Womack also covers the very public devolution of the Lennons’ relationship going back to 1972. He describes Lennon’s sexual transgressions including his sex with a woman at a party which Yoko also attended. It was clear to all that Yoko was being humiliated in a very public way. But substance abuse and heavy drinking took their toll, including his misbehaviour in a recording studi while Yoko was recording which led to him being removed from the premises. Yoko eventually went as far as finding Lennon a lover in trusted associate May Pang:

Yoko later reflected, “I thought they’d be okay.” Not surprisngly, May was initially aghast at the thought of such an unconventional - even unethical - arrangement with her emplyers. “It’ll be great,” Yoko told her. “He’ll be happy. It’s cool.”…”It was wrong,” May remembered thinking, “and I wanted no part of it.” By this point, John had begun coming on to his assistant, who eventually demurred when she could no loonger resist John’s increasingly brazen flirtations.

The relationship lasted from 1973-1975 during the Lennon’s separation. But by 1975, John was ensconced back at the Dakota, having been reconciled with Yoko, once and for all:

“I didn’t think I would losee him,” Yoko recalled. “The affair was something that was not hurtful to me. I was prepared to lose him, but it is better he came back.” For her part, May was left broken-hearted, and, when her salary from Yoko ran out, unemployed within an industry that was suddenly loath to hire her.

It was also in 1975 that Lennon had begun to think about recording again:

That March, John recorded an interview for the BBC’s OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST, remarking that “I’ve got three quarters of the new album on scraps of paper, which is usual. And now I’m going through the bit of going over them and sort of half arranging them before I Go to the studio.”

During the early to later 70s rumours were rife that the Beatles would get together again:

Things began to reach a fever pitch in 1976, when promoter Bill Sargent proposed a $50 million payday for a one-off Beatles concert. “There were phenominal amounts of money being offered,” McCartney later recalled. “But it just went round and round. There might be three of us thinking, ‘It might not be a bad idea’ - but the otehr one would go, ‘Nah, I don’t think so, and sort of veto it.”

The book also describes Lennon’s love/hate association with Bob Dylan and his many musical influences. Of songwriting, Lennon described his process:

“I always felt that the best songs were the ones that came to you…I do have the ability to sit down [and] sort of make a song. I wouldn’t be thrilled with it, but I can make a song like that. But I find it diffoicult to do that. But I can do it. I call it craftsmanship, you know? I’ve had enough years at it to sort of put something together. But I never enjoyed that. I like it to be inspirational - from the spirit.”

Property aquisitions followed including a mansion in Florida and a seminal, productive and joyful rental property in Bermuda. Womack describes Lennon’s final inspirational jolt which resulted from hearing McCartney’s successful single ‘Coming Up’:

“Not bad!” John announced from his place in the passenger seat as ‘Coming Up’ concluded. While he had tended to dismiss much of Paul’s recent work as empty-headed instances of bubblegum pop, this new tune had truly caught his ear…For the life of him, John couldn’t get ‘Coming Out’ out of his head. “It’s driving me crackers!” he said, as he exp[erienced the jarring return of the old competitive energies of his Beatles-era songwriting rivalry with Paul.

It was while Lennon was in Bermuda where he was going through old cassettes with song fragments that he strolled through a garden where he caught sight of a sign below a tree. It read, 'Freesia, Double Fantasy'. "That's a great title! 'Cause it has so many meanings that you couldn't even begin to think what it meant. So it means anything you can think of. It means double-couple."

Back in New York Yoko had already expressed a preference for Jack Douglas to produce the new LP, given their previous experience with him. Yoko was also firm in keeping the making of DOUBLE FANTASY a total secret from the media in the sure knowledge that hell would break lose after such a long break from recording. The couple had also agreed that DOUBLE FANTASY would include a few of Yoko's songs and performances. With the selection of studio, producer and band complete the recording process started in earnest and lasted five months into 1980. At its conclusion Lennon also declared that the band would tour the album in 1981 - the band members couldn't conceal their excitement at the prospect. Lennon had also planned a long-awaited return to Liverpool to meet his relatives in 1981.

Promotion also started in earnest with the news of the LP generating media coverage, several major interviews and photo shoots. Reviews for the LP were mixed with Yoko receiving praise for her contribution but worldwide sales were assured. Womack chose not to dwell on Lennon's shooting with the muderer not mentioned at all:

Yoko climbed out of the vehicle first and began walking towards the archway [of Dakota entrance]. John followed suit, strolling a few paces behind his wife and clutching a stack of cassettes, including the latest mix of ‘Walking On Thin Ice’, in his hand. It was just 10.45 p.m.on December 8, 1980…Millions of American television viewers would learn the awful truth only a few minutes later, when ABC sportscaster Howard Cosell interrupted the Monday Night Football matchup between the New England Patriots and the Miami Dolphins to deliver the news:

“We have to say it. Remember, this is just a football game. No matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which in duty bound, we have to take.”

So what does this book achieve? In a highly skilled and readable form it provides valuable, interesting and some surprising information of Lennon’s years spent in New York, and the relationship between him and Yoko Ono. It also successfully probes Lennon’s musican inactivity over a five-year period when he effectively became a housebusband looking after his little boy, while Yoko ‘took care of business’. There are points in the narrative that that moved me greatly, especially where Lennon describes his own doubts and failings, but ultimately his rebirth in music. For anybody faintly interested in music and its greatest modern exponents, this represents essential reading.

5/5