Well Well Well

Written by: Lennon
Recorded: 27 September; 6, 15, 18 October 1970
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector

Released: 11 December 1970

Available on:
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Live In New York City
Acoustic

Personnel

John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Ringo Starr: drums

The longest track on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, ‘Well Well Well’ featuring a blistering guitar part, screaming vocals and a brutal, pounding backing track.

Having dealt with family, politics, drugs, religion and paranoia elsewhere on the album, on ‘Well Well Well’ John Lennon turned his attention to sexual politics. The verses, with references to revolutions, women’s liberation, guilt and “liberals in the sun”, were among the most humorous on the album, and in the simple chorus of “well well well, oh well” Lennon gave up looking for a meaning or message.

Lennon recorded a solo guitar demo of ‘Well Well Well’ in the summer of 1970, in a Bel Air house he rented while undergoing Primal Therapy with Dr Arthur Janov. One of the couplets in the recording, later rejected, was “Because she’s looking so much thinner/She looked so beautiful I could wee”.

In the studio, however, the song took on another guise. Ringo Starr claimed in a 1973 interview that Lennon had played Lee Dorsey’s 1969 single ‘Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)’ “a hundred times” to get the spirit he wanted.

In his lengthy 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon denied that the screams in ‘Well Well Well’ were connected with Janov’s therapy.

Listen to ‘Twist And Shout’. I couldn’t sing the damn thing, I was just screaming. Listen to ‘A-wop-bop-a-loo-wop-a-wop-bam-boom’. Don’t get the therapy confused with the music.

Lennon performed ‘Well Well Well’ live on just two occasions: at the matinee and evening One To One concerts in 1972. The first of these was released on the Live In New York City album.

In the studio

The Plastic Ono Band began recording ‘Well Well Well’ on 27 September 1970. Four takes were recorded, although the first was a rehearsal that segued into ‘Ain’t That A Shame’. Take 4 became the master.

On 6 October two more takes were recorded, numbered 5 and 6. Although sounding similar to the previous takes, these were labelled ‘Second Version’ on the tape box. Lennon eventually decided to use take 4 from the previous session as the album master.

A single incomplete take of ‘Well Well Well’ was recorded on 15 October. Three days later, however, Lennon overdubbed lead guitar, and he and Starr added maracas and tom tom respectively, onto take 4 from 27 September.

Stereo mixes were made on 19 and 24 October, but Lennon remained dissatisfied with the results. New mixes were created on 29 October, the 13th and final studio session for John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

A rough studio jam containing a snippet of ‘Well Well Well’ can be heard on ‘Something More Abstract’, a bonus track on the compact disc edition of Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band.

Join the Fab Forum discussion on Well Well Well »