Behka’s Breakfast with The Beatles Recap: Week of October 6

Every day I start the morning show with a bang by playing some music from my favorite band, The Beatles.  Earlier this month, it was suggested to me that I do another "theme week", and I chose to start with some solo material by the individual Beatles.

This week was the last in the sequence - my favorite, John Lennon. His 74th birthday was this week (October 9) so it seemed fitting enough.

On Monday, I played "Bless You".

This sweet ballad was on the 1974 album Walls and Bridges. The title of the album refers to the barriers that Lennon had constructed between himself and others and to his hope that those barriers could be surmounted. John said, "Walls keep you in either protectively or otherwise, and bridges get you somewhere else." In June 1973, as Lennon was about to record Mind Games, Ono decided that she and Lennon should separate. Lennon soon moved to California with his and Ono's personal assistant May Pang, after Ono had egged her on, and embarked upon an eighteen-month relationship with Pang he would later refer to as his "Lost Weekend". It was a dark period with lots of debauchery and drinking with the likes of Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, and Micky Dolenz. This song was written about wanting to reunite with Yoko, and wishing her the best at the same time. Walls and Bridges has a variety of musical stylings and many of the lyrics make it clear that Lennon both enjoyed his new-found freedom and also missed Ono.

On Tuesday, I played "Isolation".

This bluesy, gospel tinged song is off the 1970 album Plastic Ono Band, also known as the "Primal Scream album". I personally think it's his best. Following the Beatles' break-up in April 1970, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono undertook primal therapy with the guidance of Arthur Janov for four weeks at his London offices, before the three flew to Los Angeles to continue the therapy for four months. Janov's therapy technique emphasized emotionally reliving repressed childhood traumas rather than analytic discussion. Lennon's therapy was never completed due to the expiry of his US visa. With the experience he received from the therapy, he was able to channel his emotions into an album's worth of self-revelatory material.

On Wednesday, I played "The Luck of the Irish".

This song is off the very politically charged album Sometime in New York City. Released in 1972, it is John Lennon's third post-Beatles solo album, fifth with Yoko Ono, and third with producer Phil Spector. Some Time in New York City fared poorly critically and commercially compared to Lennon's previous two albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. On 12 November, Lennon taped numerous demos of "The Luck of the Irish", which was filmed, and titled Luck of the Irish – A Videotape by John Reilly. It expressed his disdain for how the British government was handling the Ireland/Northern Ireland situation.

On Thursday, I played "Oh My Love".

I know that some of you had been wondering why I hadn't picked anything off of John's most commercially successful album, Imagine. Well, I just had to pick songs that I liked the best, and this one off that album is one of them. "Oh My Love" is a song written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono that appeared on Lennon's Imagine album in 1971. George Harrison contributed guitar on this and several other songs for the album. The song was originally written and demoed in 1968 after sessions for the album The Beatles (aka The White Album). This demo was released on many Beatles bootleg albums. The version in the video is from the accompanying documentary for the Imagine album.

On Friday, I played "Instant Karma!".

"Instant Karma!" was written, recorded and released within a period of ten days, making it one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history. The recording was produced by Phil Spector, marking a comeback for the American producer after his self-imposed retirement in 1966, and leading to him being offered the producer's role on the Beatles' Let It Be album (1970). Recorded at London's Abbey Road Studios, "Instant Karma!" employs Spector's signature Wall of Sound technique and features contributions from George Harrison, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann and Alan White. I really think this single was the apex of what John was trying to do with his political crusades, in particular his advertising campaign of ideas. It crystallizes a positive message into a catchy pop song and got the medicine down with a spoonful of sugar. The video for this song is the performance they mimed to on Top of the Pops, with Yoko sewing with some kind of feminine product on her head. I'm pretty sure it's symbolic.

Well, anyway, next week we'll start over with our Breakfast with Behka and the Beatles - we'll do a week of other bands who have covered famous Beatle songs. Tune in on Monday at 6!

Karmically yours,
Behka