![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/John-Lennon-1970s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: John Lennon)<\/p>\n
Mon 14 April 2025 15:45, UK <\/p>\n
There was likely a long list of benefits to being a Beatle. Fame and riches, yes. But it was more than that. Seeing things few get to see and meeting people few get to meet, surely one of the ultimate advantages to achieving legendary status was getting a front-row seat to other legends. They could watch masters at work, and they got to work alongside the best of the best for the rest of the Fab Four\u2019s careers and lives.\u00a0John Lennon<\/a> truly made the most of that.<\/p>\n There are countless stories of The Beatles boys meeting other musical heroes. They hung out with The Rolling Stones often. McCartney spent time jamming with Jefferson Airplane. The liner notes of songs like \u2018All You Need Is Love\u2019 is a veritable who\u2019s-who of the 1960s<\/a> as that era saw them routinely just open up the studio doors as a space for their friends to hang out. <\/p>\n The connections they made during their time in the band would continue to be vital in their solo efforts. After meeting Bob Dylan as a group in the early \u201860s, Dylan and Harrison became close friends<\/a> and collaborators after the band broke up. Their producer, George Martin, would continue to be a repeated figure in their lives, as would Ronnie Spector for a few of them. Having had the privilege of basically having access to any musical legend they might want, they only needed to send out an invite, given that no one would turn down a chance to work with a Beatle.<\/p>\n You might think, though, that no one could surprise them. When huge, famous names walked into the room, it meant that everyone was aware of everyone else\u2019s skill and talent. Their reputations preceded them, so nothing could be unexpected.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, one of Lennon\u2019s favourite collaborations was exactly that. \u201cI knew him, but I\u2019d never seen him play,\u201d Lennon said of one artist who he met almost outside of music first and let the rest come second.<\/p>\n The person in question is Elton John, who he met first simply on the set of a music video. John was going to appear in the video for Lennon\u2019s album Mind Games in 1973, and he was freaking out. \u201cObviously I was in awe,\u201d John said about the day. Being a few years younger than Lennon, he\u2019s been a disciple of The Beatles, so meeting one in the flesh, despite his own celebrity being on the come-up, was wild.<\/p>\n On Lennon\u2019s side, he\u2019d heard about John but had yet to truly dive deep. Elton John was on the precipice of major, major fame. He\u2019d started his golden run of number ones,<\/a> and his name was getting bigger and louder. Lennon had heard it, but when he finally paid attention, he was blown away.\u00a0<\/p>\n A year after meeting in a non-music setting, they met again as two artists. In 1974, the duo collaborated. Lennon needed some piano and some harmonies added to his album Walls and Bridges, and given that the duo had become good friends by then in a purely social way, he finally got to see John in action.<\/p>\n \u201cI was fiddling about one night and Elton John walked in with Tony King of Apple \u2014 you know, we\u2019re all good friends \u2014 and the next minute Elton said, \u2018Say, can I put a bit of piano on that?\u2019 I said, \u2018Sure, love it!\u2019 He zapped in,\u201d Lennon recalled of the moment John added his touch to \u2018Whatever Gets You Thru the Night\u2019.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cI was amazed at his ability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Finally getting to see his friend in the zone, Lennon was blown away by John\u2019s talent. \u201cA fine musician, great piano player. I was really pleasantly surprised at the way he could get in on such a loose track and add to it and keep up with the rhythm changes \u2014 obviously, \u2019cause it doesn\u2019t keep the same rhythm\u2026 And then he sang with me,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cWe had a great time.\u201d <\/p>\n The track would go on to give Lennon his first and only US number one as a solo artist while he was alive, and John\u2019s golden touch at that time stretched to collaborations, too.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n Subscribe To The Far Out Newsletter <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: John Lennon) Mon 14 April 2025 15:45, UK There was likely a long list of benefits to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[2866,77,8345,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-20200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-elton-john","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-john-lennon","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114338389280953551","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}