A Toot And A Snore In '74

Track list

Disc 1

1. A Toot And A Snore

   0:26 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

2. Bluesy Jam Session

   2:31 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

3. Studio Talk

   2:38 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

4. Lucille

   Written by Richard Penniman / Little Richard, Albert Collins

   5:57 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

5. Nightmares

   2:37 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

6. Stand By Me

   Written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Ben E. King

   2:17 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

7. Stand By Me

   Written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Ben E. King

   3:39 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

8. Stand By Me

   Written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Ben E. King

   6:03 • Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

9. Medley

1. Cupid

   Written by Sam Cooke

   Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

2. Chain Gang

   Written by Sam Cooke

   Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

3. Take This Hammer

   Written by Traditional

   Demo

   Session Recording: Mar 28, 1974 • Studio The Record Plant West, Los Angeles, USA

From Wikipedia:

A Toot and a Snore in ’74 is a bootleg album consisting of the only known recording session in which John Lennon and Paul McCartney played together after the break-up of the Beatles in 1970. First mentioned by Lennon in a 1975 interview, more details were brought to light in May Pang’s 1983 book, Loving John, and it gained wider prominence when McCartney made reference to the session in a 1997 interview. Talking with Australian writer Sean Sennett in his Soho office, McCartney said the “session was hazy… for a number of reasons”.

Recording history

Lennon was producing Harry Nilsson’s album Pussy Cats, when Paul and Linda McCartney dropped in after the first night of the sessions, a.k.a. “the Jim Keltner Fan Club Hour”, at Burbank Studios on 28 March 1974. They were joined by Nilsson, Stevie Wonder, Jesse Ed Davis, May Pang, Mal Evans, Bobby Keys and producer Ed Freeman for an impromptu jam session.

Lennon was separated from Yoko Ono and living in Los Angeles with Pang in a period of his life popularly referred to as his “lost weekend”. Although he and McCartney had not seen each other in three years and had lashed out at each other in the press, according to Pang they resumed their friendship as if nothing had happened. The jam session proved not very productive musically. Lennon sounds to be on cocaine and is heard offering Wonder a snort on the first track, then asking someone to give him a snort on the fifth. This is also the origin of the album title, where John Lennon clearly asks: “You wanna snort, Steve? A toot? It’s goin’ round”. In addition, Lennon seems to be having trouble with his microphone and headphones.

Lennon is on lead vocal and guitar, and McCartney sings harmony and plays Ringo Starr’s drums (Starr, who was recording with Nilsson at the time but not present at the session, complained at the next day’s recording session that “[McCartney] always messes up my drums!”). Stevie Wonder sings and plays electric piano, Linda McCartney is on organ, Pang plays tambourine, Nilsson provides vocals, Davis is on guitar, Freeman (who was producing Don McLean in the neighboring studio) fills in on bass, and Keys plays saxophone. Keys was questioned a number of times about the session, but could not recall any of it.

It remains the only known instance of Lennon and McCartney playing together after 1970. Aside from informal, special occasions such as weddings, collaborations of more than two ex-Beatles had been rare since the band’s 1969–70 split. […]

Personnel

in alphabetical order:

• Jesse Ed Davis – guitar
• Mal Evans – tambourine
• Ed Freeman – bass
• Bobby Keys – saxophone
• John Lennon – guitar, vocals
• Linda McCartney – organ
• Paul McCartney – drums, vocals
• Harry Nilsson – vocals
• May Pang – tambourine
• Stevie Wonder – electric piano, vocals (mostly on “Cupid”)

Linda McCartney and Freeman are not credited on the bootleg’s back cover. After the musicians, Mal Evans is credited with “Tea” and Pang with “Sympathy.”

Artwork

The album’s front cover is based on Revolver, the back cover of Imagine, and the 1979 compilation album The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away.

From Rolling Stone:

[…] McCartney and Lennon reunited briefly for a studio jam session in 1974 that also featured Stevie Wonder, Harry Nilsson, Linda McCartney and Bobby Keys. “We were stoned,” McCartney says of the session, which has been immortalized as the bootleg Toot and a Snore. “I don’t think there was anyone in that room who wasn’t stoned. For some ungodly reason, I decided to get on drums. It was just a party, you know. To use the word ‘disorganized’ is completely understating it. I might have made a feeble attempt to restore order – “guys, you know, let’s think of a song, that would be a good idea’ – but I can’t remember if I did or not.”

From The Beatles Monthly Book N°255, July 1997:

The ‘toot’ in the title refers to cocaine, which John can be heard alluding to on the CD, while the word ‘snore’ indicated that, for all its promise, the recording of the session turns out to be rather dull.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.