'Something' and 'Rock Peace' - A single degree of separation?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by lennonology, Oct 10, 2019.

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  1. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    With all of this chat about boardroom tapes, Ginger Baker and if it's Paul or Ringo on the drum stool, here's some informed speculation on a long-debated topic.


    'SOMETHING' AND 'ROCK PEACE' - A SINGLE DEGREE OF SEPARATION ?...

    by Chip Madinger co-author of:

    Eight Arms To Hold You
    (2000) and LENNONOLOGY | Volume One - Strange Days Indeed (2015)

    With the release of the 50th Anniversary Edition of Abbey Road upon us, the deluxe package has been disassembled and many fans have expressed disappointment that the raw take of 'Something', with its extended piano-driven coda, is not included. Aside from being a rather dull listen due to its repetitive nature, could it be possible that one of the Beatles had greater plans for the improvisation and intended to develop it further? Could it have been the genesis of the mysterious missing Plastic Ono Band recording 'Rock Peace'?

    There is little doubt that the basic track of 'Something', Take 36 (May 2nd, 1969 [E91419-8T]), featured George on guitar, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums and John on piano. A careful listen to a rough mix of the work-in-progress reveals that the original piano part is rather rudimentary with stabbed eighth-note piano triads and single descending bass notes to accentuate the turnaround in the song's middle eight—all well within the realm of John's keyboard abilities.

    The 'Something' basic track is followed by a lengthy instrumental "coda" that consists of nothing more than a four-note piano cadence. As Mark Lewisohn wrote in The Beatles: Recording Sessions, the total running time of the track ran 7'48. After allowing for 3'00 of 'Something', this leaves nearly five minutes (4'48) of coda, an excerpt of which may be heard on the widely bootlegged eight-track to eight-track reduction mix, Take 37 (July 11th, 1969 [E92830-8T]), which also features Billy Preston's organ overdub. However, the instrumental portion of the available recording is incomplete and only runs 2'30, leaving another 2'18 locked away on the multi-track tape.

    One listen to this tape of the coda reveals that it is unequivocally the Beatles: Ringo's instantly recognizable rhythm, Paul's hyperactive bass line, John's basic piano backing and George's meandering lead guitar, are all decidedly similar to the improvisations heard on the January 1969 Get Back session tapes. A previously undocumented tape found in the Lennon archive contains the entire 4'48 coda, hived off from its source. The rough mono mix also features an additional Leslie'd lead guitar overdub by George that fills in some of the gaps in the original. The 15 ips reel [BARC 135] is dated May 5th, 1969 and has been catalogued simply as "Miscellaneous Musicians - Instrumental jam - bass, drums, piano, guitar."

    As Lewisohn wrote in Recording Sessions, George and Paul spent the evening (from 7:30 p.m. until 4:00 a.m.) of May 5th in Studio One at Olympic Sound Studios in Barnes, where they worked with engineer Glyn Johns and overdubbed fresh bass and guitar parts onto Take 36 of 'Something'. However, it is also highly likely that John participated in the session or was at least involved in seeing it realized. On the afternoon of May 5th, while in the midst of an interview at Apple with Leroy Aarons of The Washington Post, John was interrupted by a telephone call and offered the terse reply: "I want you to just send a car to E.M.I. to pick up this tape and take it to Olympic," before returning to the conversation without missing a beat.

    it is curious that John would have a copy of just the extended coda in his collection. As the four-note piano cadence guided the jam, it would not be surprising that he saw merit in the performance and considered the improvisation to be his own composition. As many have noted, the instrumental is evocative of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band track 'Remember'. The similarity reemerged in early February 1970 when John was gathering material to be recorded with Phil Spector—sessions that were abandoned when the Lennons began "Primal Scream" therapy in late March. John was even filmed working out the song on both the Tittenhurst Park and Apple pianos by Yoko's ex-husband Tony Cox. At the time, the song's bridge included alternate lyrics ("Across the great water...") and an extended vamp, both of which went unused on the finished recording.

    On February 11th, while refining the song between rehearsal takes of 'Instant Karma!' at the BBC Television Centre studio, where his Top Of The Pops performance was being pre-recorded, John played the exact cadence heard in the 'Something' instrumental. This seems to indicate that it was a lick that John had not yet incorporated into a released composition but was fond enough of to keep in his memory bank of song fragments. In the end, the cadence went unused, but it certainly served as the basis of 'Remember', which was tracked on John's 30th birthday, October 9th, 1970.

    Although Billy Preston's contribution to 'Something' has been attributed to the July 11th session at E.M.I., it would not be beyond belief that it was added during the Olympic Studios overdub session. Billy had been working on tracks for his first Apple LP, and on Monday, May 5th, 1969, he recorded both 'Do What You Want' [E91118/19-8T] and 'That's The Way God Planned It' [E91120/21/22/23-8T] during a George Harrison-produced session at Olympic. Based on a contemporary report in the New Musical Express, Preston was backed this evening by "a supergroup that couldn't be bought for a million pounds." Further research has revealed that the group included not only Harrison but Rolling Stone Keith Richard and Blind Faith's Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker.

    This is relevant due to an aside by Apple promotion executive Tony Bramwell (in the August 1969 issue of The Beatles Monthly Book) who, when referring to forthcoming Apple Records' release schedule, remarked: "We hope to have the new Mary Hopkin single out exactly twelve months after 'Those Were The Days' and we hope everything will be ready on the Beatles' new LP too. We will also have a long and heavy instrumental single from the Plastic Ono Band for the last Friday in August (the 29th). It's called 'Rock Peace' and was recorded immediately after a recent Billy Preston session."

    In addition to the impressive assemblage of musicians on the Preston session, what also makes this line-up particularly interesting is the existence of an Apple/Dratleaf Music co-publishing agreement/performance release. Penned by the evanescent Apple/Northern Songs publishing executive David Platz to impresario Robert Stigwood, the agreement was dated Friday, May 16th, 1969 regarding the single recording, "ROCKPEACE" by the "PLASTIC YONO BAND" (almost certainly a misinterpretation or transcription error), which listed Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker among the five musicians/co-composers on the disc.

    When taken at face value, the existence of two Beatle-related instrumentals, both produced on the same date, in the same studio with overlapping personnel—might suggest that the recordings are one and the same and that this resultant instrumental jam could be the enigmatic 'Rock Peace'. However, despite this circumstantial evidence, when the content and personnel are considered, it seems that the extended coda and its existence in the Lennon tape archive are nothing more than a work-in-progress, a sketch of what would become 'Remember'.

    But what of 'Rock Peace'? Based on Bramwell's description and the verified personnel, it would seem that any improvisation produced by this group would have more in common with the double-time reprise of 'That's The Way God Planned It' than the anemic extended coda from the 'Something' basic track. Preston & Co. filled four reels with takes of the former that evening and I would not find it at all surprising that 'Rock Peace' might still be lurking at the end of one of Preston's session reels.


    These conclusions are based on research conducted for the forthcoming volumes of LENNONOLOGY. The first volume, Strange Days Indeed and the remastered electronic edition of Eight Arms To Hold You are both currently available at www. lennonology.com.


    © 2019 Open Your Books
     
    Last edited: Oct 10, 2019
  2. mikecarrera

    mikecarrera Forum Resident

    Location:
    Duluth
    Wow Chip! Superb information!
     
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  3. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Very interesting.

    Only a master sleuth could figure this one out:

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. thrivingonariff

    thrivingonariff Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    +1
     
  5. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    For anyone who is interested, there's a small Lennon-centric bulletin board at: Login Required | L E N N O N O L O G Y
    You will need a Proboards account to enter, but it's free and relatively painless.
     
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  6. TheLazenby

    TheLazenby Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Pittsburgh
    I thought "Rock Peace" turned out to be one of the 'Apple Jam' tracks (strangely without John)? Almost certain this was proven before.
     
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  7. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    I know that it has been posited before, however, based on studio documents, the Apple Jam tracks were all recorded at E.M.I. in July during the sessions for All Things Must Pass.

    Chip Madinger
    www.lennonology.com
     
  8. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    So I guess John sensed he had something with the chord progression that would later become "Remember." He didn't notate music, so he just kept playing it so he wouldn't forget it.

    Does "Rock Peace" found on the Road Runner boot have any connection to The Beatles or Apple at all? I just listened to it again and I'm not hearing anything that sounds like Preston, Clapton, Richards or Baker--to whom it was credited. Maybe Don Nix? He recorded at Apple.
     
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  9. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    There have been several bootlegs that claim to feature 'Rock Peace', but they only sound to be nondescript instrumentals that bear no resemblance to the Olympic Studios line-up.

    Chip Madinger
    www.lennonology.com
     
  10. Ern

    Ern Senior Member

    Location:
    Portugal
    Wonderful info! Thanks :righton:
    The kind of posts I love!
     
  11. Ken Wood

    Ken Wood Forum Resident

    I have a vague memory from a few years before that a sheet of paper has been found, handwritten by John around 69 in connection with his peace campaign and that it contained the words "rock peace" among other words but it was more a collections of slogans than a song lyric. I know I have mentioned that to you on FB earlier. I kind of start doubting my own memory now and a search on the internet did not bring anything up. Did I dream it?
     
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  12. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    There is a photo of what some have concluded to be the lyrics to "Rock Peace". However, it is clearly a list of bullet points that John wanted to cover during the series of interviews that were taking place at the time.

    Chip Madinger
    www.lennonology.com
     
  13. Ken Wood

    Ken Wood Forum Resident

    Thanks a lot - I started to think I made this up.
     
  14. Calico

    Calico Senior Member

    Location:
    Belgium
    Chip, do you have any info as to the material that John was gathering for potential Spring 1970 sessions with Spector?
     
  15. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    The Spring 1970 demos included: 'Isolation', 'Remember', 'I'm The Greatest', 'Sally And Billy', 'Make Love, Not War', 'Since You Came To Me' (which evolved into 'How Do You Sleep?'), 'Hold On' and 'Oh Yoko!'

    Chip Madinger
    www.lennonology.com
     
  16. Calico

    Calico Senior Member

    Location:
    Belgium
    Fascinating, as always with your fantastic research!
    Thank you very much indeed.
     
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  17. applejam101

    applejam101 Humble Fan

    Location:
    NYC, NY, USA
    Chip
    Is Remember with new lyrics or with original lyrics when it was called Across the Wide Water or something or other?

    Sorry for asking so much.
     
  18. Tootai2

    Tootai2 Forum Resident

    "Registration is disabled on this forum."
     
  19. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    At this stage, the "Across The Great Water" chorus was still a part of the song.

    Chip Madinger
    www.lennonology.com
     
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  20. lennonology

    lennonology Formerly pas10003 Thread Starter

    Location:
    St. Louis, MO
    I closed down the forum some time ago due to lack of traffic. You should still be able to get in and look at the existing threads. If you can't get in, contact me offline and I'll see if we can get you access.

    Chip Madinger
    www.lennonology.com
     
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  21. applejam101

    applejam101 Humble Fan

    Location:
    NYC, NY, USA
    thanks. I don’t know why I keep forgetting the name , jeez.

    Boy, I would love to hear those demos Sean!
     
  22. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    :cool:
     
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  23. Floater

    Floater Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    @lennonology Thank you very much for this thread and the information
     
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