Coming on October 29th via Omnibus Press is John Lennon 1980: The Final Days In The Life Of Beatle John. The book, which is the latest from noted Beatles biographer Ken Womack, will serve as the followup to last year's excellent Solid State: The Story Of Abbey Road And The End Of The Beatles.
According to the book's announcement, “For Lennon, 1980 had begun as a ceaseless shopping spree in which he and wife Yoko Ono fell into the doldrums of purchasing blue-chip real estate and indulging their every whim. But for John, that pivotal year would climax in several moments of creative triumph as he rediscovered his artistic self in dramatic fashion, only to be cut down by an assassin’s bullets on Monday, December 8th, 1980, in the prime of a new life that was only just beginning to blossom.”
John Lennon's personal assistant, Fred Seaman, who worked for Lennon during the last two years of his life, recalls how the former Beatle's 1980 comeback came to happen: “The idea of recording evolved slowly over time. Initially John was told by Yoko that 1980 would be a good year to reemerge, for whatever. . . astrological reasons. John had a lot of accumulated material. Y'know, he wasn't necessarily dying to record again, but he had this material, he was restless — he wanted to work. That was his reason for being.”
In 1980 John Lennon spoke about how he picked certain songs for Double Fantasy, while others were earmarked for its followup: “We've done 22 of songs — basic tracks. So, then it was like having a lot of movie film; the way the film two movies? And it was a matter of which scene started where, and which scene works with the next. . . There's been a lot of shuffling around, as you can imagine.”
