Double Fantasy
Double Fantasy is the fifth studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and the final one to feature Lennon before his death. Released in November 1980 on Geffen Records, the album marked Lennon's return to recording music full-time, following his five-year hiatus to raise his son Sean. Recording sessions took place at the Hit Factory in New York City between August and October 1980. The final album features songs from both Lennon and Ono, largely alternating between the two in its track listing. Other tracks recorded by Lennon from the sessions were compiled by Ono for release on Milk and Honey in 1984.
For the song by The Weeknd, see Double Fantasy (song).Double Fantasy
Upon its release, the album stalled on music charts and received largely negative reviews from music critics,[1][2] with many focusing on the album's idealisation of Lennon and Ono's marriage. However, following Lennon's murder three weeks after its release, it became a worldwide commercial success and went on to win the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[3] In subsequent decades, the album has been viewed favourably, with Lennon's songs in particular garnering praise as some of his finest.
In 2010, Ono and Douglas released a remix of the album, titled Double Fantasy Stripped Down, which featured less lavish production than the original.
Background[edit]
Following the birth of his son, Sean, in 1975, Lennon put his musical career on hold to raise him.[4] After five years of little musical activity, aside from recording the occasional demo in his apartment in New York, Lennon resumed his career.
In June 1980, Lennon embarked on a sailing trip from Newport, Rhode Island to Bermuda. During the journey, the 43-foot schooner named Megan Jaye encountered a severe storm. One by one, the crew of five were overcome with fatigue and seasickness save for Lennon, who was eventually forced to take the helm alone for six hours. It had the effect of both renewing his confidence and making him contemplate the fragility of life. As a result, he began to write new songs and reworked earlier demos. He commented later, "I was so centred after the experience at sea that I was tuned in to the cosmos – and all these songs came!"[5][6] Ono also wrote many songs, inspired with new confidence after Lennon had stated that he believed that contemporary popular music, such as "Rock Lobster" by the B-52's, bore similarities to Ono's earlier work.[7]
The couple decided to release their work on the same album, the first time they had done so since 1972's politically charged Some Time in New York City. In stark contrast to that album, Double Fantasy (subtitled A Heart Play) was a collection of songs wherein husband and wife would conduct a musical dialogue. The album took its title from a species of freesia, seen in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens, whose name Lennon regarded as a perfect description of his marriage to Ono.[8]
Lennon was also inspired to return to music by his former songwriting partner within the Beatles. Upon hearing former bandmate Paul McCartney's 1980 single "Coming Up", Lennon deemed the song "a good piece of work." According to McCartney, the track prompted Lennon to return to recording later that year.[9][10]
Recording[edit]
Ono approached producer Jack Douglas, with whom the couple had previously worked, and gave him Lennon's demos to listen to. "My immediate impressions were that I was going to have a hard time making it better than the demos because there was such intimacy in the demos," Douglas told Uncut's Chris Hunt in 2005.[6]
Sessions for the album began at the Hit Factory in New York City on 7 August 1980 and continued until 19 October 1980.[11] Lennon and Ono were rarely in the studio at the same time, primarily because Ono did not want Lennon imposing himself in her work.[12] They produced dozens of songs, enough to fill Double Fantasy and a large part of a projected second album, Milk and Honey.
Lennon wanted to work with different musicians than he had previously, and had Douglas assemble and rehearse the band without telling them who they would be recording with.[13] While the sessions were underway, Douglas brought Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos of the band Cheap Trick (whom he was also producing)[14] to play on Lennon's "I'm Losing You" and Ono's "I'm Moving On", but these were eventually re-recorded with the studio musicians. The Cheap Trick version of "I'm Losing You" was included on the John Lennon Anthology collection released in 1998.[15]
The sessions remained top secret. According to Douglas, this was because Lennon was not confident in his work, feeling that he was out of touch with the contemporary music scene and could no longer write or sing up to the standard he set in his heyday, and wanted to be able to discreetly abort the sessions if he felt they were not turning out well; at one point he spoke of giving most of the songs he wrote for the album to his ex-bandmate Ringo Starr.[12] Lennon and Ono still were not signed to a record label and paid for the initial sessions themselves.[13] After they were satisfied with the album, their publicist Bruce Replogle leaked the news that the couple were back in the studio again.
Immediately, Lennon was inundated with offers from all the major labels. The recording industry was shocked when the couple signed with the newly formed Geffen Records on 22 September 1980[16] because David Geffen shrewdly insisted on speaking with Ono first and regarded her contributions as equal to Lennon's. He signed them before hearing any of the tracks.[17]