At first glance the version of “Ya Ya” that ends Walls and Bridges appears to be a throwaway, possibly intended to end the album on a lighthearted note after the dour (if lovely) “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out).” Julian Lennon, then 11, plays drums; “Dad” sings and plays piano.
But Lennon had a long history with this song, which was first recorded by Lee Dorsey in 1961 and written by Dorsey, C. L. Blast, and Bobby Robinson:
Says Wikipedia:.
According to author Mark Lewisohn in The Complete Beatles Chronicles (p. 365), the Beatles regularly performed “Ya Ya”, live from 1961 to 1962 in Hamburg, Liverpool and elsewhere. John Lennon was always the lead vocalist on this number but no recorded version is known to exist.
However, Tony Sheridan, the Beatles’ close associate, recorded a live version of the song for Polydor Records which was released in October 1962 on the A-side of a German extended play. This 45RPM is credited to Tony Sheridan & “The Beat Brothers” who are often wrongly believed to be the Beatles. But the fledgling British group had no involvement in recording this track.
In fact if you search for it, pretty much every extant version is mislabeled as “The Beatles with Tony Sheridan” or vice versa. People either don’t know or don’t care that the Beat Brothers were not The Beatles. This one correctly credits “Tony Sheridan and Guests,” but since it comes from a compilation called The Beatles’ First, is still a bit misleading:
And confusingly, The Beatles actually did play on Sheridan’s version of “Sweet Georgia Brown”:
OK, so, fast forward to the 1970s, after Lennon had been sued by music publisher Morris Levy for allegedly stealing part of Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me” for “Come Together.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This lawsuit was absolutely absurd. John quoted two lines from Chuck’s tune; otherwise the two bear no resemblance to each other. But due, perhaps, to prejudice against rich hippie English rock stars, Levy won the case. After some haggling, it was agreed that Lennon would include three songs from Levy’s catalog on his next album, with the resulting publishing royalties serving as the settlement.
This explains why, at the beginning of the Walls and Bridges version of “Ya Ya,” you can hear John saying “Let’s do ‘sitting in the la la’ and get rid of that!” He seems to have thought that this would count as one of the three songs he was obligated to do; Levy thought otherwise and threatened to refile the lawsuit.
Thus did it come to pass that Lennon recorded a full-length, full-band version of “Ya Ya” for his next album, Rock and Roll — which came out in February of 1975, by the way, which means I’ve filibustered right through its release date.
I think it’s OK, though. A listen through Rock and Roll this morning confirmed my previous opinion, which is that it is…. fine? It’s John Lennon, it’s rock and roll; “Stand by Me” is a standout; but most of it sounds uninspired, like the contractual obligation album that it (at least partly) is. It reminds me of David Bowie’s Toy, another case where a mature artist tried to go back to his roots and flailed. As Wm. S. Burroughs said, and I never tire of repeating,
Evolutionarily speaking, the one way you cannot go is back. It’s the law.
However hard you may try to recapture the you of then, there’s no escaping the you of now… so you end up in some murky no-man’s-land in between, which is no good for anybody.
After Rock and Roll Lennon would disappear from the music scene for five years. (Again one is reminded of Mr. Bowie, who spent a full decade as a retired NYC dad before making The Next Day.) It’s quite possible that these were the happiest years of his life, nestled in the Dakota with his wife and son, far from the malign grasp of the Long Plastic Hallway. I’d like to think so, anyway.
Old ballers lament
Better to remember then
Than how I am now