“I could not rescue those”: The John Lennon songs that were forever lost to history

Listening to old tapes of John Lennon is the equivalent of going through lost archives for Beatles fans. Lennon was taken from this Earth far too soon, and while we are only left with what he gave us, there are always pieces that were never properly released or kept in the vaults for far too long that never saw the light of day. Then again, the only things that mere mortals will actually get to listen to are the ones that get the seal of approval from Lennon’s family.

For a while, it was almost expected that Milk and Honey were the final pieces that Lennon had been working on up until the time of his death. He had already been heavy into the production of Double Fantasy, so working on pieces for a follow-up record was already in the cards, and judging by how ‘Nobody Told Me’ and ‘Grow Old With Me’ sounded, he hadn’t lost a step in his later years.

Then again, there were always places where he could have improved his craft if he wanted to. He was always fleshing out music whenever he could on whatever instrument was available, and usually, the piano was where he came up with some of his most spellbinding compositions. ‘Imagine’ is the acknowledged piano song from him. Still, judging by what he played on tracks like ‘Mother’ and ‘Jealous Guy’, he was more than capable of getting his point across even if he didn’t have the most sophisticated chord progressions behind him.

However, once technology caught up to what The Beatles had been doing, getting the chance to have The Beatles Anthology was a godsend in many respects. Jeff Lynne had done the impossible by getting every one of the former members involved in the project, and by recording to Lennon’s demo tape, they turned tunes like ‘Real Love’ and ‘Free as a Bird’ into raw musical emotion.

And while Lennon did get an anthologised look at his greatest hits, the Acoustic album is a much more interesting look into his songwriting process. Not every one of the tunes on the record has finished drafts, and some of them even have different keys to the original, but the intimacy is what matters here. From the first listen, you’re sitting right next to him in the studio as he starts fleshing out the idea until it’s the best it can possibly be.

“When he was banging the piano, he would put the microphone on top of the piano, so that you’d hear the piano much more than his voice. The balance was not good at all, so I could not rescue those songs.”-Yoko Ono

These sets usually leave fans clamouring for more, but upon release, Yoko Ono said that there were a ton of lost artefacts left in Lennon’s vault that could never be saved in the mixing process, saying, “At first I wanted to collect some acoustic stuff on guitar and piano, but the piano tracks were not in good enough condition to put out. When he was banging the piano, he would put the microphone on top of the piano, so that you’d hear the piano much more than his voice. The balance was not good at all, so I could not rescue those songs.”

While we are lucky enough to have the versions that we do on the Acoustic album, it’s also interesting to hear what could have been done with the other mixes back in the day. It might have simply been drafts of tunes that we’ve heard a thousand times, but getting a look into his process when going through tracks like ‘Jealous Guy’ would be more interesting, seeing how he went from ‘Child of Nature’ during The Beatles’ session into something different.

In the modern age, though, who’s to say that those versions of Lennon’s songs can’t be redone in some way? I mean, if The Beatles and Peter Jackson worked together to create the technical marvel that is ‘Now and Then’, Lennon’s estate could also invest some time into cleaning up some of his old tracks if they felt so inclined.