John Lennon-A Salute to Sir Lew Grade April 18, 1975

[cobie111]

this was recorded at the hilton in ny, not the waldorf. i'm the piano player in the video, btw.

[TheArchTV]

p-p-p-p-proffesor quir-r-r-r-ell

[andylandverses]

And the name of the band means Band Of Mother Fuckers, as he was playing for the conservative right wing of the show business, we miss John Lennon all around the world.

[baradero313]

muy bueno

[BobReidy]

The band backing him is called BOMF with one time Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Apice on drums.He is Carmine Apice of Vanilla Fudge's brother.He met John at the Record Plant in NYC when his enginer Jimmy Iovine,famed Record Producer and head Interscope records was producing them.John used them for handclaps on Whatever Gets You Through the Night.Afterwards they became friends.

[PC3900]

Utterly fascinating, but bordering on hideous. Lennon was at his solo nadir at this point - his career played out, his songwriting creativity spent, his latest album a mediocre collection of oldies. It chillingly reminds me of Elvis' sad last years onstage, and makes me thank God that Lennon had the good sense to withdraw from the music business at this point and salvage his reputation.

[bloodthirsty958]

the crowd looks like they all simultaneouslly reached an epiphany listening to Imagine

[patrick45sue]

Julian looks so much like John does here,now....

[kinseymilkbone]

I seem to remember a different version of this clip where they start playing facing away from the audience so all you see are the masks on the backs of their heads - am I misremembering?

[MegaObserver1]

John did this show for one reason: to promote the "Rock 'N Roll" album. He HATED Lew Grade for snatching Northern Songs away from Paul and John in 1969. But free TV promotion for a new album was another thing. BTW, John did have a receding hairline starting in his mid-30's. You can tell in photographs where his hair was pulled straight back. For the Double Fantasy cover he combed his hair into "Beatle bangs" to cover this up. But the bangs were a lot thinner that they were in the 60's.

[kreeepyy]

Fuck how can he sing so well with chewing a gum at the same time? One of his many talents perhaps!

[editr21]

Man, that voice. Pure rock and effing roll!

[aimeemannfan2010]

@1west72ndstreet, thanks for your post. My comment was a little crude but, I was trying to make a point. Anytime you're ready I'm game for your idea. LoL! Take care, Dan.

[spursareshit]

Vinny Appice on drums

[MissDeeCole]

maybe its better he died when he did...

[dabreu]

I would have loved to see him singing Stand By me. But it was already fantastic to have this chance to see John Lennon on this show. What a true artist he was.

[snowandflowers]

As much as John gave his political views in almost everything he did...I think he always wanted to be accepted, and maybe he thought if you can change these people's minds into being more open, you could change the world...I think it worked... ;)

[MichaelHansenFUN]

you read about this and the authors cant get there facts straight

how many songs did he performed?

[bigbadbeesa]

@MichaelHansenFUN  3 songs

[aimeemannfan2010]

Do these assholes realize who just performed!? Lennon should have dropped his pants and pissed off the stage!

[1west72ndstreet]

@aimeemannfan2010 classic comment and sooooooooooooooo on the beatle money (nice postman haha)

let's pull a youtube lennon & mccartney and comment 2gether across the universe?

[patsyd80]

Oh darling this was simlpy a night to remember, divine darling simply DIVINE.

[TheBlackBabyJesus]

Where's the Stand By Me performance? :-$

[axoram]

Grazie Beatlesaus!! never seen before, incredible memorabilia,but John inside this "snob area" it's strange for me....,maybe somebody ring the jewels??

[Cervicconstruction]

Man some real heavy hitters in the audience.

[corpsfoto]

Now that I know who the hell audiodick actually is, I can say that if anyone knows the back story behind all this, he does. I was there myself for a good part of that as well, and for the record, the BOMF in the bass drum head actually had 3 working titles.

A.A., not only a good friend, but one of the hottest sound guys in the country.

[Audiodick]

@corpsfoto Thanks brother!

[LittleDragon2000]

@Audiodick

So you worked on the Rock n Roll album, is that right?

I think it's his best post-Beatles album.

Double Fantasy could have been - but (as one reviewer put it)

Ono! Yoko sings on John Lennon's new album!

[Audiodick]

This is the last one for the night...Next we sang backround vocals on Stand By Me, nand Joey Dambra, our guitarist sang backup with John on Dream #9. He started just coming by rehearsals quite a bit to listen to what we were writing. Then we didn't see him for a while, when Roy came up and said John's doing a show and he asked if you would back him up. Our first reaction was, yeah, right. But Roy swore it was true. Soon after that show Roy told us, John's retiring, and the rest is history.

[scrollandkey]

@Audiodick did you meet may pang? she did some vocal on no.9 dream.

[Audiodick]

So we went through about three songs for John and stopped. They both got up, John said, "Great, thanks" and he and Roy went back to the studio. The 9 of us just stood there in silence for a good minute, looking at each other, each thinking the same thing, did that really just happen. Rehearsal was over at that moment, we were all freaked out to say the least. John started using us the next week. Our first gig for him wasoverdubbing handclaps on Whatever Gets You Through The Night. tbc

[Audiodick]

We were in shock to say the least. I was 18, my best friend, who I grew up with since the age of 11, Vinny Appice,at 17 (later of Black Sabbath and Dio fame) was the drummer and Mark Rivera (later of Hall & Oats, Foreigner, and for 12 years Billy Joel) was the sax player. I went on the other side of the control room window eventually and became a pretty well know sound engineer. Derringer, Billy Squire, Black Sabbath, Dio, Dokken, Megadeth, Soundgarden to name a few bands that I mixed. tbc

[Audiodick]

I've been reading all the comments tonight and thought I'd set some of the records straight...

I was the bass player in Bomf. We connected with John in 1975 after our manager, Roy Cicala, who at that time owned Record Plant Studios N.Y.and also engineered and mixed, the Rock & Roll Album, Mind Games, Imagine, and Walls And Bridges, which is what they were working on when Roy brought John to one of our rehearsals, he walked in, said hey guys, this is John, play a couple of songs for him. tbc..

[tommyrock69]

There's a lot of "jewelry rattling" going on in this one. John hated jewelry rattlers. His last live performance. Ironic isn't it?

[krushnoi]

Wow, Lennon's hair was really receding by this time. He stayed away from the public for the next 5 years after this. His real father was balding at an early age. Wonder if he had hair transplants done or something later. Lennon was in bad shape psychologically in 1974-1975 this probably explains why he did this crappy show or was tricked into doing it.

[sunriseRISE]

@krushnoi ....you are a fuck wit ...JOHN LENNON HAD A FULL HEAD OF HAIR TILL THE DAY HE WAS KILLED....AND THIS IS A GREAT GIG.. Lennons' BAND IS CALLED= John Lennon and the Band of Motherfuckers'...hes singing and playing IS TOP....PLUS HIS crimson ZIPPED UP GET UP PREdates THE KING ROAD....UK MALcolm McLARENS PUNK FASHIONS BY 12 MONTHS

[daztrue]

That was a revelation, and certainly blew the myth about Elton John at Madison Square Garden being his last. But what a travisty! Without seeing it (or at least learning from a reliable source) I'd have never believed he'd have been associated with something as cheesy and tacky as that.

[SpyGuyUK]

Great clip - Hadn,t seen the first song at this show! Thanx.

[HarveyBacktheBeatles]

Lennon played two concert at Madison Square Garden and another one with Elton John.

[getthedoggie]

It's depressing that John's final live performance was in front of a bunch of people who were probably into the Captain and Tennille and Neil Sedaka .. * yech ! * They were looking at him like he was Lady Gaga or something ...

Love you John

[TexasJ47]

does anyone in that room realize what they just fuckin saw

[JonathanHawes94]

According to a book I read, John 'despised' the cigar-puffing Grade...

[dellotti]

As much as I like this great clip of the great John Lennon, and the Las Vegas-like applause when he starts singing "Imagine".....

I sadly associete Lew Grade with mega-flop movies like "Raise the Titanic" and "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"....

but as I said John Lennon is John Lennon, so I enjoyed this clip were were much!!

[ternak001]

They wore those two-faced masks because Lennon thought Lew Grade was two-faced.

[randomloves47]

This is awesome! I was just reading about this performance on Wikipedia, lo and behold its here on Youtube! I love the internet and I love beatlesaus! It is amazing how you have all these Beatle clips. Amazing!

[aortegacristian]

and stand by me?



[LucaEisenstein]

@aortegacristian

"Stand By Me" was played but excluded from the TV broadcast.

[Lennononly]

Terrific post ... Thank you for the historical detail too ... Was always curious about the hell BOMF was ... Keep the great vision coming beatlesaus!

[sunriseRISE]

John Lennon and his merry ''BAND OF MOTHERFuckers''.. see'BOMF.. OM THR KICK DRUM... hee hee  go johnny

[hiraxm]

He was good here. I swear the 70's seemed like another universe. Everyone looked hideous.

[xavierbaudet]

Just watch one of McCartney's Rockshow clips from the same year...Life is cruel

[barsch63]

I can see why Lennon retired for 5 yrs after this performance. Pearls before swine!

[sunriseRISE]

LOVE ALL THE JUMPSUITS N ZIPS.. THIS IS A YEAr befor uk punk..''' maybe ==''malkey muckclowin.. seen this and went aha the sexpistols

[rareu4532]

had beatles get back togehter if john lived and george to??? any one know?

[Zebonka]

Pretty far cry from the Cavern audience!!! Look at how these people are dressed, hahaha.

[LittleDragon2000]

Note at 5:02

Instead of singing "And no RELIGION too"

he sings "And no IMMIGRATION" too

Of course, at the time, the US gov't was trying to get him deported

[kingbongmaster420]

yeah you see the guy in the crowd who realized what John said and starts shaking his head

[TheNineinchsnails]

@LittleDragon2000 wouldn't it be emigration cause they were trying to make him leave?

[MarcoZucchi81]

@LittleDragon2000 He was joking

[matooli]

Christ, what a great voice Lennon had. Just incredible.

Thanks for posting all these great videos!

[gcc007west]

would love to see the whole show.

[Lennononly]

What a post!

[xzyza2000]

Did you know that he was going to be a father again...

[romber58]

I read a comment of John,s somewhere that he hated this appearence;that the audience of tuxedos were unwelcoming and so he just went out there and as he said"spat IMAGINE at them...sounds like it too,hehe

[nsimpson76]

Very interesting! You would never know...so sadd that he had to feel that way.

[cwegers1]

John didn't need to do this bullshit.

[LittleDragon2000]

John agreed to do this as part of a deal with Sir Lew that would let the Beatles get back control of their music - which at this point was owned by one of Sir Lew's companies

Sir Lew reneged on the deal - and so John's band came out with "two faces" to show everyone what they thought of the two-faced Sir Lew

[LittleDragon2000]

And do you think

"Done got hip to your jive...

Don't wanna be your fool no more" was directed at Sir Lew?

[Sizzletube]

remember watching this tv speacial, when it was first broadcast great to see it again 5*****

love is all

trevoe sizzle