We Might Play Again --- Lennon (1971)

Klaus Voormann taken by John Lennon in 1971 

 

We Might Play Again --- Lennon

By Don Short

Daily Mirror

May 1, 1971

    Will the Beatles make a comeback as live performers without Paul?  It's a possibility, according to John Lennon --but not under the name of the Beatles.

     We were meeting during an interlude in the headline-making drama in Majorca over Yoko's seven-year-old daughter Kyoko. We were quietly chatting in their hotel about the Beatles and their music when John broached the idea.  "Now what's this about Klaus Voormann joining the Beatles?" He asked, referring to my story the other week that the German guitarist was enlisting in their ranks in place of Paul.  Said John, "There aren't any Beatles anymore. They've been disbanded. But if you'd said that George, Ringo, and John had an idea they might do a live show or two, then Klaus would be our man to play with us.

     "It's just an idea. We can't say whether or not it will happen or not. Sometimes we get the urge to have another go, and then we think, 'we've done it all before, and what do we want to suffer it again for?' So for the moment, Klaus backs us on our individual sessions."

     "Some old Apple friends," I say, "are growing more optimistic that there would be a reconciliation between him and Paul now that the legal conflicts are being resolved."

     "You never know," winked John. "If he walked through into this room now, we would still be good friends, although I doubt if I could forgive him on one or two things." Whatever the outcome, there is little likelihood that Lennon and McCartney will ever write together again. The musical gap between them continues to widen. Paul pens the romantic sonnet and John goes deeper into rock and roll. 

    "I can't get back to writing fairy tales anymore," said John bluntly. "I have got to live with the realities of life as it is today and reflect them in my music. Besides, we are all happy doing what we are. Look at good old Ringo. He's hooped one in the charts, and George is happy doing a Elvis and the Plastic Ono isn't wanting..."

     Of the Lennon legend, John said he couldn't help being the blabbermouth, the one who's done the frontal starkers bit and is sometimes known to sit it out in a plastic bag.

     "That's John Lennon being John Lennon," he explains. Not as though the Beatle was anything like that on this occasion. He was in a smart brown suit and clean-shaven and was as conventional as Mr. Suburbia. What's more, he looked remarkably youthful, like a picture of his early Beatle days. 

    John and Yoko still hope for children of their own. "Yoko keeps dropping 'em," says John, referring to his wife's two miscarriages. Says Yoko, "We're going to keep on trying, and in the next two to three years, we just hope we will be lucky." Said John, "If not, we'll adopt. We'll adopt all sorts of children, Jews and Arabs, blacks and whites and polka dot kids too. If there's any going around and going."