John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky

Seven-eight on end.

Oh, and last night, we had trouble with this one.

'How can I go forward'

'When I don't know which way I'm facing?'

And then the next one goes...

I don't know which way to turn'

And it's a bit longer.

- And then it goes: "Oh, no..." - Do that again.

- What? The "how"? - The "How can /..." first.

How... How can I go forward'

'When I don't know which way I'm facing?'

How can I go forward'

'When I don't know which way to turn?'

I was aware that John was making some records.

I had no idea what he was doing,

whether it was a single, whether it was an album.

We knew he was in his own studio doing some recordings.

He'd finished his new album and he wanted to play it to me

in his bedroom and he couldn't work out...

He had this big hi-fi thing and he couldn't make it work.

It was sort of like... You know?

So he gets out this little record player that everyone had,

a little Dansette record player, put it on and put one side on.

I was there ostensibly to listen to the album,

and I noticed that he kept putting it off.

Did you hear what it says about Self ridges in an American paper?

"John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono,"

were chased through Self ridges,

London's largest department store,

"by a gang of screaming fans."

He said, "Let's go for a walk around the grounds."

We'd go for a walk around the grounds.

He said, "Let's have some iced tea."

By this stage, it's about seven o'clock

and I'm thinking, "I want to hear the album."

And he put on the vinyl.

It was a white-label vinyl,

but no track listings or anything on it.

And he said, "Look, I can't bear to listen to it any more."

I've recorded it. I've mixed it. I've heard it up and down.

I don't know whether it's any good or not,

so I'd like you to have a listen

"and come back outside and tell me what you think."

So no pressure, you know?

'No short-haired'

"Yellow-bellied son of Tricky Dicky's'"

"Gonna mother hubbard soft-soap me'"

'With just a pocketful of hope!'

I'm thinking...

Money for dope!'

this is just a rant, you know.

He said, "What do you think?" I said, "Yeah, very nice, yeah.

Yeah. What's on the other side?"

And he said, "Turn it over," and he played 'Imagine'.

OK?

Shall I go?

The first time I heard the album in the studio,

the first song I heard was 'Imagine'.

And I just listened to it,

and this was before the strings were put on it.

And I put the needle on and out comes 'Imagine'.

But, of course, it didn't have...

There was no song title.

I didn't know what this was about.

And I thought, "Hm, not bad, not bad."

Within about 30 seconds, I thought, "This is it."”

I said, "Surely that should be the A-side."

And he very coolly said,

"Yoko, Ray thinks 'Imagine' should be the A-side."

She said, "Oh, I like that one, too."

And he's like, "Well, what do you think? Is it any good?"

I'll never forget, he said, "Is it any good?"

I said to John, "It's a number one record, John."

He said, "Are you sure? Are you really sure?"

I said, "I really like that song,

'Imagine All The People', whatever it's called."

Cos it didn't have a title. He said,

"Yeah, I think that's gonna be... It's called 'Imagine'.

I think it's gonna be the title of the album."

I said, "I think people are gonna be still listening to it"

in ten years' time."

He said, "Oh, fuck off, it's just a rock album."

So, which way should we go?

You're just gonna follow us now, then?

Yeah, we'll follow you.

I'm going over to look at the, er...

The swans.

The swans and whatever they are, geese.

Oh, they've come back, have they?

- They're coming now. - I'm going round once!

- Dad? - I'm trying to get round here.

- Dad? - Yes?

- Can I get off? - Yeah, do you want to...?

Do you want to get off on the island?

They wanted to be away from London,

away from the office and all the people there.

If you wanted to talk to him, you had to come out.

When they came down from the Apple offices,

they shut themselves off from that.

And I remember them sending a memo, saying,

"We are now operating from"

Tittenhurst Park as Bag Productions.”

They didn't want any direct contact

with the Apple offices any more.

When you went to Tittenhurst, it was this white place.

This huge, huge garden.

I mean, acres of wonderful trees and things.

And they had donkeys. They had a lake put in, with...

All the fish died, unfortunately,

but it was a good idea.

It was this huge place.

I remember it fondly, because...

Dad and Yoko would do their own thing

and I would sort of run around.

I think it was 99 acres, Tittenhurst.

I mean, that's an insane amount of land for...

You know, a child can get lost in those woods!

The first time we met with the gardener, Frank,

he was a proper old English gentleman with, you know,

a tweed coat and little hat, you know,

and he's standing there in his wellingtons

to meet them for the first time,

and Yoko said, "We want only black or white flowers."

And he said, "Pardon?" "Only black or white flowers."

He said, "Well, I can certainly do white, but I'm not sure..."

"I'm sure there's some tulips that are black," Yoko said.

Black and white flowers!

We ended up with different colours.

John and Yoko spent a lot of time

in their suite upstairs, which was huge.

It was an enormous bedroom

with dressing rooms off it, and they had this balcony outside

and they spent most of their time up there.

They would be reading letters and things like that.

They always had plenty of books and things around.

They'd be listening to music.

I think they had all the music papers,

so they would go through those.

They liked to kind of know what was going on.

He liked to sit in bed, playing his guitar, smoking dope

and watching television.

First of all, he didn't like getting up and going anywhere

unless he really had a reason to do it, you know,

because, remember, the world is coming in all the time at you,

you know, if you're John.

You have to imagine, this is a man who...

He never sees another human face

that's not going, like, "What can I do for you?"

That means that nobody's ever going to tell you the truth.

You'll never get any,

or very rarely, get useful feedback that's, the real thing.

And he needed a refuge from that.

Those are the moments that we, you know,

enjoyed each others company

without thinking about it foo much.

I think if either of us thought about things too much, it was,

you know, the anxiety or other elements would come into play.

- OK! - Next tune.

Next.

What shall we do?

They were heavily into recording 'Imagine'

at that time.

That's why I had a lot of time on my own.

Because as a kid, also, I think the studio scenario

was exciting for a minute, but then, you know,

"You're playing that song how many times?"

Let me sit there. Where's my...

John wanted his own studio.

If I'd looked back at the period,

it was probably that John wanted

to get out of town, he wanted the release,

somewhere that he could work peacefully and relax.

After some discussion,

John decided that the annexe would be the best place

for the studio because it was close to the kitchen,

for all the usual teas and snacks and stuff,

and sufficiently away from the house

that it didn't impact on the domestic scene.

He was very impatient,

cos it takes time to build these things.

All those connections have to be soldered.

You have to test things, "Maybe we should change the carpet?"

You know, you go through this process of...

It's like tuning an instrument, making a good studio.

John was then anxious to start recording,

so I did use John's enthusiasm to get into the studio,

and say, "Well, if you'd like to go in the studio"

and play the piano or practise,

I'd love to have some sound coming in

"to see if it all works."

So we actually used John

as part of the work to set the studio up.

John was the guinea pig, that's right.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen.

This evening we have the Plastic Ono Band,

who's gonna play for you a little rock and roll.

Where's Phillip?

We don't know.

Let's see how George does.

So I'm staying with Eric and, um...