Cheap Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 (Music) (Plastic Ono Band) Price

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Customer Reviews of Live Peace in Toronto, 1969

Lennon on the cusp ...
Necessary backgroud: "Live Peace" occurred just as the last Beatles studio recording, Abbey Road, was hitting #1 on the charts. Lennon was bored with the Beatles but had not made a firm decision to leave the band. Both he and Yoko were snorting (not injecting) heroin at the time, and it's been said his vomiting just before going on stage was not due to stage fright. The band assembled had barely rehearsed at all, hence Lennon's warning at the beginning of side one of "we're just going to do numbers that we know because we haven't played together before [as a group]".

Side one is the reason to buy the album. The first few numbers are standards like "Money" and "Blue Suede Shoes" that most rock artists of the 60s cut their teeth to. The band is reasonable tight and the songs rock, the sound being comparable to Lennon's up tempo numbers on the Beatle's "White Album". The highlight of the album is the song "Yer Blues" which was on the "White Album". Lennon and fellow guitarist Eric Clapton had played this song together previously on the televised "Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" and it shows, the performance is the most polished of the album. This is also a better version than that recorded by the Beatles. Lennon and Clapton spar with each other on the solo in a manner similar to "The End" on Abbey Road; Lenin is Mr. Grunge, Clapton Mr. Quicksilver. After this high point, the band takes a shot at a brand new Lennon composition, "Cold Turkey" (about, you guessed it, his trying to quit heroin). The playing is rough and uncertain, and Lennon, after a few attempts, chickens out on trying to imitate a person going though withdrawal at the end of the song (you even can hear him say afterwards "I couldn't get that voice"). A slower tempo version of "Cold Turkey" would eventually surface as Lennon's first true solo single. Side 1 concludes with "Give Peace A Chance," which is solid, if uninspiring. Lennon forgets many of the verse lyrics, but these were never the point of the song anyway. It should be mentioned that Yoko begins to add vocals starting with "Cold Turkey," and on "Give Peace a Chance" but you don't notice it really as it's low in the mix.

Side Two has two songs, both with vocals by Yoko. Hey, I'm no Yoko-hater. I think some of her songs, such as the ones on "Sometime In New York City" (Lennons third solo album) are pretty good, and her influence on bands like the B-52s and others is undeniable. But these are largely abstract performance pieces, self-indulgent tripe. The first song has a melody of sorts, Lennon starts playing a riff from "Wake Up, Little Susie" (as I recall) over and over. The second song is just noise and feedback. The other members of the band don't appear to be doing much during these songs, certainly not Clapton. The album concludes with the announcer saying a few seemingly random words, including "Plastic Ono ...".

Post-script: Lennon, in a fit of optimism, wanted to form a new band with the musicians from "Live Peace". Clapton was smart to steer clear of that. Lennon then presented "Cold Turkey" to the other Beatles as the band's next single. When the other Beatles felt it was not single material (it's a great song, but not a pop single) Lennon essentially quit ("bugger you" was how he described it, and released the song solo, again pairing with Clapton). He was talked into keeping quiet until business matters could be resolved. As it turned out Paul beat him to the punch and used the breakup to promote his own first solo album.

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John Lennon, Live and Raw!!
"Live Peace In Toronto" captures John Lennon and a hastly assembled group of players in a raw rare live performance at Toronto's Rock and Roll Revival Festival on September 13th 1969. Lennon's makeshift band during this performance consists of Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass, Alan White (later to become famous in the band Yes) on drums and of course, Yoko Ono.
The almost 'anything goes' nature of this performance is largely due to the fact that this group had never played together before (hence John's opening announcement). The only rehearsal being on an airplane from England to the actual Toronto gig.
Once on the stage, John and his Plastic Ono Band dive into some remarkable renditions of some classic oldies that had been an influence on Lennon. After a brief tune-up, the band rips into a snarling version of "Blue Suede Shoes" followed by an equalling heavy version of "Money". This is followed by a solid yet spontaneous take on "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" in which John seems to be making up the words as he goes along. John's set closes with three Lennon originals beginning with "Yer Blues" from The Beatles "White Album". The version included here launches into a short but stellar jam with some great lead guitar work from Lennon and Clapton. Next up is the world premiere of John's ode to heroin withdrawl "Cold Turkey". The audience's reaction to this song was understandably mixed which prompted John to tell the audience to "come on and wake up". This quote was edited out of the album but is left in its accompanying film. Finally, Lennon finishes his half of the show with a rousing amped-up version of "Give Peace A Chance" which turns into a joyful sing-along. Not a bad way to end a show....
...But it's not over yet. After "Give Peace A Chance", John steps up to the microphone and announces that "Yoko is going to do her thing all over you". What follows is a full-throttle assault on the Toronto crowd beginning with the jamming "Don't Worry Kyoko" in which Yoko cackles, wails and screams while the band jams on a repeated four-chord riff. This leads into a raucous 13-minute finale entitled "John, John, Let's Hope For Peace" which features more of Yoko's torturous howling accompanied by droning screeching guitar feedback from the instruments of Lennon, Clapton and Voorman along with White randomly making fills across his drum kit when he can. The show ends with Yoko bleating out a series of high-pitched screams while John Lennon and the rest of the band leave their instruments against their amplifiers before walking off the stage. After Yoko bellows her last breath, it's the sound of solid feedback which follows. After roadie Mal Evans shuts off the amps, there is an obvious sound of confusion and disarray from the crowd. A surprising end to an outstanding one-off performance.
This CD captures the entire Toronto performance in its entirety from the band tuning-up to the final drone of feedback at the end. The mix on the CD is different from that of the original LP. The LP captures more of the raw live sound heard at the event while the CD has a more polished mix with echo added to the drums and some of the vocals. I personally perfer the mix on the original LP but the CD version is not bad either.
The CD booklet features a reproduction of the original calender which came with the LP. Instead of being for 1970, it's for 1995 (a bit outdated now).
"Live Peace In Toronto" is still a rare find for Lennon and Beatle collector's. Both the CD and the original LP are worth searching out for. Most people will want to skip over Yoko's half of the show and only listen to John's. Apart from the strange finale from Yoko, this is a great performance from John Lennon. There was really nothing quite like this afterwards.

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An early review
I would like to report on an early review of the Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 {live} Plastic Ono Band album.

This review of the original recording was during June 1970 by Beatles fan US Army SP 5 Rodney N. I corps Viet Nam.

After listening to the flip side of the album about half way through Yoko's presentation, Sp 5 Rodney N. let loose a string of words that can not be repeated here and threw the record (frisbie style) over the Hootch (barracks) landing in such a way that destroyed side two.

I took this to be a negative review of side two, however side one was saved and played quite often, which I took to be a positive review of side one.

I would recommend side one but forget side two based on this review.

Thank you,

NB