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I did a bit of a double-take upon reading this quote from May Pang:
At night [John] loved to channel-surf, and would pick up phrases from all the shows. One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist, who was saying, “Let me tell you guys, it doesn’t matter, it’s whatever gets you through the night.”
For those of you unfamiliar, Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II — a.k.a. Reverend Ike — was a South Carolina–born, New York–based preacher who was huge in the Seventies and Eighties. My dad was a big fan; in fact I have a vague memory of being dragged to see him in his theater when I was a little kid.
I could never quite grok what The Old Man saw in Rev. Ike. Looking back, I think his enthusiasm was partly ironic; but also when the Rev. got up a head of steam he could be quite a riveting speaker — though his spiel usually came down to the idea that if you gave him money God would make you rich.
It’s surprisingly hard to find video of Rev. Ike. I believe that he was on TV quite a bit, and that’s where Lennon ran across him; but I could only find a few clips, including this one where he deftly defends himself and his philosophy while looking snazzy as hell:
Toward the end the interviewer asks, “Don’t people resent your driving around in Cadillacs, and all the jewelry…?”
“I don’t ride in Cadillacs,” says the Rev. “The church owns sixteen Rolls-Royces.” Oh snap!
The words of this song are those of a desperate man willing to do anything he can to stay alive till morning. They probably reflect the fact that Lennon’s Lost Weekend was getting old, that he’d had enough of running amok with the Hollywood Vampires and was craving stability and sanity.
But the music is smooth and soulful, inspired by George McCrae’s “Rock Your Baby”:
This is a fun case where we can trace the song from inspiration to a first raggedy home demo:
To a more polished demo:
To a bare-bones studio run-through:
To a more developed version:
And finally to the finished product, which has Elton John on piano and vocals. Quoth John:
I was fiddling about one night and Elton John walked in with Tony King of Apple – you know, we’re all good friends – and the next minute Elton said, ‘Say, can I put a bit of piano on that?’ I said, ‘Sure, love it!’ He zapped in. I was amazed at his ability: I knew him, but I’d never seen him play. A fine musician, great piano player. I was really pleasantly surprised at the way he could get in on such a loose track and add to it and keep up with the rhythm changes – obviously, ’cause it doesn’t keep the same rhythm… And then he sang with me.
But that’s not the end of the story! As the Wikipedia tells us,
The recording featured Elton John on harmony vocals and piano. While in the studio, Elton bet Lennon that the song would top the charts, and such was Lennon’s scepticism that Elton secured from him a promise to appear on stage at one of his performances, should the record indeed hit No. 1. When the record did achieve that feat, Lennon appeared at John’s Thanksgiving performance at Madison Square Garden on 28 November 1974. It was Lennon’s last major concert appearance.
Sadly only audio of the performance exists. In this video it is synced to footage from a 1980s Lennon biopic, though there are some genuine photos at the end:
The clip shows Yoko looking on wistfully from the audience, implying that maybe this performance was what inspired her to take John back. And who knows, maybe it was a factor, though they didn’t reunite until several months later, in February of 1975.
Many versions of that story are told, and maybe we’ll get into it when the time comes. But that’s probably enough for now.
A few notes on “Whatever Gets You thru the Night”:
- This 1974 promotional film — intended for what purpose I don’t know, as it’s too long to be a commercial — uses a mix of the song that omits Elton John’s vocals:
- The sax is played not by David Sanborn, which is who I thought it sounded like, but Bobby Keys — who is best known for his work with the Stones, but also played with George and Ringo, Donovan, Nilsson, Dr. John, and on and on and on. In his 2014 obituary the NYT said that he was he was “a lifelong devotee and practitioner of music with a driving pulse and a hard-living, semi-law-abiding participant in the late-night, sex-booze-and-drug-flavored world of musical celebrity.” Which could also be said of his running buddy Keith Richards, who somehow remains alive even now.
- On a recent airplane trip, I had reached the point of desperation where the minutes crawl by and any distraction will do. As I contemplated several trashy TV options, I started singing to myself “Whatever gets you through your flight… it’s alright.” It helped a little, you might try it next time.