According to May Pang, John Lennon planned to reunite The Beatles

by Matt
We’ve heard grumblings throughout the years that John Lennon had tried to get the Fab Four back together. We’ve heard that Paul had tried to do the same, but for whatever reason(s) it was never to be. Logistics didn’t happen. Phone calls weren’t answered. Other studio times were booked. And even their moods changed about the idea of reuniting as The Beatles.

This is the first first-hand account that I can think of hearing though, that details the plans, and attempts at trying to get the Fab Four back together. It certainly is interesting to hear. As I read May’s account of the attempts to get back together, my heart flutters a bit with anticipation. You know, excitement that secretly the four of them really did get together. I know it is not to be true as history has shown us, but it’s great to let your mind wander and create this alternate history where the Fab Four live on for another day together. This is such a great interview with May Pang, lots of these stories have gone totally unheard before.
By the way, if you haven’t bought May Pang’s new book of Lennon photos, Instamatic Karma, I highly recommed getting it. The photos are so beautiful, and paint such an intimate portrait of John. They are unlike anything I have ever seen.
Here’s what we’ve read.
May Pang’s disclosure rewrites history of the most influential pop music group.
Former John Lennon paramour May Pang revealed that Lennon—the maan who instigated The Beatles’ break-up—actively planned to reunite them in 1974, but that “logistics” got in the way, The Rip Post has learned.
This is the first report ever that Lennon not only wanted to make new Beatles music, but planned to do it.
Pang’s revelation came during a lengthy interview with Casey Piotrowski, host of the nationally syndicated weekly radio program, “The Beatles Show,” in which she said that the ex-Beatle wanted to record one new song with the group as a prelude to a possible formal reunion. “If one (song) comes around and it works, maybe we’ll do another,” Lennon said, according to Pang. “It was to be behind the scenes. A quick one-off, and let’s see from there.”
Piotrowski’s full interview with Pang airs May 3 on WPMD-FM, the Cerritos College station, and later in 23 other markets across the country. (See box below for full list of stations.) In a follow-up interview with The Rip Post, Pang confirmed the reunion story, and added that Lennon considered upstate New York, possibly Syracuse, as site for the new Beatles session. There was no talk of song titles, and the plan never got past the talking stage, but Pang said it was clear that this was something Lennon “absolutely” intended to do.
“John really thought about it at one point, and we were considering it early on in ‘74, just for the hell of it,” said 57-year-old Pang, reached in New York. “Harry Nilsson wanted to be a part of it. We said, oh, that would be a good idea—a one-off, and we would do it in the fall. We were thinking aboutt upstate New York, like Syracuse, because Ringo couldn’t be in New York City. We were in the middle of a lawsuit and he didn’t want to be subpoenaed.”
The astonishing revelation is not in Pang’s new book of snapshots and short reminiscences based on her time with Lennon, “Instamatic Karma” (St. Martin’s), and was not in her first book about Lennon, “Loving John,” published in 1983. She has not mentioned it in other recent interviews.
“It could just be that no one ever asked the question of her before: did John ever speak about reuniting the Beatles?” said radio host Piotrowski. “The remarks (to me) came so naturally and were so unrehearsed that I absolutely believe them. And, if she was just trying to sell the book, she would have put that information in there.”
Asked why the report had not come out before, Pang said she erroneously thought she had included it in her first book, “Loving John.”
“I thought I’d put it in there,” she told The Rip Post. “And then people said to me, ‘I don’t remember reading that!’ . . .But I think a lot of things were cut out. See, I wrote about 600 pages, and my co-author (Henry Edwards) was really the point man they went to. I was a novice, not the seasoned person. If I wanted something in, they didn’t consult me. I may say it, but half the time it didn’t go in. . .So in the end, I did not realize what was in or wasn’t. But that was one of the things that I did talk about. I found my 600 page original manuscript, and I’m considering putting back stories that didn’t make it the first time.”
The disclosure rewrites Beatles history.
The group split up at Lennon’s instigation in a chaos of recriminations between him and McCartney in 1970, following years of increasing disharmony involving the direction of the band’s music, their Apple Corps business, and personal frictions. The pair subsequently engaged in public sniping, and feuded on their solo albums. They traded shots, for instance, with Lennon’s “How Do You Sleep?” on the “Imagine” album (“so Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise. . .”) and McCartney’s “Too Many People” (“you took your lucky break and broke it in two.”) Lennon let loose with a caustic rant in an interview with Jann Wenner that became chapter-and-verse history (the 1971 book, “Lennon Remembers”) rather than the passing outburst it was.
The conventional thinking is that the ex-Beatles never resolved their differences in Lennon’s lifetime, and that McCartney and Lennon in particular were in little more than rare telephonic contact at the time of Lennon’s horrific murder in 1980.
Yet Pang, who spent almost two years with the Lennon in 1974-’75, and remained in contact with him to the end of his life, describes things very differently. McCartney, she said, was a very frequent visitor during her time with Lennon, who was also on good terms with George and Ringo. (A sloppy party jam session from the time with McCartney on drums and Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and others has long been bootlegged.)
“I saw all of them,” she said. “We had three in one room in each instance. In L.A., it was John, Paul, and Ringo, and in New York, it was John, Paul and George. And you would never in a million years think that they had problems.”
She described Lennon as feeling “sentimental” about The Beatles days, during her time with him. He was, she emphasized, at peace with his Beatle past, and the other Beatles.
“I think he was, absolutely. There was no animosity. We spent all this time with Ringo, you know. We went out to L.A., Ringo played on (Nilsson’s) ‘Pussycats,’ John wrote a song for him (“Goodnight Vienna”), and then of course, we were with George in New York, and he said, ‘If you need my help, I’ll come out, I’ll work with you.’ He cared for his brothers. He was okay with all of them, including Paul.”
Lennon’s fond feelings for The Beatles are, in fact, probably hinted at in his song, “#9 Dream,” from the number-one 1974 album that Pang coordinated and did art direction for, “Walls and Bridges.” With lyrics including “So long ago/ was it in a dream/ I thought I could feel music touching my soul,” the song is thought to have been a paean to his days with the band—certainly quitee the flipside of the line, “I don’t believe in Beatles” from “God” on the 1970 “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band” album.
The reunion idea first came up in early 1974 conversation in Los Angeles during the period Lennon dubbed his “Lost Weekend”—the artistically productive 18-month separation from wife Yoko Ono, during which he caroused with friends, recorded “Walls and Bridges,” “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” produced Harry Nilsson’s “Pussycats” album, and performed live with Elton John.
“We had been hanging out with Ringo a lot in L.A.,” said Pang, who was Lennon’s constant companion during the period. “And it just came out of conversation, hanging out: ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great if we did this one gig,’ and they’d start talking about it. ‘Yeah, well, why don’t we do this, and George would do that, and Paul. . .’ So it was just thrown around, and everybody was like, well. . .let’s do that.”
Or, as she told radio host Piotrowski:
“It was early in ‘74 when it was discussed. (Quoting John) ‘Maybe we could do it for Fall of ‘74.’ And Harry Nilsson even said, “Oh, I want to sing”, you know? But, obviously, certain things were not meant to be, as I would say.”
A date for the reunion was never firmed up beyond the fall.
“Well, it was a time frame, not so much a date, but a time frame where they were thinking about it. It was, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to talk to Paul, let’s think about this.’ Of course at that point, in L.A., Mal Evans was there (the Beatles’ longtime, beloved “roadie,” who was killed when he allegedly drunkenly aimed a rifle at Los Angeles Police responding to a call for help from his girlfriend), and Ringo. John always knew that if he really just sort of like focused in, it could probably be done.”
What were the “logistics” that got in the way of what would have been one of the most historic events in music history?
“Everybody had other plans,” said Pang, bringing to mind Lennon’s famous line from his 1980 song, “Beautiful Boy:” “life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
“Yes. Right. Exactly,” she said. “Because nobody took the helm. If you really think about it, everybody had something to do. This would have taken four different heads, four different parties, to make it work. They were no longer under one roof, they were under four different roofs. Everybody had their own manager, or rep, or lawyer, or whatever else you want to call it. . . . It definitely was more about the timing. Everybody was everywhere. George was getting his tour together. Paul was getting ready for whatever he was doing, and Ringo was doing his album.”
“Instamatic Karma” features a collection of snapshots mostly taken by Pang during her time with the ex-Beatle. The photos show a very happy and playful Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo, and various others who comprise a who’s-who of rock ‘n’ roll, but the most historically important shot in the book is one showing John and Paul relaxing together in the back yard of Lennon’s rented Santa Monica beach house in 1974. There are scant other known images of the two ex-bandmates together during the 1970’s.
Source: Rip Rense

Tags: john_lennon, may-pang