Lennon 2 L'ultima intervista
(di un giornalista distratto)

NEW YORK
08.12.2010

I giornalisti sono spesso dei gran casinari. Ma questo Jonathan Cott deve aver diversamente ecceduto se, come racconta nel suo numero di ieri il quindicinale Rolling Stone Usa, ha davvero ritrovato per caso, in fondo a un cassetto che stava mettendo in ordine, l'ultima intervista di John Lennon, perfettamente conservata su nastro. Gli aveva parlato per tre ore il 5 dicembre 1980, tre giorni prima che il santino del rock venisse assassinato per mano del folle Marc Chapman, che ha ora 55 anni e sta marcendo in galera.
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Trent'anni son stati, ieri, da quel giorno. Come sempre ricordato da raduni e cerimonie sparse per il mondo, un po' meno di routine per via dell'anniversario tondo: a Liverpool la prima vedova Lennon, Cynthia, con il loro figlio Julian, ha inaugurato un monumento a John in Chavasse Park, nella città piena di turisti che hanno così finalmente trovato il luogo dove simbolicamente sostare; i Beatlesiani d'Italia capitanati da Rolando Giambelli hanno invece preso male il rinvio del Comune di Milano dell'inaugurazione (prevista ieri) del giardino Lennon in piazza Fontana: giardino che naturalmente esiste a New York dall'81, in Central Park davanti al Dakota Building dove l'assassinio ebbe luogo. Lì si sono riuniti in tanti, ieri, a suonare le canzoni di Lennon e a metter fiori a un mosaico a lui dedicato.
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Il nostro Cott (di nome e di fatto), di quell'intervista all'epoca aveva dato pochi stralci dopo l'assassinio, sempre a Rolling Stone. Ma nel trentesimo anniversario non ha finalmente dormito sugli allori, e ha consegnato al periodico rock il verbo che ora ci riporta Lennon com'era a quarant'anni: le sue parole in qualche modo raccontano che uomo sarebbe stato da lì in poi, se il destino non ci avesse messo la coda.
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Era intanto, John, un uomo consapevole di aver già vissuto a 40 anni la parte magica della sua parabola artistica: perché allora era così, a quell'età non si era (come oggi) promesse ma falliti, se ai 20 non era successo nulla di clamoroso. Si sentiva ormai fuori dal cono di luce, e si capiva che aveva sofferto per questo quando raccontava a Cott: «Dio aiuti Bruce Springsteen (in quella stagione appena scoperto e adorato dal giornalismo musicale, ndr) quando i critici decideranno che non è più un dio... gli gireranno le spalle, e spero che egli sopravviva».
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Già, anche John Lennon ce l'aveva con i critici, i cui strali aveva subito dopo l'abbandono dei Beatles e le scelte personali. Riservava loro le parole più dure dell'intervista: «Questi critici che hanno l'illusione di creare gli artisti, sono come idolatri. Quello che vogliono sono eroi morti, come Sid Vicious o James Dean. Non mi interessa essere un eroe morto, per cui lasciali stare», spiegò con un'espressione che oggi ci farebbe rabbrividire.
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In generale, Cott ha spiegato che Lennon è uscito dal suo ritrovato nastro in gran forma: «Le sue parole mi sono suonate molto gioiose e vibranti, speranzose e sovversive e senza paura. Non ha risparmiato verità». E chissà se Paul McCartney si morsicherà le labbra pensando a quel giorno in cui ha deciso di anteporre il proprio nome a quello di John nella firma delle canzoni, quando leggerà su Rolling Stone gli affetti dell'antico sodale: «Ho scelto di lavorare in futuro con due persone: Paul McCartney e Yoko Ono. Non è male, come futuro».
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Una persona di 40 anni fa, è ovvio, programmi. Dal complesso delle parole del Beatle assassinato, emerge che non sarebbe stato solo di musica il futuro. Rimaneva legato ai temi della pace e dell'amore sulla terra: «Non mi appello alla divinità, né alla purezza dell'anima. Non ho mai sostenuto di avere delle risposte ai temi della vita. Semplicemente, scrivo canzoni e rispondo alle domande il più onestamente possibile. Ma credo ancora nella pace, nell'amore e nella comprensione». Parole che suonano oggi tragicamente passatiste: di sicuro, fosse ancora vivo, Lennon avrebbe aderito a tutti i movimenti pacifisti formatisi man mano che il mondo riprendeva fuoco. Sarebbe rimasto un attivista.
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Ancora sorpreso della tenuta delle 3 ore di registrazione del nastro, il fortunatissimo Cott ha ancora commentato: «Penso che quella conversazione sia stata una vera meditazione della mezza età». L'occasione dell'intervista, era stata peraltro la promozione dell'album «Double Fantasy» con Yoko Ono, uscito in nuova edizione per il trentennale. La vedova ringrazia («Impariamo ancora tanto da lui, oggi. John, I Love You»).
www.lastampa.it/

John Lennon:

the last day in the life

On Wednesday it will be 30 years since John Lennon's murder, an event seared upon the memory of a generation. Now, in a new documentary, fans, police officers and doctors recall the day their lives were intertwined with history

Vanessa Thorpe
05.12.2010
Foto - John Lennon signs an autograph for his killer Mark Chapman hours before the murder on 8 December 1980. Photograph: Paul Garesh/UPI

The flash-lit picture, snapped 30 years ago on a Manhattan street, froze a notoriously sinister moment. Amateur photographer and Beatles fan Paul Goresh had captured the first encounter between John Lennon and the killer who would, a few hours later, end the star's life. Goresh could not guess the significance of the scene when his camera shutter flickered, still less could he have predicted the impact it was to have on his life.
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That night the news of the murder of Lennon seemed to stop time, as a photograph does, right across the globe. When reporters and broadcasters broke the story to an astonished international audience, normal daily routines were suspended. Only news events with the power to truly shock have this effect.
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Wednesday will see the anniversary of the killing that ended Lennon's iconoclastic career and terminated all forlorn hopes of a reunion for the most successful pop band in history. To mark the 30 years that have passed, the acclaimed British film-maker Michael Waldman has tracked down many of the people who witnessed the key events of 8 December 1980 – the last day in the 40-year-long life of a very famous man.
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"I found myself sitting next to Yoko Ono [Lennon's widow] on a plane and was later able to persuade her to be interviewed," said Waldman. "We showed her the footage in London earlier in the year. She told me it was 'tough' to watch, but she gave her permission for us to use it."
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Waldman's documentary for ITV unravels the timeline of a crime that fans still struggle to comprehend. The film, The Day John Lennon Died, includes the recollections of a wide range of those intimately involved, including the testimony of a policeman who arrived at the New York apartment block to apprehend the gunman and the words of Yoko Ono, who reflects on the events that led to the shooting.
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Ono tells Waldman of her horror at the scene and reveals that she has often wondered about her prophetic decision to record a song earlier that day with the lyric "walking on thin ice". While the film focuses on the experiences of the witnesses and the movements of the Lennons that day, Ono has the emotional composure to tell Waldman that her husband's decision to come straight home from the recording studio, rather than going out to eat, was not as fateful as it seems. "It would not have avoided anything horrible happening," she says.
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The film-makers' efforts to secure an interview with Ono about her final day with her husband were equalled by their struggle to track down Goresh. Both interviewees have startling memories to share that will change public perceptions of what happened on the corner of 72nd Street, outside the Lennons' home in the Dakota building.
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Goresh, who has lived on the margins of society since he took his photograph three decades ago, was reluctant to speak about his traumatic memories. A devoted fan of the Beatles, and of Lennon in particular, he had become friendly with the star and occasionally accompanied him on short walks around the neighbourhood. It is Goresh's image of the couple leaving the Dakota that Ono chose for the cover of their single, Watching the Wheels.
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"It was what Goresh lived for, really," said Andy Blackman, a New York-based researcher who worked with Waldman on the film. "And on that day everything changed for him. At some level he did not want to be found by me or anyone."
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The documentary crew interviewed Goresh in a diner near the Dakota, where he explained that earlier on 8 December he had spoken to Mark Chapman, who told him he had flown in from Hawaii. When Lennon came out of the apartment block, Chapman held out a copy of Lennon's new album, Double Fantasy, for a signature. Lennon obliged, asking, "Is that all you want?" and Goresh took his photograph.
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When Goresh heard later that Lennon had been shot by a fan from Hawaii, he was filled with repulsion. "I immediately realised who it was. You can't imagine the disgust and anger I felt," he tells Waldman.
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Goresh rang the police to tell them he had a photograph that would identify the killer, but they did not want to hear. So he called the New York Daily News instead. His sale of the infamous picture, which was beamed around the world, made Goresh a controversial figure among the close-knit band of Lennon devotees in Manhattan, says Blackman, but his initial instinct had been to provide a piece of evidence. "His world changed hugely, as it did for lots of fans, but actually being there on the day, I think it has been very difficult for him," said Blackman.
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The documentary, made for ITV by Finestripe Productions, also features an extensive interview with the radio journalist who interviewed Lennon on the day of the murder and with the recording team working with Ono and Lennon on Walking On Thin Ice. In addition, the policeman who arrived at the scene after the concierge at the Dakota had dialled 911 gives a compelling account of his confusion on arrival. He says the gunman was already inside the gates and that he watched as Lennon's wounded body was carried out by colleagues for the emergency dash to the Roosevelt hospital. The accounts of those inside the hospital when Lennon was pronounced dead are gripping. Waldman interviews Dr Steven Lynn, who held Lennon's heart in his hands, in a vain attempt to massage it back into activity, and then had to break the news to Ono that his attempts had failed.
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Listening to the doctor's efforts from close by on the night was Alan Weiss, a news editor from a leading television network, who had coincidentally been admitted to A&E after falling off his motorbike. Weiss had been astonished to see the lifeless body of one of the most famous men in the world rushed into the emergency room, accompanied by the unmistakable figure of Ono. He called his news desk to alert them.
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"The piped music in the hospital began playing All My Loving and as it finished I heard someone screaming," Weiss recalls. Lynn had just told Ono that she had been widowed.
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"Thirty years later, all the people involved have an extraordinarily detailed memory of it all," said Waldman this weekend. "The newsman inside the hospital told us he had always worried that his call to his colleagues might have meant that John and Yoko's son, Sean, had heard about the death before his mother got home. But the hospital administrator, all these years later, was able to reassure him that there was an information blackout until Sean had been told."
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Like the violent deaths of John F Kennedy or, more recently, of Princess Diana, the killing of John Lennon provoked a soul-searching examination of the broader context of the incident and of society itself. And, like those other shocking deaths, Lennon's provoked its share of conspiracy theories. Just as Kennedy has his grassy knoll, and Diana her mysterious white Fiat Uno, Lennon's death is dogged by suggestions that the doorman, Jose Perdomo, who guarded the Dakota building from his seat in a golden sentry box on the pavement, was implicated in the death.
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During his research for the documentary Blackman satisfied himself that Pederma is now dead, but he does not discount the idea that the Cuban had some previous contact with the Central Intelligence Agency during the failed Bay of Pigs anti-Castro coup of 1961. Chapman's subsequent confessions and the corroborating evidence of others who knew him make any claim that this was a professional assassination very unlikely, Blackman believes.
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The film attempts to measure the wider impact of Lennon's murder by talking to several of those who had a special reason to care. Thelma Pickles, who was Lennon's girlfriend during his early days at art school in Liverpool, tells Waldman that she was working for Granada Television when she heard of the death. Called into the newsroom, she had to travel past Mendips, the house where she had spent many hours with Lennon, and found it hard to believe the news.
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Cilla Black, who knew Lennon in Liverpool, talks of her effort to contain her emotions during a concert that night, while Liam Gallagher, the lead singer of the band Oasis, talks about his feelings for Lennon, after whom he named his son, while he sits on the roof of the former Apple building in London, site of the Beatles' last public concert.
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Time has inevitably altered the significance of the killing. In October this year, eight undergraduate contestants on University Challenge were unable to identify Lennon's single Starting Over, a Top 10 hit in November 1980 which then went to No 1 after his death.
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Whether Lennon still looms large for audiences today or not, Waldman has been careful to play down the significance of his killer in the film. Chapman is never named and the film-makers let Goresh dismiss his importance. "The death achieved what that piece of garbage wanted it to achieve. He had linked his name to John Lennon's for ever."
www.guardian.uk/

La antología de John Lennon incluirá

grabaciones caseras inéditas

«Gimme some truth» saldrá a la venta el próximo 4 de octubre e incluye una edición especial de 11 discos

02.09.2010
El sello discográfico EMI informa en su página web de los detalles de la reedición de las grabaciones que John Lennon realizó en solitario tras la separación de los Beatles en 1970.

El proyecto incluye la publicación de "The John Lennon signature box", una edición especial de 11 discos entre los que se encuentran las remasterizaciones de los álbumes "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" (1970), "Imagine" (1971), "Some time in New York city" (1972), "Mind games" (1973), "Walls and bridges" (1974), "Rock 'n' roll" (1975), "Double fantasy" (1980) y "Milk and honey" (1984).La caja también incluirá un disco que rescata algunas grabaciones caseras de los temas "Mother", "Love", "God", "I found out", "Nobody told me", "Honey don't", "One of the boys", "India, India", "Serve yourself", "Isolation", "Remember", "Beautiful boy (Darling boy)" y "I don't wanna be a soldier Mama I don't wanna die". Un disco adicional presentará los sencillos "Power to the people", "Happy xmas (war is over)", "Instant karma! (We all shine on)", "Cold turkey", "Move over Ms. L" y "Give peace a chance" y unos ensayos escritos por Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, y Julian Lennon.

Entre los lanzamientos estará además el álbum "Power to the people: The hits", que será editado en formato digital y a través de un disco doble que contendrá un disco de audio y un DVD. La lista de canciones, para audio, vídeo y formato digital estará integrada por los temas "Power to the people", "Gimme some truth", "Woman", "Instant Karma! (We all shine on)", "Whatever gets you thru the night", "Cold turkey", "Jealous guy", "#9 dream", "(Just like) Starting over", "Mind games", "Watching the wheels", "Stand by me", "Imagine", "Happy xmas (War is over)" y "Give peace a chance".

Feliz cumpleaños, John
También se lanzará una remasterización del disco "Double fantasy" -publicado unas semanas antes de que Lennon fuera asesinado el 8 de diciembre de 1980- y una nuevo remezcla del álbum producida por Yoko Ono y Jack Douglas. En la campaña también será lanzada, en formato físico y digital, la colección "Gimme some truth", que incluirá los discos "Working Class Hero", "Woman", "Borrowed Time" y "Roots" Además habrá remasterizaciones de los discos "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band", "Imagine", "Mind games", "Walls and bridges" y "Rock 'n' roll", que serán vendidas por separado en formato de disco y digital.

El disco "Some time in New York city" será remasterizado y editado en formato doble, en el que el disco extra contendrá las versiones en vivo de "Cold turkey", "Don't worry Kyoko, "Well (Baby please don't go)", "Jamrag", "Scumbag" y "Au".

Esta serie de lanzamientos fue supervisada personalmente por Yoko Ono y forma parte de la celebración del nacimiento de Jonhn Lennon, que el próximo 9 de octubre habría cumplido 70 años.
www.abc.es/