I recently listened to the episode of Fabcast titled SUMMER & FALL 1967 - Love And Death In G Major. They get off course and start talking about a tape of a meeting in October 1969, a month after Abbey Road was released. The meeting was super secret with only the 4 of them plus Neil Aspinall who taped it. In this meeting Lennon was in charge and wanted to do another album with 4 songs by each Lennon, McCartney and Harrison but no one else wanted to do it. Where is this tape, is it out there somewhere in/on the innerwebs? Here is the link to the Fabcast episode, I find it fascinating. 005 - SUMMER & FALL 1967 - Love And Death In G Major Start at the 33:30 mark, at 35:00 one of the co-host asks where is this info from, ends at 40:50 I gotta hear this tape!
So Lennon told his band mates in September he wanted to break free and the following month he told them he wanted to make a new album with them? Doesn’t make any sense.
Even if there IS such a tape, the conversation would obviously have taken place before September 20th, the day he dropped the bomb that he was leaving the group.
The people on the Fabcast say it was October a month after Abbey Road was released. Lennon also wanted to do a Christmas single.
So where is the info about this tape coming from, for those of us who cant listen to a podcast at work
The idea that a meeting took place in October 69 with only one Lennon present is in itself difficult to believe, unless the other one was hospitalized at the time. Yoko was hospitalized on Oct 9, but reports are that Lennon stayed by her side the whole time.
It's possible that Lennon had a change of heart after Abbey Road became a huge hit. He might have thought "Hmmm, maybe we can keep this going for a bit longer." before changing his mind again.
I could see him possibly going for that format, would be less fighting if everyone knew how many songs they would get. He did acknowledge in 1 of his later interviews that George was coming up with a lot of material and was becoming an equal. That said, I have my doubts, Paul would have had no reason to get depressed about the Beatles breaking up if John was on board for another LP.
Cold Turkey Maybe I'm Amazed All Things Must Pass Child of Nature Another Day Isnt It a Pity Crippled Inside Teddy Boy Let It Down Suzy Parker I Me Mine Takin a Trip to Carolina Back Seat of My Car
I just listened to the snippet and they never get around to saying where/what/why they heard the tape. As stated by OP, one of the podcast chaos says that it was a private conversation with the four Beatles and Neal. October (maybe said 6th?), Abbey Toad has been released and is #1. They're discussing Abbey Road and Lennon, who is clearly controlling the meeting, refers to Maxwell's Silver and Ob la di Ob la da (topic has been good songs, George's songs etc) and says "these are songs we didn't like. Paul, you didn't even like them." Paul replies: "Well, I liked them at the time." JL: "Those are singles, songs you should have given to Mary." Discussion of singles vs album tracks. Then Lennon, who had been the one saying in September that he wanted a divorce, suggests that they put out an album with 4 songs apiece. Others say "no". Jl: "How about a Christmas single?" Others say "no". And then the podcast jumps back to 1967! The above is paraphrased from my quick listen and quotations are from the podcast guy, not transcripts from the alleged tape. Best thing? Listen for yourself in case I misconstrued or am off base. It's just three or four minutes long.
The tape(s) are in private hands, but I knew a reliable source ( he has since passed away) who heard part of them and it was basically how Zeki recalls it. Lennon wanted to do something and the others rejected the idea.
I was being generous giving him Carolina as having some potential perhaps. Does saying "If I Were Picasso" twice with a bit of a lilt even count as a song? Maybe let him play some boogie woogie piano in C
Thanks for the head's-up, mate. First I'm hearing of it and (assuming the tape actually does exist) is something I have to listen to for myself!
I've seen articles on such a meeting that might have taken place in 1969. It did involve the notion that J, P, and G would contribute 4 songs per album at this point forward, with Ringo adding a song or two, if he wished. It sounded like Paul was the most against this notion in these other articles or books, as opposed to the rest in response to John. That was the extent of any thing that sounds like this meeting tape I have known. The rest is all news to me as well. At the time, I felt, John was not totally for closing the door on the Beatles just yet, despite his leaving overtures, but Paul's lawsuit changed any notion of working as the Beatles again. The meeting may have been mentioned in Nicholas Shaffners book, Beatles Forever. No mention of it being taped.
John floated the idea earlier in 1969 that the songwriters should just be allowed space on an album to do whatever they want, with whoever they want, and still release it as the Beatles. The others said no to that idea, figuring that it was John's way of getting Yoko vocals and noise jams on a Beatles album. If this tape is real, I wonder if he's trying to bring it up again. Sounds kind of like it to me.
I think the Lennon September 1969 quote of "I want a divorce" has been misconstrued over the years. McCartney was talking about getting the band back on the road and the band functioning like the "old days" and being the prime focus of each member's' life. The Lennon "Are you daft?" response was mainly to how Paul was positioning the future of the Beatles. I think Lennon surely had intention of continuing to record LPs and singles with Beatles (as there was a brand-new contract in the works with EMI), but he probably saw the band as now on the same level with all the other activities in his life... He didn't see the Beatles at the top of the pile and all his other works (e.g., peace events, Plastic Ono Band, etc.) as subordinate to the demands of the Beatles. I don't Lennon ever really saw himself as completely dissolving the Beatles -- just it functioning in a very different part of his life going forward. Of course, this is just some conjecture on my part.