course of four weeks, one side per show. The interview has been restored to its original speed, since Lennon's voice was speeded up on the records. In addition, the vinyl has been cleaned up extensively for broadcast using digital declicking and noise reduction. It actually sounds better than the CD version, which appears to have been mastered from a cassette.

In addition to Lennon's farewell interview, we'll also hear the classic Beatles singles as released in Britain - all 22 of them! This is my way of commemorating the 47th anniversary of the first Beatles single release on October 5, 1962. We started with "Love Me Do" on October 4 and we'll finish up with "Let It Be" on October 26. I hope you'll join us every week as we celebrate Beatle month on A Time To Remember. See you again in November!