As the decades have rolled by and the players of those eras have gradually exited their stages we have relied on CD's, DVDs, and since the turn of this century YouTube, now the home of much of rocks archive. The amateur video posted alongside pro footage has shown us events that have become legend to many of us having only dreamed of being at the venue where the magic occurred. Until the last decade or so the journo reviewers point of view was the best option, and then not always the whole story. Even now after edited video is released it may not have captured the moment best remembered by those actually there at the time.
One such moment was John Lennon onstage at the The Mothers of Invention concert at the Fillmore East, June 4, 1971. The actual footage of Lennon and Yoko with Zappa's band is documented well enough and there is some pretty raw video of those two loose cannons jamming with Zappa's highly drilled outfit. Various opinions and stories have followed over the years.
But one story which hadn't been common knowledge and certainly not captured on film, was told this week, well we hadn't heard of it before. It was supplied by commenter 'Mr Bennett Fischer' who was part of that audience and passes on a brilliant description and fascinating insight of that night 43 years ago at the Fillmore.
"Wow. I was at that show, and the coolest part of Lennon's appearance isn't captured on the video. The Mothers, after a fantastic set, left the stage to the audience's ubiquitous cries fore "More!" as the Fillmore's curtain closed.
The encore entreaties went on for a very long time without any response. Finally, a spotlight appeared on the closed curtain to the left of the stage. The audience settled down for the Mothers return, but instead heard a jagged Chuck Berry riff rip through the auditorium from off-stage. Then, into the spotlight stepped John Lennon, guitar in hand. He strutted in front of the curtain, playing (I can't remember which) Chuck Berry tune, completely solo, clearly loving it, and the audience going wild, loving it back. It was an electrifying three or four minutes.
I'm not up on my Lennon history, but as far as I know it was the first time Lennon had made a concert appearance since the breakup of the Beatles. The audience was really in shock and awe. Anyway, after Lennon's solo turn the curtain opened to reveal the Mothers at their instruments, and the rest of the encore set is captured on the video. I remember that watching Zappa lead the Mothers with his hand movements, trying to keep up with Yoko's screeches, was interesting and fun, but the real gem was Lennon's solo".
Posted on the Dangerous Minds comments page for the article when_frank_zappa_met_john_yoko_sometime_in_new_york_1971.
