| ENCOUNTERS WITH JOHN LENNON | David Morrell meets his hero

 Here's a great story from over at Rainy Days and Mondays the Beatles devoted weblog . . . . . .I love dropping by there and the recent showing of Mike McGear (McCartney) as a photographer is well watching out for especially as us mere mortals couldn't afford his book (!) £325!

“On Tuesday, December 7, 1971, David Morrell, a teenager from Kearny, New Jersey, had his dream come true—meeting his idol, John Lennon. The meeting took place at the Record Plant in New York City. John was directing the sessions for David Peel’s “The Pope Smokes Dope.”

Dave had been collecting Beatles records for a long time. He had recently received a flyer in the mail from Godzilla Records in California. Inside the flyer was a listing of bootleg albums [including The Beatles’ “Yellow Matter Custard”]. This album listed fourteen Beatles songs, all of which he had never heard except for Slow Down, from the album Something New. Dave ordered the bootleg album. When it arrived he put it on his turntable and was amazed that it really was the Beatles singing these songs. Here were a number of songs that few people had ever heard. 

Dave then wrote a letter to New York Disc Jockey, Howard Smith, asking him that when he sees John Lennon to ask him about these songs. When Dave came home from school a few days later, his mom said, “Howard Smith called for you.” Howard Smith, who also wrote for the Village Voice, was returning Dave’s phone call. Dave was overwhelmed. Dave called him back and said, “Hi, it’s Dave Morrell.” Smith answered, “I got your letter. I showed it to John and he wants to meet you. Can you come over?” Dave said, “Yeah!” and jumped in his car to pick up Howard in front of The Village Voice and they drove to the Record Plant. 

Dave brought a chest full of Beatles memorabilia for John to check out. […] John was very warm and friendly, rushed out, put out his hand and said, “Welcome. How are you doing? Listen, have a seat.”

Dave sat in front of the board, so he had to watch John Lennon through this glass reflection behind him. David Peel’s session wasn’t going well. Peel actually had the sheer audacity to say to John, “I don’t have the music for the next song,” and Lennon said, “Oh, for crying out loud, go get it!” and sent him in a cab. John then came into the studio, sat down at the piano trying his best to play In My Life while Dave was watching through the glass. 

John then came into the booth, sat down by Dave and asked, “What have you got in here?” Dave opened up this chest which was full of Beatles stuff. The first thing Dave pulled out for him was a bubblegum trading card with a picture of what The Beatles would look like without their hair. He cracked up when he saw it and said, “Oh, you’ve got to show this to Yoko. This is so funny, I look just like a Japanese man!” Dave very enthusiastically leaped out of his chair, ran to the door and went to see Yoko.

[…. . . .]

Dave then showed John his copy of the album Best of The Beatles on Savage Records. The cover was a picture taken by Astrid Kirchherr in Germany. The album was not in fact by The Beatles, but rather songs by Pete Best’s band—and Best’s head is circled on the cover. Upon seeing it, John flipped out and whipped it across the room like a frisbee, where it hit a wall and bent the cover. 

At this point John turned to Dave and said, “You know, I really want to get those tapes that Howard said you have.” Dave had dubbed the “Yellow Matter Custard” album onto a 7 1/2” reel to reel tape, so he would not have to hand John the actual bootleg album. John offered his Sgt. Pepper costume in trade. Dave realized that he was just this kid from Kearny, New Jersey, who had no business being with John Lennon in the first place. He would probably never see John again so it seemed really unlikely to get his Sgt. Pepper outfit, which John would have to retrieve from storage in England. Dave said to him, “Actually, I collect Beatles’ records and the one that I’m missing is The Beatles ‘butcher’ cover.”

Dave had remembered an article in the Newark Star Ledger that he had read, in the Arts and Leisure section of the November 7th edition, in which the contents of John’s apartment were described. It mentioned that a ‘butcher’ cover was up on the wall. “I’d really like to have that.” Dave said. John replied “No problem.” John picked up the phone and told one of his assistants to bring it over to the studio. A few minutes later the assistant arrived with the record. John drew a big cloud on the front of it and signed it, “To Dave from John Lennon December 7th, 71.”

The back cover is adorned with a drawing of what appears to be a farmer and his dog standing in the path of the setting sun. John incorporated tears and stains into the artwork. 

[…] 

As for the tape copy of “Yellow Matter Custard,” John had a few acetates pressed. John mistakenly thought the songs were from the Decca audition although the recordings were actually BBC radio show performances. He sent one of the acetate copies to Paul.”

– “John Lennon’s ‘Butcher’ Cover” from Beatlology Magazine (Sept/Oct 2003 Edition)

Super interesting to read the back story of John trying to acquire the “Decca audition” (albeit not the actual recording) tape, which then resulted in him sending an acetate copy to Paul shortly after along with the following message: