Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Back on that January thread "Act LIke Everything is Normal, Yoko" it was mentioned by Mark Kaufman (Lyle) that the final performance/use of Lennon's '58 Rickenbacker was a (Yoko?) tune "Walking on Thin Ice". As I don't have a Yoko Ono record collection, can any Forumites share further info about that last Ric session.... when, where, what other musicians were at the session, etc. Thanks
-Rich F.

Richard, maybe this will help you some.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6085503/the_death_of_john_lennon_in_1980

Hey Richard,
It isn't 100% certain, but it is generally acknowledged that he used the '58 on this final session, another notable coincidence related to his sad demise. It's really just John having random fun with his whammy bar. The track is truly bizarre, but I really enjoy it. Here's where I learned about it:

http://www.thestringguy.com/beatleguitars2.html

http://www.thecanteen.com/lennon3.html

http://www.rickresource.com/rrp/lennon325.html

Stan and Mark --- thanks for your responses. You learn something new ....

Very interesting articles - especially that one from "the string guy.com" about the planned '81 tour and other Rickenbacker models getting readied for same.
Rich F.

Here is the video of the song. I did a search a couple weeks ago to hear this, as I'd never heard it before but had always read about it being the last song he worked on, and having used V81 on it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U4AWF9zV-Q

The string guy seems to assume too much. It's not proven that V81 was used on Walking On Thin Ice. The Manny's 320 is BS. Why would Lennon order a new 325 when he already had three in the closet? It's all 'wishful' thinking.....

Larry, there may be more to that than just BS. More needs to be found out, but I don't know if I'd ignore the story just yet. Don't forget his '64 is a wall-hanger without a proper repair.

The string guy also seems to be misinformed about....strings.

The only instrument photos from 1980 I have seen show Lennon with a Hamer, Sardonyx, Ovation Model 1651 and a Fender The Strat. There are no photos of Lennon playing his '58 or '64 325 from that period. I believe he wouldn't want to be photographed with those guitars or use them on his planned '81 world tour. This was his comeback from five years of retirement. At this point in time he wouldn't want to look 'square' by making a comeback with his favorite old guitars. Maybe another ten years down the road it would have been OK. He still wanted to be looked at as being 'hip' and that's why he was photographed with that Sardonyx. I just can't imagine him going to Manny's at this point in time and ordering a new Rickenbacker 320.

John played all that stuff? Really?

Well having owned many of those guitars (including a Ric325) there is no doubt in my mind that that is a Ric....Actually the tremolo parts to me sound more like an accent vibrato...but certainly not a strat, a strat has too steady of trem system to do that (even with 2 springs) just my thought

Why not try to contact Yoko and ask her?

I have wondered about this a lot myself--Lennon has be quoted in several places as calling the 325 his favorite guitar--even in the late '70's. I really don't think he'd have a problem being seen with it.

Another track I've read speculation about is "Stepping Out." This was recorded fairly early in the Double Fantasy sessions, I believe--and it sounds a lot like a Ric playing in there--but I could be wrong.

All this aside, do we know how much playing Lennon actually did for the Double Fantasy sessions? He had too top session players in there, and he seemed more interested in getting the songs tracked and his vocals down that doing a lot of guitar work--I have no real knowledge to confirm my speculation, but I tend to think that his playing was limited to bits and pieces of acoustic here and there, like the opening to Starting Over. No doubt he was playing in the studio, I'm just not sure a lot his work made it to the record.

While he probably played mostly acoustic during the Double Fantasy and later (Milk & Honey) sessions, there are some tracks where it would have been likely for him to have played electric. Tracks like Cleanup Time, I'm Losing You, Nobody Told Me, I Don't Wanna Face It. In fact, on outtakes of I Don't Wanna Face It, you can hear John saying something about wearing his pick down during the takes. And the Cheap Trick version of Losing You was scrapped.

What guitars he was actually playing is pretty speculative at this point. It would be interesting to know if any of the players (Earl Slick, Tony Levin, Andy Newmark) have any recall about whether Beatle guitars were used. Fred Seaman wrote that he brought a Rickenbacker to the studio to show Rick Nielson. So there are eyewitnesses out there.....