Has the bottom of the Lennon recording barrel been scraped?

It looks like it.

Tapes of Lennon and Stepdaughter to Be Auctioned

By Judith Crosson
Reuters

DENVER - He was one of the biggest rock stars in the world and she was just a little 5-year-old girl as they sat on the floor in 1969, singing and telling stories with a tape recorder running.

Sounds like just a normal family activity, except the man was Beatle John Lennon and the little girl was the stepdaughter he barely knew, Kyoko Cox.

In 1969 fans worried the Beatles would break up. But instead of attending the last Beatles recording session, Lennon was in Denmark with his second wife Yoko Ono.

They were there to visit Ono's ex-husband Tony Cox, an avant-garde artist. Cox had introduced Lennon and Ono at one of Ono's art exhibits. "Cox told me that was the worst mistake of his life," Chris Lopez, who now owns the tapes, said.

And he was right. Ono and Lennon fell in love. She divorced Cox and a bitter custody battle for Kyoko followed.

So it must have been with some trepidation that Lennon and Ono showed up unexpectedly at Cox's farm in Denmark.

During the next several weeks, Lennon got to know his stepdaughter and made six audio tapes of conversations between them. Lennon sings and plays the guitar and even refers to Ono as the "queen."

And Cox, knowing those tapes would be of value, kept them until 1995 when he sold them to Lopez who lives in Denver, saying the price should not be disclosed.

"I was selling my mom's car and had an ad in the newspaper," Chris Lopez said, explaining how the two met.

Cox was living in Denver at the time, working on a film project. The two became friends and when Cox, who needed money, asked Lopez if he were interested in buying the tapes, he jumped at the chance.

"I knew it was big," Lopez said.

Six tapes were made and Lopez has sold four of them and is now putting the final two -- that run about 45 minutes in all -- up for sale with MastroNet Inc., which auctions high value collectibles, including the T206 Honus Wagner baseball card for $1.2 million.

He said some of the four tapes he sold fetched six figures but he declined to give exact prices or say what he paid originally for them.

Lopez said he has not listened often to the audio tapes. "There's an eerie feeling -- a voice from the grave," Lopez said. Lennon was shot to death by a deranged fan in New York City in December 1980.

On the tapes Kyoko, now a grown woman who works as a teacher in the Denver area, according to Lopez, tells her own stories.

Cox, who worried about drug use in the Lennon home, fled with the girl. Yoko Ono did not hear from her daughter for 15 years.

"A number of years ago Yoko and her daughter were reunited," Ono's spokesman Elliot Mintz said.

 

There is a video of Lennon, Yoko, and Cox too. They were over in England on vacation or something. That would be cool to see. With all the Lennon bootlegs out there I would say there is plenty of material for more box sets. For all we know, those six tapes may have some cool Lennon demos on them

 

Can never have enough of John...I eat it all up. Bring it on...

 

According to the Beatles Solo Companion book Eight Arms To Hold You, there were 477 master tapes of John Lennon material that were sifted through, during the compiling of the Lennon Anthology.

Should be an abundance material left over.

Mark Lewishon compiled a prototype box set about 10 years ago that made it into the test pressing stage, before the official product was assembled. The gems included were an alternate version of Cold Turkey, The Luck Of The Irish with some bad-mouthing to Rolling Stone magazine and a version of Just Because with a send off to Paul, George and Ringo at the end.

I vote for a Lennon Anthology Volume 2.

 

I have the alternate Cold Turkey on bootleg. Why this was not released is beyond me! Yes, there should be another Lennon rarities set. I'd like to see an official release of the Dakota home demos, personally.

 

I would buy whatever was released. Like the old joke that was popular around the time anthology came out: John's answering machine message with added vocals from Paul and George and some drumming from Ringo.

What exactly do you mean by a send off?

I seem to remember reading on Abbeyrd's Beatles page that Yoko was considering releasing another box set of unreleased stuff. Why was the Lewisohn box canceled? Are there bootleg versions of it available? I was under the impression that of all the tapes that were gone through for the first box set there were still others that were not noe through. I know that somebody has the casssette demos that he did at the Dakota. So there are several cassette tapes floating around plus the producer for Double Fantasy had his hidden tape recorder that recorded everything in the studio. I think he destroyed one of the tapes after John died because of something weird that John said. I dont know what it was that was said as Jack (was that his name) said he would never tell anyone what was said only that it was eerie considering the way he died. I love the box set and disc 4 is my favorite, so I would love to see a box set of just Dakota demos.

Where is the best place to find FAAB and Real Love without all the P, G, and R overdubs?

 

Vigotone's "Free as a Bird: The Dakota Beatle Demos". This also contains the best available version of Grow Old with Me, minus the added echo and the annoying ping-pong fake stereo effect on the beatbox which mars the Milk and Honey version.

 

I would like to hear more Lennon out-take material, so long as it's not a dozen more takes in a row of Steppin' Out.

 

One of my favorite Lennon demos, She's a Friend of Dorthy, is still unreleased. Great song from '76 that sounds pretty finished.

Chris

 

That is an outstanding CD, even right down to the packaging. It's a lot classier (and more interesting) overall than many "official" releases ...

And you're right, "Grow Old With Me" sounds fantastic on there. And there are multiple takes of both "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" (plus the notoriously "buzzy" demo of "Now and Then," another song the Threetles were considering working on at one point).