[note: for a very long time it has been known that John Lennon saw Jerry at the Bottom Line, and various accounts of a meeting, possible sit-in, as well as the date of this encounter have been given over the years. Historian Scott Raile nailed it down as November 5, 1974 in comments to a post of mine about the early show that night. Over the years, I had heard tell of a recording made from Lennon's table, capturing him commentating the gig, but had never been able to put ears around it. In late 2021, monte_dym posted this recording –from the previously uncirculated late show-- to his soundcloud account, and a few months back David Minches brought this to my attention. Wow! (And thank you, David!) Monte supplied David with CD audio of the files, and as of today they are circulating as shnid-163367 in the usual places. I have invited Scott to put some context around all of this, hence this first-ever JGMF guest post. Thanks to all involved! –ed.]
Between the Bottom Lines
Guest post by Scott Raile
In October of 2015, noted Beatles historian Chip Madinger published his book LENNONOLOGY: Strange Days Indeed, a work that is still recognized as the ultimate biography of post-Beatles John Lennon (and Yoko Ono), an immensely detailed day-by-day chronology of Lennon's life from 1966-1980. I was fortunate enough to have my name on the cover as Chip's co-author, the culmination of 15 years of arduous research and writing, debate and discussion. So, to a handful of people around the world, I am known, thanks to LENNONOLOGY, as a Beatles historian.
I love it when my interests collide. Circles within circles within circles: Paul McCartney writes a James Bond theme song, or George Harrison pops up in the middle of THE LIFE OF BRIAN. So, even though I wanted to get every detail of Lennon's life nailed down correctly in the book, there was one date I was truly determined to nail down: The night John Lennon went to a Jerry Garcia show.
We didn't have much of a roadmap. Every previous Lennon biography was silent on the matter, even as most of the Garcia biographies mentioned it. As I dug deeper into it, the "facts" presented didn't sit right with me. The Garcia biographies placed the encounter in April of 1975 during Jerry's run at the Bottom Line in New York. But that made no sense. John and Yoko had been separated from September of 1973 until February of 1975 (Lennon's infamous "lost weekend"). But after their reunion (and Yoko's almost-immediate pregnancy), John kept a very low profile, and all but disappeared in 1975, as much as a Beatle can disappear. Hanging out in the clubs in April 1975 was possible, of course, but unlikely. And that's when I started to focus on November of 1974, another timeframe that Jerry played at the Bottom Line and one that made much more sense for Lennon's biography.
November 1974 was a "between the lines" moment for John Lennon. He had spent July and August of that year recording the album WALLS AND BRIDGES, and a goodly chunk of September and October on an extensive promotional jag for the album, the most extensive promotion he ever did for one. By November, the buzz around the record was wearing off, and John occupied his time hanging out with his new friend Elton John, and trying to rekindle his deep friendship with George Harrison, who was touring America that month.
John's personal life was "between the lines" as well; his separation from Yoko was coming to an end, as the couple were just beginning their negotiations to reconcile. That also meant that John's relationship with May Pang (his interim companion) was coming to an end. In May's 1983 memoir, she wrote vaguely of a photo of John with a well-known groupie that was published in a music trade magazine, a magazine that John bought all the local copies of in a futile attempt to keep May from seeing the photo.
And that's where the circles converge. While digging through
endless copies of Cashbox magazine for LENNONOLOGY, Chip turned
up the infamous photo (reproduced here). But more importantly for our purposes,
the caption spelled it out loud and clear: here's John Lennon attending a Jerry
Garcia show last Tuesday. HUZZAH. The hard work paid off and all had been
revealed. At least we assumed "all had been revealed"; after all,
Jerry played two shows that night. Which one did John attend? We assumed it was
the late show, based on recollections from the band.
One of the greatest things about being a historian is how, even after decades, things still just keep popping up. A film clip, a photo, a recording that we don't think exists (or may not have even happened) suddenly shows up, in brilliant Technicolor, and all of a sudden we have to re-assume our assumptions and re-think our thoughts. The world of the Beatles and the Grateful Dead are especially rich in this respect. You would think that, after 50 or 60 years, everything that could be discovered has been discovered. And then all of a sudden a photo shows up that you've never seen before, and the wonder is renewed.
And that is just what has happened here. For decades, the early show from November 5, 1974 has circulated, but we were pretty sure John attended the late show. But the late show had never shown up. And if it did, then so what? Would any Lennon fan care? Is it worth collecting just because he's in the audience? Do Lennon fans snap up that live Bob Marley album just because John and Ringo are in the audience? Do you collect every 1974 episode of "The Odd Couple" just because John was in the studio audience of one of them when it was taped? What are the limits of collecting? Where do you draw the line? I wanted to hear the late show just because I love Jerry. But who in the Beatles world would care?
Fortunately, all of that speculation has come to a sudden and spectacular end. I was thrilled out of my mind when JGMF sent me this show, because I wanted to hear some more 1974 Jerry. But imagine my sheer elation when, towards the end of the show, we can hear, clearly and unequivocally, John Lennon himself commenting on the show. At first, we hear him wittily calling the show like a sportscaster ("ten down and three to go!"), lapsing slightly into a Howard Cosell-like description of the event (which makes sense since John and Howard were hanging out in the fall of 1974). We hear him tell the taper that he loves bootlegs (which he did), and then critique the performance as a fellow musician, noting how a song had dragged in the middle but then got saved at the end. Considering how tumultuous his personal life was at that point (and how negatively some of Jerry's band members recalled the meeting), I fully expected John to be drunk and obnoxious at that show, but I am thrilled to hear just the opposite: he's lucid, funny and just another guy hanging out at a Jerry show.
Unless another unknown tape pops up, we'll never know directly how John or Jerry reacted to their encounter that night; the current record shows both of them as being silent on this topic. But from a historian's point of view, the story has come full-circle; from vague stories placed in April 1975 to "we have a tape and Lennon is even on it," we have closed the gap from hearsay to concrete evidence. In the grand scheme of things, it's not enormous; we've added another 90 minutes to our understanding of Jerry, and another 60 seconds to our understanding of John. But history is little more than an enormous jigsaw puzzle that wants putting together, and now we have one more tiny piece to put into place.
