There are two main periods of John Lennon's life that fascinate me. The first is 1966 and the second is the "Lost Weekend" era. I have read so many books that cover the Lost Weekend, that I feel like I almost have been there myself. And while I am talking about John and the Lost Weekend, let me straighten something out for you all. I often read that John Lennon stuck a tampon on his head at the Troubadour. It is impossible for someone to stick a tampon to his or her head unless they had some tape or something sticky to stick it on with. I am almost 100% sure that John never stuck a tampon to his head. Now what he most likely stuck to his head is a maxi pad. It is sticky on one side. The popular 1970's brand name for maxi pads was "Kotex." So John is quoted as saying that he stuck a Kotex on his head at the Troubadour club. Now this event did NOT happen the same night he heckled the Smother's Brothers. It was a separate and different night when the maxi pad was on the head. So no more stories of John with a tampon on his head because it is impossible.
Anyhow....this summer when I was in England we went to the original Hard Rock Cafe. I saw a lot of really neat Beatles and non-Beatles things there. But know what I liked the most? I saw the shirt that John Lennon was wearing the night he got kicked out of the Troubadour club with Harry Nilsson for heckling the Smothers Brothers on stage. When John wore the shirt, he left it open like a jacket. He had a black shirt underneath it and a black scarf around his neck. What I guess I also liked was that it wasn't labeled as "the shirt John wore that infamous night." It was just hanging on the wall labeled "John Lennon." But I knew when he wore it. And to me it is just way awesome!
It's just that they don't really know what they have. The current owners of the Hard Rock Cafe company just inherited lots of memorabilia from Tigrett. Most of it's in storage, waiting to be displayed at new restaurants. And they're not very well labeled. John's TV set from the cover of Sgt pepper is in storage, just labeled "John Lennon", they have no idea that it was used on the world's most famous record cover.
ReplyDeletegreat post...
ReplyDeleteMaybe he tied it to his hair.
ReplyDeleteForget the shirt... I am still staring at that kiss! May Pang, the luckiest girl on the planet.
ReplyDelete"drunk as a skunk" when this was on the news
ReplyDeleteWhen I visited the Hard Rock Cafe back in 2001 (coincidently with a bunch of fans of Harry Nilsson), Lennon's shirt was labelled as the "denim jacket" that John Lennon wore the night he (and Harry) were kicked out of the Troubadour. See: https://nilssonschmilsson.com/harryfest-2001.html
ReplyDeleteIf you think the Kotex incident didnt happen, you'll have to tell that to Jim Keltner & May Pang. Pang said he had one stuck on his head at the restaurant for dinner that night, and THEN AGAIN at the Troubadour.
ReplyDelete