John Lennon: Between The Lines

complete home recordings 1975–1980

Disc 5: Late 1979 – Early 1980 [60:19]

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LYRICS for disc 5

Guide to the track notes

India, India PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 3:04
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar
- 8 Arms ID: p.124, #21:a.1
- source: Free As A Bird: The Dakota Beatle Demos [tape]
- A curious omission in LLT, 'India, India' — the title being confirmed by the 2005 John Lennon stage play — debuted from a tape source on Pegboy's brilliant Free As A Bird: The Dakota Beatle Demos release. Why would they pass gems like this but air half an hour of the boring electric guitar composing session of 'Beautiful Boy' is a mystery. Our placement of the recording here isn't entirely certain, but is based on that Vigotone clearly had a copy of the tape from which tracks 2-6 come from, and that this cassette has here a composition derived from 'Tennessee'.
Help Me To Help Myself PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 1:52
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar/drum machine
- 8 Arms ID: p.123, #14:c.1
- source: Hidden Archives [91-27]
- This acoustic guitar and drum machine version of 'Help Me To Help Myself' most likely predates the piano takes included on disc 9. The original tape suffers from running at a (steadily increasing) wrong speed, due to batteries running out during the recording. This flaw has been corrected here.
Life Begins At 40 PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:33
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar/drum machine
- 8 Arms ID: p.124, #25:a.1
- source: Free As A Bird: The Dakota Beatle Demos [tape]
- Usually dated to Fall 1980, but the other songs on the source cassette point to around Winter 1979—80 instead. Lacking any substantial information and because side B of this cassette with 'Girls And Boys' is in any case in context here, we have placed tracks 1-6 at the beginning of disc 5 (ie. c. late 1979 or early 1980); it's possible, however, that they were taped at another time, even late 1980 or early 1979. Some tantalizing hints which may point towards the latter option are provided in the book Lennon In America, where it's claimed that John added a "new melody to 'Tennessee' in January 1979; this could possibly be 'India, India' if the information is correct. (Or it could alternatively be another, unheard compostion derived from 'Tennessee', as such does exist in the archives.) It is also implied in Lennon In America that the saying "life begins at forty" was in John's mind around early 1979, so there might be something to this theory. However, with evidence to either way being unavailable or contrary, we have placed these tracks here where at least 'Across The River' and 'Girls And Boys' align with other tapes. Another possibility is that the demos on side A were recorded at different times, but there is currently no way to ascertain this.
Across The River PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:44
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar/drum machine
- 8 Arms ID: p.120, #1:a.1
- source: Free As A Bird: The Dakota Beatle Demos [tape]
- Yet another track which surfaced on The Dakota Beatle Demos from a tape source. Followed by instrumentals, of which tracks 5-6 here are available to collectors.
[instrumental 1] PLAY
- length: 1:06
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar/drum machine
- 8 Arms ID: p.124, #22:a.1
- source: LLT 31 [91-32]
[instrumental 2 (with voice-over)] PLAY
- length: 0:49
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar/drum machine
- 8 Arms ID: p.119, #6:b.1
- source: Unbootlegged 9 [89-43]
Girls And Boys [take ?] PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 1:29
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar
- 8 Arms ID: p.127, #31.1:c.3
- source: Imagine: John Lennon (DVD)
Girls And Boys [take 4] PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 4:04
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar
- 8 Arms ID: p.127, #31.1:a.1
- source: Free As A Bird: The Dakota Beatle Demos [89-29]
Girls And Boys [take 5] PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:47
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar
- 8 Arms ID: p.127, #31.1:a.2
- source: LLT program 89-43
Girls And Boys [take 6] PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:43
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: acoustic guitar
- 8 Arms ID: p.127, #31.1:c.2
- source: Imagine: John Lennon (OST CD)
- Seven takes of 'Girls And Boys' fill the other side of the above cassette. Somewhat erroneously titled 'Real Love' on the Imagine: John Lennon soundtrack and the more recent Acoustic (which has take 4), the song actually evolved into 'Real Love' only in July 1980 in Bermuda. Contrary to what is stated in the Eight Arms book, track 7 here, used in the opening of the actual film, is not an excerpt of the take 6 which showed up the related soundtrack LP release.
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 0:25
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.122, #9:a.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 13a) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 4:38
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.122, #9:b.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 13b) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:23
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.1:a.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 13c) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:39
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.2:a.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 14) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 1:01
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.2:b.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 15) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 2:18
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.2:c-d.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 16) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 0:26
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.2:e.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 17) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 4:10
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.2:f.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 18) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 3:08
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.2:g.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 19) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 3:29
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.3:b.1
- source: LLT program 88-25
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 3:10
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35.3:a.1
- source: My Love Will Turn You On [89-51]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 0:30
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.129, #35:a.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 10) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 4:16
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.123, #18:a.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 11) [tape]
Watching The Wheels PLAY | LYRICS
- length: 4:35
- recorded: late 1979 – early 1980
- instrumentation: piano
- 8 Arms ID: p.123, #18:b.1
- source: Your Daddy's Here (track 12) [tape]
- All of these composing takes of 'Watching The Wheels' (tracks 11-24) come from the same sitting and cassette. The sequence presented here is their actual time order, restored for the first time on this set. Our main source, the Your Daddy's Here bootleg, has inadvertently swapped the order of the sides of the cassette; internal and documentary evidence reveals that tracks 20-22 on it actually belong to the end of the session, as is made clear by John's statement at the beginning of track 23 here. Hence, the "watching the flowers grow" rendition is not the germ of the song, but just an throw-away between takes. Tracks 20 and 21 were only broadcast in the LLT series and are not included on Geritol's Your Daddy's Here, but are part of the original tape at the end of side A.