An accidental performance to a crowd of 100,000 people left John Lennon feeling better than ever, the songwriter said.
Lennon would be invited to the Toronto show, which would end up featuring fellow rock and roll legend Eric Clapton, merely to observe the performances. But Lennon didn’t hear that part and promptly told organisers he’d piece together a band and begin rehearsals for the show. The last-minute assembly of musicians, including Clapton, left very little time to prepare, but it appears the performance was a real thrill for Lennon. The Beatles member would rarely perform live shows, though he did provide fans with a few fantastic showcases of his on-stage abilities. Speaking about his return to the stage in an interview used for Anthology, Lennon would say the thrill of being back, performing to a live audience, was like nothing else.
He said: “We got this call on a Friday that there was a rock ‘n’ roll revival show in Toronto with a 100,000 audience, or whatever it was. They were inviting us as king and queen to preside over it, not play. But I didn’t hear that bit. I said, ‘Just give me time to get a band together,’ and we went the next morning.”
The Imagine hitmaker continued, saying a particular highlight of the show was when he and the collection of musicians performed Cold Turkey. He added: “The buzz was incredible. I never felt so good in my life. Everybody was with us and leaping up and down doing the peace sign because they knew most of the numbers anyway, and we did a number called Cold Turkey we’d never done before and they dug it like mad.”
Clapton would go on to perform with Lennon at the show, and says the experience was quite a rush. He confirmed Lennon called him and offered him a spot on the show, but he had just an hour to get ready. Clapton said he received “a phone call on the day we were to leave and he said that someone had asked him to do that concert and it was that night! So I had to make the airport in an hour.”
Lennon would not perform often on stage, but did keep up with what was being released. In 1968, he said: “What we’re trying to do is rock ‘n roll, ‘with less of your philosorock,’ is what we’re saying to ourselves. And get on with rocking because rockers is what we really are. It’s just natural. Everybody says we must do this and that, but our thing is just rocking. You know, the usual gig. That’s what this new record is about. Definitely rocking.”
But just three years later and his attitude to the genre had changed. He told Wenner he only listened to rock music when he needed to check what else was releasing at the time. Lennon said: “Only when I’m recording or about to bring something out I will listen [to the Top 10].
“Just before I record, I go buy a few albums to see what people are doing. Whether they have improved any, or whether anything happened. And nothing’s really happened. There’s a lot of great guitarists and musicians around, but nothing’s happening, you know.”
Lennon would then deride groups like Blood, Sweat & Tears, calling them “shit” before ripping into the genre as a whole. He said: “Rock ‘n’ roll is going like jazz, as far as I can see, and the bullsh*tters are going off into that excellentness which I never believed in.”
