John and Yoko go on tour in 1981. What's their setlist?

This was the final Billboard singles chart published before Lennon's death. Starting Over is #3 and rising (note the star):

The single had done nothing but climb upward in its 8 weeks on the chart. So it's not a legitimate hit?


This is the final Billboard albums chart published before Lennon's death. Double Fantasy is at #11 and rising (note the star):

This is only the THIRD WEEK on the chart for the album. It, too, had done nothing but go up each week. So it wasn't successful?

 

They divorce right before the tour starts.

 

You've just photoshopped this haven't you. It's not really true is it. It's all lies

 

Thanks! This is interesting. And there's little denying that the artists ahead of John at this time were heavy hitters of the moment or happened to have all-out classics of their genre out at that time. Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits...good luck competing with that. And the Eagles and Queen were at the height of their popularity and name recognition in 1980.

 

I know I rushed out to buy the album before he died. I was 16 years old.

 

Your statement is worded a bit funny. It sounds like you knew that John was going to die, so you then rushed out to get it before he actually did.

But I know that you didn't mean it like that.

 

CORRECTION:
I hate to make mistakes, but when I do, I want to acknowledge them.

The NEWS of Lennon's death WAS posted in the 12/20/1980 Billboard issue, so technically the charts below were the first after Lennon's murder. However, if we backtrack one week, my point remains the same: both single and album were doing very well, with the single at #4 and the album rising from #25 to #12 in only its second week.

To imply they weren't successful in the US doesn't correspond with the chart facts. It may very well be true for other countries, and it's certainly true that Lennon's murder catapulted the album to much greater success than it likely would have had.

Imagine and Instant Karma peaked at #3 on Billboard. Starting Over was #4 with a star at the time of his death. Even if he wouldn't have died and the single would've stalled there, it would be seen as one of his biggest-ever singles in the states...

 

Lennon touring in 1981 would have sold out any venue people were playing. He was a living legend, and hadn’t toured since 1966. It would have been a huge event.

 

If he did decide to tour (a big IF) I think it might have been a disaster. Besides giving time to Yoko, I don't think he could've physically handled the stadium-tour experience. Most of his live performances from the 70's sound like ****. His voice while poignant and moving wasn't strong. I think McCartney intimidated the hell out of Lennon and Harrison when it came to live performing, and I think for that reason alone there would have never been a reunion TOUR. Maybe an album. Whatever many might think of McCartney's post-Beatles work he was a rock star in 1980. Lennon and Harrison were old men.

 

Oh my goodness....

 

Rather than a tour, more likely John & Yoko would have top-lined one-time all-star Double Fantasy show in New York in 1981, a big concert not unlike "One-To-One" or "Bangladesh", playing a set of their own, but having Ringo, Cheap Trick and Bowie on the bill as well. Or something.

 

“We’re going start with an oldie that some of you might just remember”.
John’s songs:
A Hard Day’s Night
She Loves You
Just Like Starting Over
Come Together
Help (ballad version)
Instant Karma
Day Tripper
Beautiful Boy
Remember
What You Got
Rain
Mind Games
Strawberry Fields forever
Lucy In The Sky with Diamonds
I’m Losing You
Jealous Guy
Working Class Hero
Whatever Gets You Through The Night
Stand By Me
Isolation
Hey Jude (for Paul)
I Want You (She’s So Heavy)

Encore
I’m Stepping Out
Grow Old With Me
Be Bop A Lula


I’m open to what Yoko plays but I really would need to hear these tracks.

 

You forgot 'We Can Work It Out' with Yoko singing Paul's part. "try to see it my way..."

 

What I remember from that time is that there was a lot of interest and radio play of "Starting over". Just before his death there was some grumbling about Yoko's slice of the album, it's true, but John's work was good and well received. There were differences of opinion on the Yoko part although there was some commenting that Yoko's stuff wasn't that bad. Anybody saying John's singles were not popular before his death were not in my part of the country (SoCal) or are just plain misremembering. It's revisionist BS if you ask me. It's the most consistent, commercial thing he has released in a long time (if not ever) IMO , which just adds more layers to the tragedy.

 

They weren’t old men at all. I think you’re confusing an aversion to touring and showmanship with physical decrepitude. Really, the way some people talk about Lennon here you’d think he was some kind of crumbling Mr Burns/Howard Hughes figure, not someone who never made it to 41.

And, though we know Harrison would never be particularly keen on touring for the remainder of his life, I think it’s much harder to predict how the more mercurial John would have gone. In the early days of The Beatles, he was just as much of a performer as Paul and I can totally see an 80s John rediscovering his mojo for putting on a show and belting in it out. Or not. But we’ll never know. Let’s not forget that Paul himself did barely any live work between 1980 and 1989.

 

Paul also didn't tour 1994 - 2001 I believe. That was the "back" part of the "Back in the US/World" tours of 2002. Compared to the 80s and 90s, Paul tours a lot these days.

 

On a lighter note, when ‘Flowers In The Dirt’ hit the UK top spot in 1989, that was more a case of ‘Number 1 with a Mullet’.

 

I was at the LA show for John's 81 tour. At the the part where he was getting situated at the piano for Imagine and doing that banter about how hard it was to chart singles nowadays, I yelled out "do Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime". Man, you should've seen the glare.

 

But there were a couple of more than legitimate reasons for that - being busted and jailed in Japan with fears that the government might choose to make an example of him and make him do hard time rather than just deporting him a couple weeks later, plus of course fears for his safety after John's assassination.

Him choosing not to tour in the 80s was hardly surprising or difficult to understand. Had neither of those things happened (especially Lennon's death) he probably would have hit the road with Wings in 1984 rather than making 'Give My Regards To Broadstreet'.

I wonder what the set list would have been

 

I'd consider #11 an incredible success for a half album sold at full album price (and it was still on the rise - #12 the previous week). Plus its not like today where an album peaks early (sometimes even debuting at #1). Back then most albums didn't hit their peak position on the charts until it had a few hit singles already released from it to spur album sales.

Plus its not like the single had started falling down the charts before his death - it had steadily climbed every week to that point. Why are you assuming it would have suddenly dropped out of the top 5 if he hadn't died? If you're in the Top 5 of the singles chart after rising every week there's no reason to assume a sudden drop - the assumption would be that it would continue to rise higher (or perhaps at least stay at the same position the following week before then dropping after that).

It was hardly likely to drop out of the top 5 the following week had he lived (let alone out of the top 10, or the top 40). Even if it had done, how is Top 5 not an impressive enough showing on the singles chart, let alone some indication of a failure?

Plus as far as singles go, the one song on the album with "hit single" written all over it was 'Woman' - that song definitely didn't need to be boosted by his death to become a hit. The song was commercial enough that anyone could have had a hit with it.

 

I just can't imagine John Lennon in 80's. His best songs from the last period went on Double Fantasy, and all the rest material (Milk And Honey songs and 1980 home demos) sounds not that impressive.

Even if he and Yoko took some risques and returned to stage performances, I doubt their success would last more than a week or two. That would be rather suicidal for them to go on tour those days.

90's would look more optimistic.

 

Someone's never heard Rock Lobster by the B-52s, for one.

 

Well you're just wrong and don't know what you're talking about.

 

He sure does. I figured the absence was related to Linda's health and grieving after she passed away. Likewise I wonder if the recent touring is because he's recouping money he lost in his divorce settlement with Heather Mills.

 

I think Stand By Me would have definitely been in the set. He was rehearsing Beatles songs so I think a couple of early ones - Help and I Want To Hold Your Hand, say - and a couple of later ones - Come Together and Don't Let Me Down, perhaps - would have been included. Mostly, the rest would have been the Double Fantasy material with his bigger solo songs, I think. Probably he would have thrown in an old rocker or two from the Beatles days - perhaps even something they used to do in Hamburg. I don't see how he could have resisted. He was incredibly nostalgic by all accounts.