Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Air That I Breathe

When I wrote about Elton John's cover of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" the other day, I wasn't aware that John Lennon contributed guitar and backing vocals to the record. He did so out here in Colorado, at the Caribou Ranch recording studio, which is at a much higher elevation than Liverpool. Lennon was in Colorado for four days in July of 1974, accompanied by May Pang, the bargain-basement Yoko Ono with whom he spent his infamous Lost Weekend, which was in full swing at that point.

"I was not prepared," Ms. Pang told the Rocky Mountain News. "I don't think John was prepared. In the recording studio I said, 'John, what's this?' He said, 'That's an oxygen tank.' I didn't understand that the air was this crisp and thin that you might need it. When John was recording, every so often they'd take some oxygen, get some breath in."

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I always thought Yoko Ono was the bargain-basement Yoko Ono.

Tom Nawrocki said...

In the Phil Spector bio I'm reading, May Pang is quoted as saying the affair between her and Lennon was originally suggested by -- Yoko Ono!

So whatever Yoko is, May Pang's at least a step below.

Anonymous said...

Yes! She's always maintained that Yoko asked her to do it. (Talk about a control freak.)