Live Peace In Toronto 1969
The Plastic Ono Band
Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band — John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass, and Alan White on drums — recorded on September 13, 1969 at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival at Varsity Stadium, University of Toronto, before a crowd of approximately 25,000 people, and released on Apple Records in December 1969. It holds the distinction of being the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together. The circumstances of its creation were famously chaotic: Lennon agreed to perform at the last minute, George Harrison declined to join as lead guitarist, and the hastily assembled band — recruited over the phone the night before — rehearsed entirely acoustically on the flight over from London. Introduced by Kim Fowley, the group opened with three rock and roll classics they all knew — "Blue Suede Shoes," "Money (That's What I Want)," and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" — before moving into Lennon solo material. The album was technically captured as part of the audio from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary of the festival, later released as Sweet Toronto, and Lennon mixed the entire record in a single day after returning home.
The eight-song, 39-minute set divides neatly along the album's original two sides. Side one belongs to Lennon — raw, adrenaline-fueled performances of the rock covers alongside "Yer Blues," the premiere of "Cold Turkey," and a loose, joyful "Give Peace a Chance" — while side two is given entirely to Yoko Ono, whose extended avant-garde pieces "Don't Worry Kyoko" and "John John (Let's Hope for Peace)" close the album in an extended feedback-drenched jam that ended only when the band left their instruments onstage and Mal Evans switched off the equipment. Rolling Stone's original review called it "a kind of John Lennon tour through rock history, brimming with more energy than anything he's produced in a long time." The album peaked at No. 10 on the US Billboard 200 and went gold, though it did not chart in the UK — an asymmetry that likely reflects the album's divided nature, with the Lennon half delivering some of the most vital live rock and roll he ever committed to record and the Ono side remaining a genuinely acquired taste.
Live Peace In Toronto 1969
The Plastic Ono Band
Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band — John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass, and Alan White on drums — recorded on September 13, 1969 at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival at Varsity Stadium, University of Toronto, before a crowd of approximately 25,000 people, and released on Apple Records in December 1969. It holds the distinction of being the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together. The circumstances of its creation were famously chaotic: Lennon agreed to perform at the last minute, George Harrison declined to join as lead guitarist, and the hastily assembled band — recruited over the phone the night before — rehearsed entirely acoustically on the flight over from London. Introduced by Kim Fowley, the group opened with three rock and roll classics they all knew — "Blue Suede Shoes," "Money (That's What I Want)," and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" — before moving into Lennon solo material. The album was technically captured as part of the audio from D.A. Pennebaker's documentary of the festival, later released as Sweet Toronto, and Lennon mixed the entire record in a single day after returning home.
The eight-song, 39-minute set divides neatly along the album's original two sides. Side one belongs to Lennon — raw, adrenaline-fueled performances of the rock covers alongside "Yer Blues," the premiere of "Cold Turkey," and a loose, joyful "Give Peace a Chance" — while side two is given entirely to Yoko Ono, whose extended avant-garde pieces "Don't Worry Kyoko" and "John John (Let's Hope for Peace)" close the album in an extended feedback-drenched jam that ended only when the band left their instruments onstage and Mal Evans switched off the equipment. Rolling Stone's original review called it "a kind of John Lennon tour through rock history, brimming with more energy than anything he's produced in a long time." The album peaked at No. 10 on the US Billboard 200 and went gold, though it did not chart in the UK — an asymmetry that likely reflects the album's divided nature, with the Lennon half delivering some of the most vital live rock and roll he ever committed to record and the Ono side remaining a genuinely acquired taste.