A Cuba Story 4: Tropicana Floor Show!

Read the Complete Story @ On The Road in Cuba!

March 1996!

[Continued] Then, a pale spotlight on centre stage:

"BABALU!!! BABALUAAA!!!", a skinny Ricky Ricardo look a like, a forgotten out take from the "I Love Lucy" show, breathlessly pounds away on his conga drum. The Tropicana Orchestra joins in. Dancers in swirling skirts, hips swaying round and round delicately balance fake fruit baskets on their heads. Everyone is looking pretty tattered and frayed but that hardly matters tonight! The show has begun; the spectacular extreme!

Striking a match, I light up a fine Cuban cigar I've been specially saving with the other hombres. A fine, thoughtful plume of smoke. The fragrance tickles my senses. You know, the whole trip is worth it if only for this one night alone! Whatever else the Cubans might lack they enjoy a rich sense of music and culture without compare. 

I can't pronounce let alone name the rich smorgasbord of songs and dance that we are treated to tonight! The rich array of horns, percussion and rhythm instruments. The stand up bass. Tres guitars. We are treated to Son-Montuno. Changui. Guaracha. Mambo. Bolero. Merengue. Yoruba. Afro-Cubano. Every strain and combination of Cuban musical styles there within! The list goes on and on. Absolutely fabuloso!!!

Suddenly, the Tropicana falls silent. A nervous Cuban Frank Sinatra gingerly steps into the limelight. In broken English he bravely attempts to croon "My Way" to the hushed audience. The orchestra awkwardly struggles to back up his foreign Broadway tune. Little of this would've been tolerated a little over a year or so ago. All eyes are upon us as they finish the song. A stunned silence. I politely clap. Whistle enthusiastically. Stomp my feet. Everyone seems pleased and gives him a huge round of applause!

And now, the act they've been waiting for all these years: It's the Cuban Beatles!!! With guitar strings made from stripped electrical wire. A battered old out of tune keyboard. Drum skins that have definitely seen better days. But nothing's going to keep them from their moment in the spotlight in this really big show!

Oh no!! Not Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da!!! Too bad I screwed up the ghettoblaster and we couldn't do our teaching thing! But the Cubans love it. Totally gobble it up. Then a few more songs. The Cuban Beatles throw in a McCartney number "Hope of Deliverance". Sadly fitting and all things considered quite sweet. And then OH NO! 

"Come up! Come up! On stage!", There's excited whispers and shouts. They know I'm fluent in English! Arghhh!

Well, you know we do what we have to do to fight the good fight. The Cuban Beatles break out into a rousing rendition of "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (Lennon not Lenin...). I try to help them along. I swear to god this is the only place in the world where ANYBODY will ever clap and cheer while I sing Beatle songs on stage or anywhere else. For an encore I show them them how to do the twist while the band bashes away at "Twist and Shout". I'm even really getting into it now. Ha. In Cuba nobody really cares as long as you catch the spirit which is about all they're going to get from me tonight!

Okay folks, that's about it! But no, no! "Speech! Speech!"

The Cubans love speeches. Long, long speeches like Fidel gives on t.v. at night. Truth be told I'd make a pretty lousy Spanish Communisto. Instead we indulge in a little patriotic good cheer. Always a safe bet. 

"VIVA CUBA! VIVA CANADA!", I cry out, pumping my fist in the air.

A sea of hands and fists wave in unison held high under the full Habana moon. Pretty crazy! Indeed they go nuts! Cuba's like that. It's truly an enigma. You've just got to love Cuba for being itself. Maybe it truly is impossible to figure it out. You've just got to experience it with your heart.

To be continued .....

RELATED READING: 

Traditional Cuban song + dance @ Santiago de Cuba Diary 4

Afrocuban culture, song + dance @ Santiago de Cuba Diary 5

Habana Diary: Club Rio [1997]

Habana 1997

Stepping out into the warm Habana night. A blast of hot air. The hellish heat. The pleading horns. A pounding, frantic salsa beat. The beat of life. Of Cuba and the night. Pouring out the beaten black doors of Club Rio. echoing down the dark quiet streets, off the dilapidated sun baked apartment ruins.

We slip the doorman a crumpled dirty ten dollar bill. American dollars. No pesos here. Not anymore. A giant hulking black man in his tired tux. He swings open the door.

Eee-yah! Eee-yah! Hands clapping to the beat. Mati tosses back a wisp of golden hair. A raging beauty. A Cubana Marilyn Monroe. Or is it Madonna tonight? Crazy spandex pop dreams. Bare midriff. Mesh top. Dun beat.

Flicks her lipstick stained cigarette to the floor, crushes it with stiletto heel. Grabs my hand. Flashes a girlish smile. Everything lost, all the impossible problems y cares to the swirling salsa beat.

A hopeless puff of air conditioned relief. Lost among the sweaty clammy bodies. Thick smoke. Wild flashing lights. Tugging my hand, we collapse on a worn couch. the cheap vinyl sticking to our skin. In a dark corner. Among the lovers. Fingers entwined. Bodies pressed tight together. Wet stolen kisses. Crazy laughter.

We survey the room. The grimy dated sixties decor. A peeling mural. Typically Cuban; of chicas with big butts. swinging round and round with chicos in tight bulging pants. Eyes wander along the cracked winding bar. More bodies pressed tightly together. Heaving. Swaying. Reaching for a drink.

The bar man pours rum shots. Passes out long necked cervezas gulped back in the heat of the moment. Resting in puddles of water. Ashtrays heaped high. The locals wear their best. Yesterday's hip fashions. Lost in the backwash of Cuba. Of time. The amiga's giggle. Whisper. Throw back their hair. The chicos lean back precariously on their wooden stools. One arm propped up on the bar.

It's a Cuban carnival of life! An old man wanders in looking for a light. Tobacco powder falling out the end of his dried out cigarette. "El Popular". Cigarillo negril. As good as it gets. He sways to the beat. Bumps hips with a girl. Everyone laughs. Somebody passes him a shot. He knocks it back. Licks his lips. Wanders back off into Cuba and the night.

Two police stroll in. Hike up their gun belts. Tip back their caps. Coolly checking out the crowd. Belly up to the bar, they soon are distracted with a drink. The music's cranked up. Trance like. Matching. Surpassing the blasting, pounding, mind numbing beat. Disco. Rap. Latino. Overdrive. Nothing makes any sense. Why should it?

Along the dance floor the jinetera sit. Legs spread. Tits all but spilling out of their skin tight minis. College boys on vacation in loud over sized Hawaiian shirts lean over, cop a feel. Choose a chica for the night. Laughter. Winks. Ven aca, mi amor? Que tal?

The chicas tug their latest hombre out onto the heavy swaying dance floor. Let the guys take them for a spin. The floor's packed tighter and tighter. Impossibly so. With a heavy sigh the music and bodies pump up the salsa beat. More frantic now as the clock above the bar hits three and we move into the homestretch.

The chicas jump up from their couches. Chairs. Mati too. Pelvis' gyrating from somewhere deep inside the pit of their tummy. Gut. Tinny horns blast among the bass beat roar. Mini's sliding up slender legs. Tight asses. Svelte hips. Hands on tummy. Tongues breathlessly between the lips. Bodies sway back and forth. Round and round. To and fro. It's a Cuban ritual: the beat of life. Of Habana, Club Rio and the salsa night.

And then: more disco. Rap. Tired oldies back home. But here? It's new? It's wild! It's international! Forbidden fruit from the world beyond. An impossible dance dream melting into romantic ballads. Lush overtly sentimental strings. Chicas swoon as the chicos hit back the last of their drinks.

Mati grabs my hand. Pulls me out onto the dance floor. Our moist drenched bodies, sweat upon sweat. The swell of her breasts. Hot breathe. Her cheek to mine, I close my eyes. Everything but everything just disappears. The music takes over. We sway in a crazy, timeless embrace.

The lights flicker on. Rubbing our eyes, we spill back out onto the still, silent streets before dawn. Laughing. Strolling hand in hand along the Malecon. The sea wall. The sheer madness of it all. The joy of life. Con mi mujar en Habana y la noche.

Kulture Kult's Koolest Top 10 Khristmas Albums!

Tip: Best time to buy Christmas albums cheap is after Christmas! See below:

Ho ho ho! Fa la la la la, la la la! It's time for the Kulture Kult Ink Kristmas Musik Guide! Don't be a grouch no matter how exasperating Christmas might be. Here's a Christmas Top 10 list of recommended tune-age to help survive if you're up against the wall and about to scream. There's no lumps of coal, except as noted. So say "No!" to bad Christmas music! Grab some grog, put yer feet up by the cyber heath. Enjoy!

#1] Santa's Got Mojo: A Electro-Fi Christmas Blues Celebration. 

This indie CD tops my list because everybody will like it and it will never offend by being boring or bland. Think of it as a great blues rent party. Mel Brown + His Homewreckers' fiery blues guitars smoke the way through the new classic, "Don't Plan No Party This Christmas" [Hear]. Also the old chestnut roasting over an open fire standard, "Winter Wonderland" Jack DeKeyzer's delta steel blues take on "The 12 Days of Christmas" gets real low down [Hear]. The chords will make you shiver. By the "8th day" of Christmas, you n' Jack'll both be feeling like a "Hoochie Coochie Man" [or lady]. Your guests will be gladly hollering for a Christmas pipe, or reaching for a hot Toddie to fortify the old constitution, and blow those old blues away, doggone it! 

Local Electro-Fi Canuckster Andrew Gallaway's roster of award winning Juno blues makers are stellar on tracks by stalwarts Fathead, Morgan David, and Snooker Pryor taking over the blues horns, harmonicas and guitars for a track or two. All this and more! Bottom line? Lots of stale old Christmas hard nuts get a good cracking in what is just one hands down kool album, Christmas style or not. It's just so lively and well done, well heck, folks won't be able to stop tapping their toes whether they like the blues or not. Go for it! Please note: probably easiest and best to buy directly from Andrew on his website @ Electro-Fi

Fallback/ More of the Same? "Santa's Got Mojo 2" on Electro-fi! For a taster try Fathead @ Santa's Drunk!

#2] Jacob Miller + Ray 1: Natty Christmas [1978 Rewind Version] [Hear]

This was a tough call! Recent reissue of these root reggae rockers' rub a dub 1978 Christmas album is easily Santa's Mojo's reggae equal. The pumping bass, chucka chucka reggae guitars, and Irie root's rap will prove an infectious music hit with most everybody whether they listen to reggae or not. All the Kristmas Klassic tunes are instantly recognizable too. Santa's Mojo however lands on top at #1 on my list. Natty Christmas might not exactly be to all ahem, non musical tastes. However, most listeners will probably have no clue whatsoever what Jacob + Ray are singing about in their trez kool island patois anyway. Take your pick.

Natty is "Christmas time in the ghetto"! And "Natty Dread's No A Santa Claus", that's for sure [Hear]. Both Santa and he like a Christmas pipe, or two or three but long hair and beards notwithstanding, truer words were never spoken! One track rolls into another for a good time Natty Santa reggae fest of smokin' Christmas stokers including "All I Want For Christmas [is My Collie Herb]" [Hear]. Jacob Miller + Ray I will "Deck the Halls" [Hear] with, well go figure it out yourself ..... And worry not! Justice prevails! The police arrive to establish law, good order and the American way before the "12 Days of Christmas" are over! It's quite hilarious. All in very good fun. 

Trad version!

Two versions of Natty Christmas are available. You will probably find them on line  if you search hard enough. One has Jacob Miller's face roughly added to a trad print of Jolly Ole St. Nick smoking his pipe. The other has Natty Santa in a ratty, old over sized costume holding open his bag of, ummmmm, gifts! Yeah that's it!!!! 

The first is from an orignal rather rough, noisy vinyl copy. The second "1978 Rewind" version is a remaster/ remix with new rap overdubs included on some tracks by Red Rat and Turbulence. They are quite amusing too, despite or perhaps because of the gangsta act and are sure to impress anybody under ohhhhhhh ....... 30 or......... 40 or ........ 

Hmmmm! I'm not sure if this CD comes with a government warning but let's throw one in just in case! Attention: This disc should only be bought in Canada by Khristmas Karolers who have a bonafide prescription for Mr. Harper's Grinch Brand "Medical Marijuana" O' Cannabinoid's!!! So go put that in your vapour pipe and smoke it, Justin T! Maybe next Christmas eh!?

#3] Ulta Lounge Christmas Cocktails

Shake it up baby! Mambo! Twist! Shout! Big band/ small combo square rock and roll cocktail lounge klassic subtitle says it all: "Hi Fi Holiday Cheer from Santa's Bar". Think 1950's/ 60's prosperity boom! Smart setters! Hi fidelity tastes! Getting plastered at Christmas! Third spot Kulture Kult spot on our koolest khristmas album list is awarded for straight foward Christmas drink appeal while being snappy enough to entertain everybody without becoming a drunken snooze fest.  Mix and stir with a strong dash of "So bad it's good" weirdness and voila! A real Khristmas Kult Klassic!

Compilation features plenty of kissy poo "Christmas Kisses"[Ray Anthony], swarmy " Winter Wonderlands" [Peggy Lee] and cascading Christmas Hollywood Strings [Jingle Bells]. A plethora of top big band music singers, instrumentalists and studio producers abound Christmas slumming it in orchestras and small combos [Dean Martin / Kay Starr]. Can't forget to mention the wurlitzer dude either [Santa's Coming/ White Christmas]!

Rabbits + Bunnies: Hugh Hefner at home in the Khristmas Lounge! 1950?!?

For a post cool take focus on the real men and playboy bunnies lounge headspace and the fascination with normalcy [check "Ring Those Christmas Bells" n/a] throw in a few "race singers" [Lou Rawls / Nat King Cole]. Some "latin sounds" [Rudolph Mambo]. Do I hear a rumble?! Ironically the whole worlds about to explode under foot with a social upheaval/ overhaul few originally sipping back their ultra lounge White Christmas Cocktails would've realized. There's still plenty here to raise an eyebrow or two if you are really listening. However, here's betting most partiers will be oblivious! It all just sounds like too much fun! You know better. Enjoy!

Fallback/ Supplementary: I've had Ultra-lounge Christmas Volumes 1-3 on pretty heavy rotation for many a Christmas now. The first disc is a clear cut winner though there's plenty more where that came from if you are so inclined. Vinyl reissues are also available! That is very authentic! What else? Cocktail dresses, thin black ties, and of course a cocktail/ mocktail shaker!

#4] Bing Crosby "Voice of Christmas: Complete Decca Christmas Songbook"

Der Bingle: Betcha he just met Natty! Ha!

Number 4 is a heaping serving of 100% "White[bread] Christmas" with all the homespun fixings! Big gift pack of the Bingle's best in this hefty 2 cd set is all you will probably ever want or need for the Kulture Kult Khristmas music bar. Less bellicose than Frankie [Sinatra] or Sammy [Davis Jr.]. Straighter than straight compared to old Deano [Martin]! Main "dolls", the Andrew Sisters [Jingle Bells] are featured throughout! Bing's sentimentality is so thick and oddly convincing [Christmas in Killarney] that he could've sold it by the gram bag. Swoon as old Bing croons [White Christmas 1942 + 1945], still in his Christmas toque, scarf and gloves or if indoors, around ye olde Christmas tree with his smoking jacket and pipe. 40's movie style orchestration might garner a few smirks, but it's hard not to get all teary eyed in a good way and boy can he sing!

Tip: Find the record version! You need it!

Throughout his long career der Bingle recorded countless Christmas albums and remakes. All his primo Decca recordings from the 1940's and 50's are here in one place. Lots of boomers will have grown up hearing Bing on the family record console every year for decades. Back in the day, these trax would've been released on 45 singles and short but sweet 20 minute record albums which were more powerful and moving without the danger of Christmas cake overdose we get here. If you see a decent used vinyl copy, or the new reissue, snap it up! Otherwise, sprinkle these tracks liberally in your Kulture Kult Khristmas mix [God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen]. Stir up the cockles of the frozen 21st Century heart for just a bit again over the Christmas season! And score a big one for Bing's beyond the ultra lounge authenticity + pureness of heart! 

#5] Elvis Presley's "Elvis' Christmas Album" [1957] [Hear]

Possibly death was a good career move for the so called "King of Rock and Roll". Even his title should've belonged to Chuck Berry or Carl Perkins, in my books. But our #5 Khristmas album finds Elvis in fine form firing on all his 1950's rocking blues and gospel cylinders in a very powerful vocal tour de force. On bended knee ye King of the entertainers gets down before manger and child. With a sneer makes all the bobby soxxers cream their jean belting out the triumphant Santa Bring My baby Back + Santa Claus is Back in Town.  His million dollar fifties white boy who can sing like a "negro" vocal histrionics get one damn fine work over on White Christmas and the perhaps more apt "Blue Christmas" [N/A] steals the show. Big secret here is that the second side of the disc was actually a remarkable Elvis goes gospel stand alone collection of rock o' the ages trax like Little Town of Bethlehem + It's No Secret. At it's worst "Elvis Christmas" 1957 is a "so bad it's good" klassic. At it's best it's a thoroughly good Elvis album from back in the rock and roll hay-day. Take your pick! Either way: Enjoy!

Buyer Beware: Elvis recorded any number of schlock Christmas albums afterwards for many, many years! Accept no substitutes for this Christmas 57 album! Cover features the Kings faced wrapped up like a Christmas present. Inside the gate fold sleeve were bonus cheesecake photos of our 50's teen dream striking oddly homo-erotic facial expressions for the girls. Go figure. A time piece, not to be missed!

#6] Phil Spector: "A Christmas Gift for You!"

Phil Spector's roster of girlie R+B singers are all here along with his trade mark "wall of sound" guitars, horns, drums, and chorus etc. etc. etc. This sparkly snow tinged trip back to early 60's teenage angst has weathered the decades incredibly well! "I Saw Mama Kissing Santa Claus" [Ronettes] is a sexually charged Christmas vocal orgy that's yet to be topped! Rudolph's Nose is sure getting pretty red [Crystals]. Still, make no mistake "Christmas [Darling Come Hone Soon]" [Darlene Love] is the dangling chestnut that originally scored big as the hit single from this superb, and ever so powerful and smooth Khristmas klassic #6 album. And each teenage opera of the heart despite the blatant innuendo still sounds so darn innocent too! Today you can bet everybody would be singing something outright vulgar and obscene instead. Be sure to add this album to your Khristmas mix!

Versions: The original vinyl album and later CD both feature the very early 60's "Christmas" fan cover. Later 70's + vinyl copies used the Phil dress up cover instead. The latter are the kool collector album should you wish to go vinyl. Spector makes a very scrawny, sorry assed teen Santa idol on the cover indeed, his seemingly reassuring platitudes on the album outro "Silent Night" notwithstanding! Claims to fame? Psssst Phil! It was never you -it was the amazing singers!

#7] Ventures "Christmas With The Ventures" [Hear]

It's 1965 and these all American boys still don't even know the times they are a changin', baby! Textbook Ventures read on a Christmas album lands at #7 on the kool list with a straight up Rock Guitar 101 set. No excess surf feedback. No musical soul whatsoever, rubber or blue. As a sop for the times the note perfect guitar strains of the Beatles "I Feel Fine" wind in to then only promptly segue right back out again [Rudolph]. Bottom line is the Venture's bedrock, very proficient, tried and true versions of all the old Christmas standards like [Santa Claus is Coming] [Sleigh Ride] + [Jingle Bells]. This Christmas is sure to anchor any top Christmas music orgy firmly in the rock and trad departments, no apologies given or sought. Here's to simpler times!

#8] Blue Hawaiians "Christmas on Big Island"

Mix the Ventures with a Hawaiian lounge surf band high on Valium. You get the playfully languid "Christmas on Big Island" album tripping in at #8 on the top 10 Koolest! Hawaiian, pedal steel and surf roots mix, tantalize, bewilder, then morph to do it over and over again. Pleasant Christmas aural wall paper with a hint of you are being played by this crack ace studio band who definately know their stuff, have paid their dues, could do this in their sleep. Regretfully, all audio and video links for the "Big Island" seem currently blocked on Youtube.  [Tut! Tut lads! Very bad for promo/ sales!] Will see if I can add later. A comparison of the Blue Hawaiians take on "White Christmas" and "Blue Christmas" tells all. "Mele Kalikimaka" gets the ultra lounge treatment supreme. "We Four Kings", a surf drum makeover. Lots more!

#9] Johnny Cash "Christmas With Johnny Cash" 

The Man in Black meets Hank Williams at Christmas time. The gravelly prophetic voice of Johnny's hangover regrets contains enough folk wisdom from the bottom of the bottle to continue to add a quirky everyman's take to the old Christmas standards and then some [I'll Be Home For Christmas] + [Christmas As I Knew It].

Versions: Like Elvis, Cash recorded an endless list of Christmas albums over the years. The later Johnny Cash Christmas recordings have fuller voice and arrangements and can get mawkish and overdone. Better this stripped down, early Cash sound like on his final Def American Recordings. For your convenience, I've posted the correct cover art above.

#10] Karajans Mozart Requim [KV 636]

Christmas morning, after the presents and hoopla are over, I like to grab my Christmas coffee for a quiet spiritual Christmas moment. This is the album I play! After that, the Christmas tunes come off heavy rotation [except for the odd party or two or three or .....] and it's back to our regular scheduled musical programming for another year. Thank God! I hope you like this addition at #10 as much as I do. Hope the Kulture Kult Khristmas Top 10 Klassics help get you through Christmas this year too. 

Playlist Notes:

Best bet, in my books, is to rip all your Christmas CD's to Itunes and make a playlist of the best trax. Add to it each year. Numerous collections of everything else, kool and not, will nicely round out your collection. The list above should get you off to a good start!

Add your own favourites below!!!!!

COMMENTS:

John Lennon: Double Fantasy!

Re-edited: Footnotes + Links to come .....

I Remember John Lennon @ Here!

*Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.* [John Lennon/ Beautiful Boy]

What's there not to love about a straight faced Beatle who could claim that God had appeared to him on a flaming pie to tell him the group's name? Or that they were more bigger, though not better, than Jesus Christ? Lot's it seems. Unfortunately, on December 8th 1980 a crazed fan would silence the most outspoken and controversial of the Fab 4 forever. 

All it took was a Charter Arms .38 Special revolver and 4 four hollow-point bullets, in a senseless, unsuspected late night ambush out front of John Lennon's 75th Street Dakota digs across from Central Park, New York. Mark David Chapman was shortly afterwards arrested by police waiting at the murder scene with an autographed copy of "Double Fantasy", Lennon's new comeback album with wife and musical partner Yoko Ono. He was also carrying a copy J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye". He surrendered without a fight claiming he killed a phony who'd sold out his sixties ideals.[1] 

Lennon autographs Chapman's copy of Double fantasy earlier in the day.

Chapman has quite rightfully become a largely forgotten footnote to the baby boomer generation. He ended the life of a great creative artist and spokesman for his times who wasn't afraid to speak out for peace, justice, human rights and social change during the tumultuous 1960's and 70's. Sadly, we will never know with any certainty what the future with John Lennon might've been like in our post 9/11 world.

"Double Fantasy" [Hear] was released just weeks before John Lennon's death. It was his first record of new songs since 1974's chart topping "Wall and Bridges" album. Back then Lennon scored his first solo number 1 US hit with "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" [Video]. He had been rediscovered with 1970 superstar cover versions of his classic Beatle songs by such luminaries as Elton John ["Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"] [Hear] [Live] and David Bowie ["Across the Universe"] [Hear]. He and Bowie had also scored a huge contemporary dance club hit with "Fame" [Hear] [Soul Train Version]

The door to success reopened and then was quickly closed shut by Lennon to the prospect of a second "second coming" since the Beatles breakup in 1970. He decided to call it quits from the music industry after the birth of John + Yoko's son Sean in 1975. Lennon's initial solo fame and fortune had dwindled after the blockbuster 1971 "Imagine" album. From 1973-75 with his marriage also on the rocks, he'd left for an 18 month drug and booze addled "lost weekend" [Link],in Los Angelos with fellow rock and roll partners in crime Harry Nilsson, Phil Spector, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and girlfriend May Pang his new main squeeze, hand picked for him by wife Yoko Ono, after a long string of affairs.

At the Dakota

Fellow Beatlemeister Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" had rocketed him back up into the superstar stratosphere during the disco era. Having finally received his green card to stay in the United States, Lennon instead decided to retire for the next 5 years in seclusion at his Dakota home beside Central Park in New York City. For the first time since the dizzying heights of Beatlemania 1964 John felt free to live a fairly normal life. He'd come and go as he please, greeting his fans, readily signing autographs out front of the Dakota, mostly just living a life of post fame seclusion as a "house husband" relaxing with Yoko at home while raising their son Sean.

In a shrewd business switch, the financially inept John turned control of his tight finances over to Yoko, who soon made a huge fortune in real estate, art, and believe it or not, dairy cattle. [2] John for his part claimed that he'd "hung up his guitar on the wall". He would give up being a rock star to play house husband, fight his demon alcohol and drug addictions while Yoko took care of business. 

Having rediscovered his muse, John would then resurface for another kick at the musical can with his critically praised "Double Fantasy" album in November 1980. With another album in the works, and working demos for at least one or two more albums worth of songs, the future looked bright for John and Yoko, the avatars of our baby boom generation. Indeed a world tour was booked for that spring, his first since 1966!

The autographed album

"Double Fantasy" was organized as a back and forth musical dialogue between John and Yoko squaring off in a song cycle. "[Just Like] Starting Over" [Hear] begins the album with chimes, a comical echo of the funeral bells that had begun the ominous first post Beatle album "John Lennon  + The Plastic Ono Band", his so called "primal scream" record from 10 years before. A rock and rollicking souped up 50's good time number and the first single off the album, the song announced in no uncertain terms that John and Yoko were back in top form again. 

Post Lennon revisionism often suggests that the album was all ready rocketing up the charts to number 1 on December 8th when Lennon's life was so unceremoniously cut short by a hail of bullets. As the first new Lennon album in 5 years it certainly raised a lot of interest. Also a certain degree of critical acclaim. However, the quite incongruent mix of John and Yoko's very different and divergent musical styles certainly left many of his fans scratching their heads. We'll never know if "Double Fantasy" would in fact have been a big chart topper had his sudden and unexpected death not resulted in huge sales of anything and everything by John Lennon. "Double Fantasy", despite a great plethora of great trax, is not an easy listen. 

On one hand, Lennon decided to play it safe with a collection of Beatlesque songs that have since mixed quite well side by side with his earlier work in any number of solo greatest hit packages. "Watching the Wheels" [Hear] is built around the "Three Blind Mouse" chords he claims were the musical base for all his great songs. It's a story of giving up fame and fortune to finally do as he pleased; stay at home with his family, raising his son and baking bread while life went on without him. 

When the Beatles crooned smokey rhythm and blues numbers in the studio, Lennon has claimed that they'd close their eyes and pretend they were Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. "Woman's" [Hear] ringing, jingle jangle guitars smack of the Beatles. The lush vocal and chorus arrangement provide a very Lennonesque ode to womanhood, a textbook case in point.

In "Dear Yoko" [Hear] she's still the key to his rapture. Indeed, "Clean Up Time" [Hear] paints for us a free flowing but musically disciplined image of a tranquil, well centred home life. Everything is now in seemingly in order such that Lennon confidently proclaims; 

The queen is in the counting house/ Counting out the money./ The king is in the kitchen/ Making bread and honey/ No friends and yet no enemies/ Absolutely free/ No rats aboard the magic ship/ Of perfect harmony/ Now it begins -let it begin ....

On the other hand, in "I'm Losing You" [Hear] an angst ridden Lennon, in a tone reminiscent of the Beatles classic "Anna [Go To Him]" [Hear] from "Please Please Me" spits out the words of betrayal, both his and Yoko's, in a jealous rage. His whoops and yelps ride a bloody tidal wave of searing guitar licks. They cascade into a tormented cry of "what the hell am I supposed to do", before sarcastically offering to "put a band aid on it" and "stop the bleeding now". However, he is not singing about his past litany of affairs so much as he is squarely placing the song within the here and now of his supposed domestic bliss with the revealing line;

"I know I hurt you then/ But hell that that was way back when/ ...do you still have to carry the cross?"

We shouldn't be surprised if the Lennon's maritial bliss is not as it might seem. Lennon was very much a nuanced character and a master at myth making. There's also a strong ying and yang contradiction within each image of himself that he created over the course of his artistic career. 

Beautiful Boy: John, Sean + Yoko

Was John really the lovable "I Want to Hold Your Hand" Beatle mop top? The lost rockin' movie superstar Beatle who's "feeling down" and needs "Help"? The misunderstood hippie Beatle who's going to take you on a trip down to "Strawberry Fields", where "nothing is real"?  Or the "Walrus" sprouting profoundly nonsensical verses like "Goo Goob a Joob"? 

Then again maybe he actually was the solo Ex Beatle "Give Peace a Chance" pacifist? The "Power to the People" activist? The abandoned man child in "Mother"? A "Working Class Hero"?  Or maybe after all is said and done, he was just a "Jealous Guy"? 

Within each Lennon myth, there seems to be a multifaceted truth about John as he struggled back and forth between his angel and demon muses, in a never ending battle between the epic forces of good and devil in his own life and that of the world around him. If so, where then does the truth behind John and Yoko's 1980 "Double Fantasy" begin and end?

According to Lennon, "Double Fantasy" was dramatically written and recorded for the first time in acoustic demo form during his creative rebirth while on a getaway to the Bahamas with Sean during winter 1980. Excited, he phoned Yoko to play his new tunes. She was inspired and came up with some too. And so "Double Fantasy" was supposedly born. However, the wealth of home recordings discovered after his death, at first on "lost" bootlegs, then on later official radio and album release, clearly show that most of the songs were works in progress throughout the Dakota years. John claimed he'd lost his muse and hadn't written anything during his house husband years. Though the songs were incomplete, it is here then that slight of hand behind the "Double Fantasy" myth begins.

At home with the Lennon's

It is with 4 bullet shots that our definitive understanding of the dynamics at play in Lennon's life during "Double Fantasy" must invariably end. Of course, afterwards we couldn't ever really know for sure what would've come next. Ironically John's dreamy idyllic song for Sean, "Beautiful Boy [Darling Boy]" [Hear] contains what in retrospect would turn out to be a horrible twist of irony considering his own untimely demise. Promising Sean "the monster's gone/ He's on the run/ And your daddy's here", John notes that he should rest assured that life is "getting better and better" in "every day and everyway". Alas, as he also wisely adds, almost as an afterthought, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" 

It is interesting that Yoko had the most progressive, experimental and underground music offerings on "Double Fantasy". While John might have been content to look back and play Beatle again, Yoko's album tracks provide an 80's stylistic breakthrough for her. Yoko's success would continue for many years to come. By the time "Double Fantasy" was recorded, new wave-sters the B-52's ["Rock Lobster" [Hear], "Love Shack" [Hear] were citing her as a major influence. Later alt rock bands Sonic Youth and Cibo Mati would also consider themselves firmly within her artistic camp. 

Indeed "Kiss Kiss Kiss" [Hear] is a riveting dance floor explosion of discombobulated screaming voices and screeching guitars building up to a crashing musical orgasm. Her musical prance through "Yes I'm Your Angel" [Hear], is pure music hall/ vaudeville. John seems happy to nonchalantly whistle along to the "tra la la's" of her whimsical music daydream. But come midnight will her "prince" turn back into a "frog"? Or dare we venture that he's the "pumpkin" who's been providing carriage for her musical career?. A happier alternative might be that for John and Yoko the notion of a heavenly marriage is a hopeful "Imagine" moment that they will dream and make come true? 

Or maybe not. Yoko is pretty royally p.o'ed. Her rock star of a man with his "window smile" is found very badly lacking in "I'm Moving On" [Hear]. It's a counterpart to John's "I'm Losing You". Among the otherwise seeming domestic bliss of John + Yoko's "Double Fantasy", the song was apparently a leftover from during their 1973 marriage breakup. We might leave it at that, as just a recognition of their earlier falling out . However Yoko expresses her frustration further in "Beautiful Boys" [Hear] evoking images of Sean and John with their "little toys" and "little ploys" who are "afraid to cry". In "Give Me Something' [Hear] it is unclear what she wants from them instead, but it better not be anything more that's "cold" or "hard". 

Both John and Yoko recorded a vocal track for the breathtaking "Every Man has a Woman who Loves Him" [Hear] [Hear]. In John's case he sings about "Every Woman...",and the message is the same. Despite their differences, and as difficult as their relationship can be, both believe in destiny. Each of us has one other person in the world with whom we are meant to be. After all is said and done, John and Yoko are very lucky to have found each other. Finally in "Hard Times Are Over" [Here] Yoko leads us in a gospel sing-along. It's a song of hope seemingly as strong as the rock of the ages on which the song is stylistically based. Speculation about whether this could continue to sustain their double fantasies beyond the 1980 comeback album is pointless. It will now forever be a moot point. 

John and Yoko left the recording studio very happy and excited at 10:50 pm on the night of December 8th. They had the finished tapes for what, as they correctly guessed, would finally be Yoko's big hit. With "Walking on Thin Ice" [Hear] in hand, John quickly jumped out of the limousine on the street and raced to the Dakota door. He planned to quickly drop off the tapes. Check up on 5 year old Sean. Then he and Yoko would celebrate by heading back out for a late night bite to eat. 

The gun

At entrance way outside the Dakota, an exhausted Mark David Chapman was just about ready to give up on his freezing cold New York  "Catcher on the Rye" vigil. He heard the "little people" inside his head tell him to go home. He could return to Hawaii with the autographed "Double Fantasy" album John had signed for him on his way to work earlier that day. Hang it up behind the TV set for everybody to see. Consider the trip an adventure. Just as he was about to leave he caught sight of the car .

"Mr. Lennon?", Chapman called out as John leaped out and raced by. John slowed down to turn around at about 9 or 10 feet away. Chapman, in combat stance shot him from behind; 4 fatal exploding bullets senselessly ripping through his chest and neck.

Arriving quickly and realizing there wasn't much time, the police put John in the back of their cruiser. Heading fast for the emergency room at Roosevelt Hospital a shocked, officer James Moran turned around to ask, "Are you John Lennon?". 

Lennon nodded yes. There was nothing anybody could do. John Lennon choked to death on his own blood alone in the backseat of the car. He was pronounced DOA at 11:15 pm on December 8 1980, a life cut short, his art unfinished.

John Lennon [October 9 1940 -December 8 1980] RIP!

"I may cry some day/ But the tears will dry whichever way/ And when our hearts return to ashes/ It'll be just a story ....."

[Yoko Ono/ Walking On Thin Ice] [Hear]

Footnotes:

[1] Take your pick of Chapman's reasons. On one hand he was mad that Lennon had given everything up to become a rich excluse at the Dakota for the past 5 years. As a born again Christian, he was also angry and fearful of the impact of Lennon's Jesus statements, especially now that the was making a comeback. Essentially Chapman comes across as a disturbing narcissist looking to fix his name to Lennon's star in the extensive interviews quoted in Jack Jone's book [See below]. 

[2] Chapman believed that their wealth meant John Lennon had become a phony and sold out @ Imagine? 

More to come .......

Resources:

Jack Jones. Let Me Take You Down. Toronto: Random House, 1992.

Christopher Lasch. The Culture of Narcissism. New York: Norton + Co. Inc.,1979.

John Robertson. Art + Music of John Lennon. New York: Omnibus Press, 1990.

Lennon's last Rolling Stone interview @ Lennon

"The Man Who Killed John Lennon" [Documentary 1980] @ Here  

"The Day John Lennon Died" [Documentary 1980] @ Here

Kulture kult Ink Bonus ....

Original pre December 8 1980 promo video for "Starting Over". Filmed in Central Park + SoHo @ Here

Yoko Ono video for "Walking On Thin Ice" @ Here

Trez kool alt.take of "I'm Losing You" with Cheap Trick. Original drawings by John @ Video