A Toot and a Snore in '74
Encyclopedia
A Toot and a Snore in '74 is a bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

 album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 of the only known recording session in which John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

 and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

 played together after the break-up of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. Mentioned by Lennon in a 1975 interview, details were brought to light in May Pang
May Pang
May Fung Yee Pang is best known as the former girlfriend of John Lennon. She had previously worked as a personal assistant and production coordinator for Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono....

's 1983 book, Loving John, and it gained wider prominence when McCartney made reference to the session in a 1997 interview. Discussing with Australian writer Sean Sennett in his Soho office, McCartney claimed the "session was hazy... for a number of reasons". The story is corroborated by biographies such as Christopher Sandford's 2006 McCartney.

Recording history

Lennon was producing Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

's latest album, Pussy Cats
Pussy Cats
Pussy Cats is the tenth album by Harry Nilsson, released in 1974. It was produced by John Lennon during his "Lost Weekend" period. The album title was inspired by the bad press Nilsson and Lennon were getting at the time for being drunk and rowdy in Los Angeles...

, when Paul and Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney
Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney was an American photographer, musician and animal rights activist. Her father and mother were Lee Eastman and Louise Sara Lindner Eastman....

 dropped in on the first night of the session, aka "the Jim Keltner
Jim Keltner
James Lee "Jim" Keltner is an American drummer known primarily for his session work. He has contributed to the work of many well-known artists...

 Fan Club Hour", at Burbank Studios on 28 March 1974. They were joined by Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

, Harry Nilsson, Jesse Ed Davis
Jesse Ed Davis
Jesse Edwin Davis was an American guitarist. He was well regarded as a session artist. His death in 1988 is attributed to a drug overdose.-Biography:...

, May Pang, Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys is an American saxophone player, and has performed with other musicians as a member of one of the notable horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Harry Nilsson, Delaney Bramlett, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Eric Clapton and Joe...

 and producer Ed Freeman for an impromptu jam session.

Lennon was in his "lost weekend", separated from Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...

 and living in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 with May Pang
May Pang
May Fung Yee Pang is best known as the former girlfriend of John Lennon. She had previously worked as a personal assistant and production coordinator for Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono....

. In his 2006 book, McCartney, Sandford describes the scene as follows:

What followed was not very productive. Lennon sounds to be on cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...

—he can be heard offering Wonder a snort on the first track, and on the fifth, asks someone to give him a snort. This is also the origin of the album name, 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
Microphone
A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...

 and headphones
Headphones
Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, held close to a user's ears and connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player or portable Media Player. They are also known as stereophones, headsets or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear...

.

Lennon is on lead vocal and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, while McCartney sings harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

 and plays drum
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

s. Stevie Wonder sings and plays electric piano
Electric piano
An electric piano is an electric musical instrument.Electric pianos produce sounds mechanically and the sounds are turned into electrical signals by pickups. Unlike a synthesizer, the electric piano is not an electronic instrument, but electro-mechanical. The earliest electric pianos were invented...

, Linda McCartney on organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, May Pang on tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....

, Harry Nilsson provides vocals, Jesse Ed Davis is on guitar, Ed Freeman, who was producing Don McLean
Don McLean
Donald "Don" McLean is an American singer-songwriter. He is most famous for the 1971 album American Pie, containing the renowned songs "American Pie" and "Vincent".-Musical roots:...

 in the neighboring studio, fills in on bass, Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys is an American saxophone player, and has performed with other musicians as a member of one of the notable horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Harry Nilsson, Delaney Bramlett, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Eric Clapton and Joe...

 plays saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

.

The events of this night are intriguing to Beatle fans as it is the only known instance of the former songwriting team playing together between their 1970 formal breakup and Lennon's murder in 1980. Aside from informal, special occasions such as weddings, collaborations
Collaborations between ex-Beatles
Since the breakup of The Beatles in 1970, the former members of the band have been involved in various collaborations with one other, including:*Album and single recordings involving more than one ex-Beatle ;...

 of more than two ex-Beatles were rare after the band's bitter 1969-70 split, especially between Lennon and McCartney, whose conflict was the most pronounced and long-lived of all the post-split infighting.

Track listing

  1. "A Toot and a Snore" 0:27
  2. "Bluesy Jam" 2:33
  3. "Studio Talk" 2:40
  4. "Lucille
    Lucille (Little Richard song)
    "Lucille" is a 1957 rock and roll song which was one of Little Richard's international hits.Released on Specialty Records in February 1957, Little Richard's single made number 21 on the US pop chart, and number 10 on the UK chart...

    " 5:59
  5. "Nightmares" 2:38
    • Actually the band is playing "Sleep Walk
      Sleep Walk
      "Sleep Walk" is an instrumental steel guitar-based song written, recorded, and released in 1959 by brothers Santo & Johnny ....

      ", the 1959 Santo & Johnny
      Santo & Johnny
      Santo & Johnny were an Italian-American rock and roll duo from Brooklyn, New York, comprising brothers Santo and Johnny Farina.They are best known for their instrumental "Sleep Walk", which became a regional hit and eventually reached the top of the Billboard pop chart when it was released...

       instrumental hit.
  6. "Stand By Me
    Stand by Me (song)
    "Stand by Me" is the title of a song originally performed by Ben E. King and written by King, Jerry Leiber, and Mike Stoller, based on the spiritual "Lord Stand by Me,", plus two lines rooted in Psalms 46:2-3...

    " – 2:18
    • Mostly Lennon complaining about the sound in his headphones and reminiscing about how it was better half an hour ago.
  7. "Stand By Me" 3:41
    • Lennon complains about the sound again, saying that it was better two hours ago.
  8. "Stand By Me" 6:04
    • Because of Lennon's complaints, the studio has changed the microphone levels on the recording itself (rather than the performers' headphones), and most of the lead vocals can no longer be heard.
  9. Medley 3:10
    "Cupid
    Cupid (Sam Cooke song)
    "Cupid" is a 1961 hit single recorded and written by Sam Cooke. The song is ranked #452 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.-Cover versions:* In 1964, Johnny Rivers covered the song on his live album In Action....

    "
    "Chain Gang
    Chain Gang (song)
    "Chain Gang" is the name of a song written and recorded by Sam Cooke. When released as a single in 1960, the song performed very well, reaching #2 in the United States pop and R&B charts, and #9 in the United Kingdom....

    "
    "Take This Hammer
    Take This Hammer
    "Take This Hammer" is a prison work song. It was collected by John and Alan Lomax. The song "Nine Pound Hammer" has a few phrases in common with this song, and the same Roud number. "Swannanoa Tunnel" is similar, and this group of songs are referred to as 'hammer songs' or 'roll songs'...

    "

Artwork

The album's front cover is based on that of the 1971 compilation album The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away
The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away
The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away was a conceptual compilation album containing the original artist recordings of songs composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the 1960s that they had elected not to release as Beatles songs...

.
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