Episode #19 – ‘Hamburg Spring ’62 – Lennon’s Original Lost Weekend’

Just over a decade before his ‘Lost Weekend’ in L.A., John had a full dress rehearsal during The Beatles’ third stint in Hamburg. It was April 1962, his friend and former bandmate Stu Sutcliffe had just died from a brain hemorrhage at age 21 and Lennon went off the rails – much as he would after separating from Yoko in ’73. Some episodes have acquired mythical status – and been embellished courtesy of numerous retellings. Yet, the truth still outstrips the legend.

Here was Lennon unleashed – Lennon the rocker, Lennon the madman, onstage and off, dealing with grief and loss in his habitually loving, cruel, hilarious, hysterical, sometimes violent way. And helping us to paint that multicoloured, multilayered picture is Mark Lewisohn, reading passages from his unrivalled The Beatles: All These Years – Tune In.

The music:

• Too Much Monkey Business
• I’m Talking About You
• I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)
• I Just Don’t Understand
• A Shot of Rhythm and Blues
• Ain’t She Sweet
• Lonesome Tears in My Eyes
• I Got a Woman
• Soldier of Love
• Sweet Little Sixteen

You should’a been there!