#john demos

[get-back-homeward]

September 18, 1966: After a weekend break in Paris with Paul, Brian, and Neil, John travels to Carboneras, Spain to continue filming How I Won The War. He first stays in a seafront hostel, Delfin Verde (The Green Dolphin). Here, he picks up his nylon-stringed Spanish guitar and a tape recorder and works on It's Not Too Bad, a rough idea that will evolve into Strawberry Fields Forever. To accommodate his visitors (Cynthia, Ringo, Maureen, and others), he later moves to a spacious villa, Santa Isabel, and continues to shape the song. The villa bears a distinct similarity to the grounds of the children's home that John visited as a child and may have unlocked memories to inspire the song's title. Before leaving, he writes "Santa Isabel Demos" on the tape.

These demos were released as a bootleg in 1997. The distinct "let me take you down" part of the song shows up at 5 minutes in, but it's missing the song title. Wait another minute to hear John to name it directly.

The back of the bootleg includes a tracklist with take numbers. It's not quite clear how those were decided; they look incorrect to me. I've used the Nothing Is Real numbers to give the timestamps for each: 00:00 Warm-up 00:28 Take 1 01:16 Take 2 02:38 Take 3 04:09 Take 4 05:58 Takes 5 & 6 08:13 Rehearsal

[get-back-homeward]

this seems to be an inverse of the original Mr. Moonlight covered by the band [lyrics]

Late-1970s?: John plays ‘Mr. Moonlight’ plaintively and for himself.

JOHN: Mr. Moonlight / Now you don’t come my way / I’m now here to say you’re gone again / I’m here to say / Mr. Moonlight / Mr. Moonlight / Tonight you don’t come my way / I pray and pray every day / Mr. Moonlight / I don’t cry…

Mr. Moonlight / You should be alright / And now that I’ve seen the day / Du du du du du du du / I won’t cry…

[pro-philosopher]

See if you can out-shine this very shiny boy in Pro Philosopher 2! Maybe you can even give him reality check.

Play our new FREE demo on Steam! It's the whole first chapter!

[skidmarkeater]

HAPPY TROLLSMAS!!!

[walkathinline]

Since I made a video for a John demo the other day, I decided it was Paul's turn. Here is a friendly reminder that this beautiful demo exists.

⭑･ﾟﾟ･*:༅｡.｡༅:*ﾟ:*:✼✿　　✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

"Where the sound of lonely drums

invites me on, I must be by his side."

[blooeyedtroll]

Demo loves making Floyd smile!~✨💖😊

[style-and-kyman]

Took character suggestions on Twitter and these were a lot of fun!

(Blank template below cut <3)

[thethroneislost]

Incantation - "Entrantment of Evil" - 1990 New Jersey, US

[vixenihy]

not the biggest lana fan but god damnit if she didn’t knock it out of the park when writing national anthem because holy shit look at this man

[get-back-homeward]

From the notes on this fuller version, this is a Kenwood home demo (November 1966).

Beautiful version of Strawberry Fields Forever.

[get-back-homeward]

So the phone rang and John said, “You know, I want to do a record but I don’t know if I want to do a record. I have some material, I’ve been writing for a while, writing down here in Bermuda” and of course he had a near-death experience sailing in a storm down there, which I think changed his perspective completely. Because almost all of those songs were written in Bermuda.

So it was like one creative burst. Was this 1979?

Yeah, ’79. And so I agreed that I would listen to the stuff. And he said, “Yoko has it” and she handed me an envelope that said, “For Jack’s ears only.” And I took it home and he called me at home the next day and asked, “What do you think?” And my honest opinion was that they were very primitive, a whole bunch of cassettes, there was narration in it, he talked me through it. The songs all began with an explanation, a lot of it funny, and all of them ended with, “What a piece of crap. I’m going to give it to Ringo for his solo album.”

Were these all songs that ended up being on the album?

No, there were still a few more. And there was so much on that tape that I didn’t put on the album. But the Beatles had completed "Real Love" many years later, from that cassette. They built off of that cassette. Actually, I had the original so they built that off of a copy that maybe Yoko had.

Were there any songs from that tape that immediately hit you?

Oh yes, there were so many. So many. There was so much material on that tape. Two cassettes.

Do you still have that tape?

Yes.

Did you ever digitize it?

Yes. But they’ll never be—it’s property of Yoko. Period. It’s her property. So anyway, most of it’s been released.

On the box sets [John Lennon Anthology and John Lennon Signature Box]. Yes, most of those demos have been released... Maybe not with his dialogue, which is quite funny, but he’s singing into a tape machine like a beat box, like a Panasonic from back in the day. He’s singing into it, playing guitar, and then playing that into another, just from the speakers and then singing along with it, like playing percussion or doubling his vocals. It was so primitive. Banging on pots and pans. Very primitive. And my first reaction was, “I don’t think I can beat it, to tell you the truth. It’s so good.” And he’s like, “Oh, no, no, no, that’s not—“ and I said, “John, put this out. It will be sensational. Just put this cassette out. I’m putting myself out of the greatest job I’ve ever had in my life, but I’m just telling you.”

—Jack Douglas, producer of Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey albums, on how he was first recruited by John Lennon [x]

[tmbgareok]

Here is a free thing for YOU. Folks-it is our album John Henry's 30th birthday today, so today we are giving away the demos to that album. It's right here on our merch store with all sort of other things too, but for you, today, this exclusive non-streaming thing is available to you gratis. Dig it! https://tmbgshop.com

[phantomrush]

late on the doodle comp... new demo spoilers at the end

[shadyjumpintady]

Made this yesterday but forgot to post it here MB..

Thought of this random crossover outta nowhere and was like "hell yeah..." soo boom

If you did this concept already before I did please lmk so I can provide proper credits :P

[menlove]

society if the beatles released all those damn bootlegs on spotify >>>>

[takingbacksundaygifs]

Cute without the E