Rather than focusing on the violence and turmoil of the past decade, John has a sunnier view. “Not many people are noticing all the good that came out of the last ten years,” John tells the interviewer, famed zoologist Desmond Morris.

“And this is only the beginning,” he continues, sounding optimistic about the future of the peace movement. “The sixties was just waking up in the morning, and we haven’t even got to dinnertime yet. And I can’t wait, you know, I just can’t wait. I’m so glad to be around. And it’s just gonna be great.

“It’s gonna be wonderful and I believe it.”

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Has anybody seen my old friend John?

—“Abraham, Martin and John”

John just wrote a great song and he wants to cut it as a single.”

Beatles assistant Mal Evans puts out this call to Plastic Ono Band members Klaus Voormann (bass), Alan White (drums), and Billy Preston (organ).

The concept for the song came to John just that morning, and he’d completed the lyrics in less than an hour. He’s calling it “Instant Karma!”

George Harrison wants in on the project once John tells him about it. “I’ve written this tune and I’m going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow—that’s the whole point of ‘Instant Karma,’ you know,” John says.

The musicians arrive at the Abbey Road studios on January 27, 1970, to begin recording John’s cosmic take on the human condition, which is that “there really is a reaction to what you do now.”

They’re all rehearsing when White hears John say, “Alan, whatever you’re doing, keep doing it. It’s wonderful.”

Then a new voice says to White, “Uh, could you put the cymbals down?”

The person speaking is not George Martin but producer Phil Spector, John’s friend since 1964, when the two chatted during the Beatles’ first flight to America.

Spector, who’s stationed two bodyguards outside the door to the control room, wants no input from Apple engineers such as Geoff Emerick, who doesn’t like the way Spector is maxing out the sound on the consoles.

“You’re making Phil a bit uncomfortable,” John tells Emerick, who promptly walks out of the session.

“How do you want it?” Spector asks John, who answers, “You know, 1950s.”

Spector works his “wall of sound” technique, mixing and layering the reverberations of multiple instruments, until John pronounces the result “fantastic.” When he hears the finished mix, in the early hours of January 28, he says, “It sounded like there was fifty people playing.”

The whole thing is done with such speed, John says, “I wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.”

On February 6, ten days after John first conceived of the song, Apple releases “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On),” credited to “Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band.”

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