TLS signed “John,” with added self-portrait sketch, one page, 8.5 x 11, August 1, 1974. Letter sent to Native American guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, in full (spelling and grammar retained): “dear (h)ed, and patti, glad you enjoyed. thanx for offer. ill probably have done most of it by the time you get this! elton came and sang (and played great piano/organ) on ‘whatever gets you through the night.’ i used the original take by the way, we never played it as well again. its ruff, but cooks! hes some musician old elton j!
the film thing sounds interesting, especially if its just an a one night stand…(for me that is!!) when and where etc, tho i know you mean l.a. so its more of a when? next year would be handy. (jan/feb). also where the hell do you show a film like that? having ‘beautifull’ films j. o. j. l. s’ etc which gather historic dust.
do i get a feather as well as blood pudding? by the way, where do you get those pyramid tepee things, i was thinking it might be right for the roof…i hears people had them already in caklifornia. dass all for now. i remains, all over the place, love from me and de nurse, yer old paleface, kaptain kundalini, better known as d. r winston o’boogie, or the very rev fred gherkin, or not…say hi to billy from us and julian.” Lennon adds the date to the upper right corner in his own hand. In fine condition. Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Tracks and by the original Apple mailing envelope that Lennon has addressed in his own hand.
Letters from Lennon remain uncommon and highly sought, with this example all the more interesting given its various associations to the production of his fifth studio album Walls and Bridges: the recipient, Jesse Ed Davis, a member of Taj Mahal’s backing band who performed guitar on the album and on its 1975 follow-up Rock ‘n’ Roll, also played on albums by George Harrison and Ringo Starr before passing away in 1988; “de nurse” is a reference to May Pang, Lennon’s partner during his fabled ‘Lost Weekend,’ who sang backup vocals on the album and was an inspiration for the song ‘Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox),’ which also featured harmony vocals by Elton John, who, as Lennon explains, played piano on the album’s second track, ‘Whatever Gets You thru the Night.’ Lennon reflected on the John cameo in an interview with Rolling Stone: ‘Elton sort of popped in on the sessions for Walls and Bridges and sort of zapped in and played the piano and ended up singing 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night' with me. Which was a great shot in the arm. I'd done three quarters of it, 'Now what do we do?' Should we put a camel on it or a xylophone? That sort of thing. And he came in and said, 'Hey, I'll play some piano!’”
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