Saturday, November 24, 2018

"Instant Karma" Promo Video

On February 11 1970, The Plastic Ono Band required a promotional video (or "film" as they used to call them in those days) for the single "Instant Karma" since it was rising in the charts and it warranted airplay on visual media (television) for the various top ten shows of the day like "Top Of The Pops" , etc.
It was decided to do a "live" type version of the song. Engineer Geoff Emerick took the song and created a mono mix of the tune as well as removing the vocals in the verses so that it would appear "live" when John sang it. This unique mix was conducted two days before the performance inside Abbey Road Studios.
The actual visual performance was conducted for BBC1 at the Television Center (Studio 8) in London.  John sat behind a piano and sang the song live, Klaus Voorman mined the bass part and Alan White mimed the drums and Yoko appeared near John's piano either knitting blindfolded or holding up placards.
There are two versions of the video: One has John and Yoko (knitting) in black turtlenecks (take 3) and it features Mal Evans on tambourine and a second bass player - a Mr. BP Fallon. The second version has John in a paisley type shirt (take 4) and a jean jacket. Yoko also is wearing a jean jacket and holding placards with various logos printed on them while miming to the song. Mal Evans is not present on this version but has been replaced on tambourine by the above Mr. BP Fallon.
A bootleg of the video soundtrack (take 3) can be heard on the unofficial LP "Doll's House" and (take 4) can be seen on the 1992 "The John Lennon Video Collection".
You can watch take 3 on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLy2SaSQAtA


1 comment:

  1. Yoko isn’t knitting; she’s crocheting. :-)

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