#11: Cold Turkey by the Plastic Ono Band

City: Kingston, ON
Radio Station: CKLC
Peak Month: January 1970
Peak Position in Kingston ~ #5
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #30
YouTube: “Cold Turkey”
Lyrics: “Cold Turkey”

The Plastic Ono Band was formed in 1969 by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. On March 20, 1969, Lennon and Ono married, and subsequently hosted their first “Bed-in for Peace” event in at the Amsterdam Hilton (Amsterdam, the Netherlands). During their second bed-in in late May into June 1969 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. On June 1, they invited a number of guests to be part of the Plastic Ono Band to record “Give Peace A Chance” in their hotel room. The guest list included Petula Clark and Timothy Leary (backing vocals), Tommy Smothers (on guitar), André Perry (percussion, production), and on handclaps: US black civil rights advocate Dick Gregory, Quebec separatist Jacques Larue-Langlois, Toronto Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, New York DJ Murray the K, British journalist Derek Taylor, and poet Allen Ginsburg. John Lennon and Yoko Ono provided lead vocals, as he played guitar and she played the tambourine.

On September 13, 1969, the Plastic Ono Band held a Live Peace Concert at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival at Varsity Stadium. During the day the audience was treated to performances by Junior Walker and the All Stars, Chicago Transit Authority, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Tony Joe White, Alice Cooper backing Gene Vincent, Cat Mother and the All Night News Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and The Doors.

The Plastic Ono Band chilling out before Live Peace Concert in Toronto

Plastic Ono Band: Live Peace Concert in Toronto

During their performance at the Varsity Stadium, the set by the Plastic Ono Band (fronted by John Lennon and Yoko Ono) included “Dizzy Miss Lizzy”, “Money (That’s What I Want)”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Give Peace A Chance” and “Cold Turkey”. The latter was written by John Lennon.

Subsequently, the Plastic Ono Band recorded “Cold Turkey” at Apple Records studio on September 30, 1969. The line-up for the band on that day consisted of John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and Klaus Voorman.

John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool in 1940. His middle name was after Britain’s current Prime Minister Winston Churchill, during World War II. In 1956, his mother bought him his first guitar, as he was interested in skiffle music. That year he formed a skiffle band called the Quarrymen, with bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Stuart Sutcliffe. In 1957, Lennon wrote his first song titled “Hello Little Girl”. It became a Top Ten hit in the UK in 1963 for the Merseybeat band the Fourmost. In 1960, the Quarrymen were renamed the Beatles, and within a few years became an international chart-topping band from 1962 to 1970 when they broke up. Lennon co-wrote hundreds of songs with Paul McCartney including “She Loves You”, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “A Hard Days Night”, Eight Days A Week”, “Yesterday”, “All You Need Is Love”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Hey Jude”, “Something”, “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road”. With Lennon’s new relationship with Yoko Ono, his musical direction was pulling him away from the Fab Four, and was a catalyst for the break-up of the Beatles.

Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo in 1933. During WWII she was sheltered in a bunker in Tokyo during heavy bombing. Starvation was rampant in the destruction that followed the Tokyo bombings; the Ono family was forced to beg for food while pulling their belongings in a wheelbarrow. During the war her father was in a concentration camp in Saigon. In 1947, at the age of 14, Yoko began to learn to sing. She moved to New York City in 1952, and studied poetry and avant-garde musical forms. In 1961, she gave a concert at the Carnegie Recital Hall. After her first marriage ended in divorce in 1962, she was placed in a mental institution in Japan. A second marriage in November 1962 ended in divorce in February 1969. By this time she had become involved with John Lennon, who she first met in November ’66. By this time Ono had published her first conceptual art book, Grapefruit. In May 1968, John and Yoko began a sexual relationship while Lennon’s wife Cynthia Powell was on holiday. Yoko had a miscarriage on November 21, 1968, a few weeks after Lennon’s divorce to Cynthia was granted.

Eric Patrick Clapton was born in 1945 in a village in Surrey, England. When he was thirteen he was given a steel-stringed guitar for his birthday. By the age of sixteen, Clapton was busking in Surrey. By the age of 17, in 1962 Clapton joined an R&B band called the Roosters. Another guitarist, Tom McGuinness, later joined Manfred Mann. Clapton left in the summer of 1963 to join Casey Jones and the Engineers. Soon after he switched bands to join the Yardbirds. But as the band was getting commercial with the release of “For Your Love”, Clapton left the band.

After brief stints in a couple of bands, in July 1966, Eric Clapton was invited by Ginger Baker to join him with Jack Bruce to be part of their new band called Cream. With Cream, lead guitarist Eric Clapton got his first exposure with North American radio listeners with“I Feel Free”. They subsequently had hits with “Sunshine Of Your Love” and “Badge”. Cream split in early 1969, and Clapton and Baker from Cream, joined Steve Winwood and Ric Grech from Traffic to form Blind Faith. Their self-titled debut album, Blind Faith, proved to be their only trip to the recording studio.

Richard Starkey was born in Liverpool in 1940. As a child he was sick with appendicitis, peritonitis and finally tuberculosis. The latter illness had him spend two years in a sanitorium from 1953 to 1955. Out of school for this duration, Starkey remained at home after his return from the sanatorium. He got involved with a skiffle band initially called the Eddie Miles Band which morphed into Eddie Clayton and the Clayton Squares. Starkey next joined Al Caldwell’s Texans which eventually became Rory Storm & The Hurricanes. By the fall of 1959, Starkey changed his professional name to Ringo Starr and his drum solos during their concerts were billed as ‘Starr Time.’ Beginning October 1, 1960, Rory Storm & The Hurricanes began a gig at the Kaiserkeller club in Hamburg, Germany. They alternated sets with The Beatles. On October 18, 1960, with Pete Best on an errand to find drumsticks, Ringo Starr stood in for Best to play a set with McCartney, Lennon and Harrison. This was the first time the Fab Four performed together. While with the Beatles, Ringo Starr occasionally provided lead vocals, including on “Yellow Submarine” and “With a Little Help From My Friends”. He also wrote “Octopus’s Garden”.

Ringo Starr at his home in Surrey, England, 1969

Klaus Voorman was born in Berlin in 1938. In 1965, he designed the cover for the Beatles album Revolver. In 1966, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts. He also designed cover art for some albums by the Bee Gees. Voorman played bass guitar with Manfred Mann from 1966 to 1969, including on the singles “Pretty Flamingo”, “Just Like A Woman”, and “Mighty Quinn”.

The back story to “Cold Turkey”, is discussed in Peter Brown’s book The Love You Make. He writes that the song was written in a “creative outburst” following Lennon and Yoko Ono going “cold turkey” from their brief heroin addictions. The lyrics depict the artists in a downside of the addiction: “Temperatures rising, fever is high, can’t see no future, can’t see no sky/My feet are so heavy, so is my head/I wish I was a baby, I wish I was dead…. 36 hours, rolling in pain… I’ll be a good boy, please make me well… get me out of this hell.”

Going cold turkey is popularly used in reference to giving something up completely, like an addict does when addicted to drugs or alcohol. And at first they feel great discomfort during the withdrawal. The Miriam-Webster dictionary online states “The editors of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang have found… a 1910 usage where the speaker lost $5,000 cold turkey, in the sense of losing it outright.” They also explain, “It may be that the original cold turkey was a combination of cold (“straightforward, matter-of-fact”) and the earlier talk turkey, which dates back to the early 1800s and refers to speaking plainly. Regardless of its ultimate origins, the phrase manages to vividly capture the initial dread and discomfort that comes from immediately quitting something that’s addictive, from drugs to dating apps.”

“Cold Turkey” climbed to #1 in Syracuse (NY), Cincinnati, and Erie (PA), #2 in Denver, #3 in San Bernardino (CA), Tucson (AZ), and Indianapolis (IN), #4 in San Diego, #5 in Kingston (ON), #6 in Sioux Falls (SD), Rochester (NY), and Kansas City (MO), #7 in Saint Charles (MO), #8 in Columbus (OH), #10 in Hartford (CT), Wilmington (DL), and Milwaukee, and #11 in Danville (IL).

Internationally, “Cold Turkey” peaked at #14 in the UK, #30 in both Canada and the USA, and #39 in the Netherlands. The song has been covered by jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, the English rock bands the Soft Boys, and the Godfathers, former Clash guitarist Keith Levene, Cheap Trick, Lenny Kravitz, Alice Cooper, and Billy Talent.

On December 15, 1969, the Plastic Ono Band performed a concert at the Lyceum Ballroom in London. This included a live performance of “Cold Turkey”. The live music from the concert became part of a part-live/part-studio album released in June 1972 titled Some Time in New York City.

In January 1970, the Plastic Ono Band released a single titled “Instant Karma”. The song invited listeners to “get yourself together,” a phrase used at the time among hippies. Lennon also asked about the purpose of life: “Why in the world are we here? / Surely not to live in pain and fear.” Karma, Lennon wrote, was “going to knock you right in the head.” It was time to “recognize your brothers, every one you meet.” Lennon offered a common understanding of our humanity: “We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun.” In addition to John and Yoko, were George Harrison, Billy Preston, Klaus Voorman, Alan White (drums, piano) and Beatles assistant Mal Evans (chimes, handclaps). The song reached #2 in Canada and Italy, #3 in Ireland and the USA, #4 in Austria, Belgium, New Zealand and Sweden, #5 in Australia and the UK, #7 in West Germany, and #9 in Norway and Switzerland.

In December 1970, the Plastic Ono Band released “Mother”. The lyrics of “Mother” address both of Lennon’s parents, each of whom abandoned him in his childhood. His father, Alf, left the family when he was an infant. Though his mother Julia did not raise him, he had a good relationship with her until she was killed in a car accident in 1958, when John was 17-years-old. The song ends with Lennon repeating the phrase “Mama don’t go, daddy come home.” Lennon subsequently stated that the song was intended as a general message about parents and their responsibility to their children. The single reached #3 in Switzerland, #9 in Austria, #10 in the Netherlands, #12 in Canada, and the Top 30 in Japan and West Germany.

In March 1971, the Plastic Ono Band released “Power To the People”. It was a song about the need for people to “get on your feet… and into the street” if they “want a revolution.” The lyrics spoke of people working for insufficient wages: “A million people working for nothing/you better give them what they really own…” As well, he addresses his “comrades, brothers,” and invites them to ask themselves “How do you treat your own woman back home?” The chorus invites people everywhere to sing “Power to the people.” The single climbed to #3 in Norway, #4 in Canada, #5 in the Netherlands and Switzerland, #7 in Ireland, the UK and West Germany, #11 in the USA, and #15 in Italy.

In December 1971, the Plastic Ono Band released “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. The song endorsed social unity and peaceful change. It advanced that ordinary people have more power than they may realize, and that they can put a stop to wars (like that in Vietnam at the time) if they want it (demand it) from politicians, generals. The single peaked at #2 in the UK and the Netherlands, #3 in Norway, #6 in Australia, Austria, and West Germany, #10 in Switzerland, and the Top 30 in Canada and Japan.

In 1972, the John Lennon with the Plastic Ono band released “Woman Is the Nigger of the World”. The lyrics decried the mental-emotional state women on Western societies were living with: “We make her bear and raise our children/then we leave her flat for being too fat and old/We tell her home is the only place she should be/then complain that she’s too unworldly to be our friend.”

The phrase “woman is the nigger of the world” was coined by Yoko Ono in an interview on December 12, 1968, then released on Nova magazine in 1969 and quoted on the magazine’s cover, with Ono making the claim that women were the most oppressed group in the world. The National Organization for Women (NOW) awarded Lennon and Ono a “Positive Image of Women” citation for the song’s “strong pro-feminist statement” in August 1972.

In the June 1, 1972 issue of Jet magazine, Apple Records ran an ad for the song with a purported quote from Congressman Ron Dellums, a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, claiming that he “agreed” with Lennon and Ono that “women are the niggers of the world.” In the June 15 issue of Jet, Dellums wrote a letter in response rejecting that he had “agreed” with Lennon and Ono. He clarified that “In a white male-dominated society that sees the role of women as bed-partners, broom pushers, bottle washers, typists and cooks, women are niggers in THIS society.”

“Woman is the Nigger of the World” climbed to #9 in Denmark, #12 in Italy, #20 in Belgium, and #21 in the Netherlands.

Separately, John Lennon had solo hits that include “Imagine”, “Whatever Gets You Through the Night”, “#9 Dream”, and “Mind Games”. After an absence from the recording studio, Lennon and Ono had released the album Double Fantasy in November 1980. On December 8, 1980, Lennon autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Mark David Chapman before leaving The Dakota apartment building at 1 West 72nd Street, with Ono for a recording session. After the session, Lennon and Ono returned to the Dakota in a limousine at around 10:50 p.m. (EST). They left the vehicle and walked through the archway of the building, just steps from Central Park in Manhattan. Chapman then shot Lennon twice in the back and twice in the shoulder at close range. John Lennon died by the time he arrived at the Roosevelt Hospital at 11:15 p.m. that night.

The Dakota, 1 West 72nd Street, New York City

The FBI admitted it had 281 pages of files on Lennon, but refused to release most of them on the grounds that they contained national security information. Unclassified memos, from the FBI’s Hoover to White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, showed improper political interference in an immigration proceeding while Lennon was seeking to obtain a green card. The story is told in the documentary The US vs. John Lennon.

After the Plastic Ono Band split, Yoko gave birth to Sean Lennon in 1975. At that point, John Lennon became a stay-at-home dad. In 1980 she worked with Lennon on the album Double Fantasy. From the album came the Top Ten hit singles “Woman”, “(Just Like) Starting Over”(nominated for a Grammy Record of the Year) and “Watching the Wheels Go Round”. On February 24, 1982, the album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1981.

In 1981, she released the album Season of Glass, which featured the striking cover photo of Lennon’s bloody spectacles next to a half-filled glass of water, with a window overlooking Central Park in the background. This photograph sold at an auction in London in April 2002 for about $13,000. The album received highly favorable reviews and reflected the public’s mood after Lennon’s assassination. In 1985, Yoko Ono received a Grammy Award nomination for Heart Play (Unfinished Dialogue) in the Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Recording category.

Ono funded the construction and maintenance of the Strawberry Fields memorial in Manhattan’s Central Park, directly across from the Dakota apartments, which was the scene of John Lennon’s murder, and remains Ono’s residence to this day. It was officially dedicated on October 9, 1985, which would have been Lennon’s 45th birthday.

In 2013, Yoko Ono published her 13th conceptual art book, Acorn. In 2018, Ono released Warzone, her twentieth studio album (including collaborations with John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band). Between 1965 and 2018, Yoko Ono appeared in 21 films. In 2001, Ono was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Long Form Music Video category for Gimme Some Truth – The Making Of John Lennon’s Imagine Album. Over the decades, Yoko Ono has won a number of awards include in 2013 an ASCAP Award titled the Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award. In 1991 the Barenaked Ladies released a single titled “Be My Yoko Ono”, which she told a reporter that she liked.

After the Plastic Ono Band dissolved in the early 70s, Ringo Starr had a number of Top Ten hits including “Photograph”, “It Don’t Come Easy”, “You’re Sixteen” and the “No No Song”. Since 1970 Ringo Starr released 19 studio albums and 11 live albums. Beginning with A Hard Day’s Night, Starr has also appeared in 38 films, including several as a voice for animation. Starr has also authored three books. The first Postcards From The Boys, features reproductions of postcards sent to Starr by Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison, along with his commentary. A second is Octopus’ Garden a children’s book based on the song from the album Abbey Road. His third book is Photograph, a collection of 240 photographs of Starr’s that expresses a visual autobiography together with photo captions.

During and after his involvement with the Plastic Ono Band, Klaus Voorman was a session musician with Badfinger, Dion, Hoyt Axton, Donovan, Peter Frampton, Art Garfunkel on “My Little Town” and others, George Harrison on “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” and others, John Lennon on “Imagine”, “Whatever Gets You Thru The Night”, and many others, Maria Muldaur, Randy Newman on “Short People” and others, Harry Nilsson on “Without You” and others, Yoko Ono, Billy Preston, Lou Reed, Leon Russell, Martha Reeves, Carly Simon on “You’re So Vain”, “Mockingbird”, “Haven’t Got Time For the Pain” and others, Ringo Starr on “It Don’t Come Easy”, “Photograph”, You’re Sixteen”, “No No Song”, “Back Off Boogaloo” and others, Howlin’ Wolf, and Louden Wainwright III. Voorman was also part of George Harrison’s band at The Concert for Bangla Desh at Madison Square Garden, New York City, August 1, 1971. Voorman went into semi-retirement in the late 80s. But in 2009 released his first studio album. In 2016, Klaus Voorman published a graphic novel titled Revolver 50: Birth of an Icon.

Along with his output with the Plastic Ono Band, Eric Clapton collaborated with Delaney & Bonnie. He also formed Derek and the Dominos and had a sizable hit with “Layla”. The 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs also won Eric Clapton a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for Historical/Lasting Rock Album. Clapton struggled with heroin addiction and retreated from the spotlight for a few years. A notable exception was Clapton’s involvement with George Harrison in The Concert for Bangladesh. In 1974, he released 461 Ocean Boulevard. The album included the chart-topping single “I Shot The Sheriff”, a cover of a record by Bob Marley. The single won Clapton a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2003 as a Historical/Lasting Rock Single.

Clapton other hits include “After Midnight”, “Lay Down Sally”, “Wonderful Tonight” and “Cocaine”. In 1991, “Tears In Heaven” concerned the death of his four-year-old son, Conor. On March 20, 1991, Conor died after falling from the 53rd-floor window of a New York City apartment belonging to a friend of Conor’s mother. The single won three Grammy Awards in 1993: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. He also won at that year Grammy Awards for Album of the Year: Unplugged, and Best Rock Song for his acoustic version of “Layla”.

At the 1997 Grammys, Clapton won both Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Change The World”. And in “My Father’s Eyes” won him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Eric Clapton has been given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

December 25, 2024
Ray McGinnis

References:
“John Lennon Died 35 Years Ago Today: Read Original Associated Press Story,” Billboard, December 8, 2015.
Johnathan Cott, “John Lennon: The Last Interview: Three Days Before he Died, John Lennon Talked with ‘Rolling Stone’ for Nine Hours. For the First Time, we Present this Extraordinary Interview,” Rolling Stone, December 23, 2010.
Barbara Graustark, “The Lost 1981 Yoko Ono Interview,” Rolling Stone, October 1, 1981.
Stephen Rodrick, “Being Ringo: A Beatle’s All-Starr Life,” Rolling Stone, April 15, 2015.
“Interview: John Lennon and Ringo Starr in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1964.
“Why do we quit ‘cold turkey’,” Miriam-Webster Dictionary.
Jim Emerson, “You say you want a revolution,” Rogerebert.com, September 28, 2006.
Elias Leight, “10 Things We Learned From ‘Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars’ Doc,” Rolling Stone, February 9, 2018.
Jann S. Wenner, “Lennon Remembers, Part One,” Rolling Stone, January 21, 1971.
Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, “Walking on Thin Ice: A Career-Spanning Conversation with Yoko Ono,” November 6, 2013.
A.D. Amorosi, “John Lennon’s ‘Plastic Ono Band’: Klaus Voormann on Making the Classic Album and Why a New Boxed Set is Essential,” Variety, April 22, 2021.

CLKC 1380-AM Boss 40 chart Kingston (ON) Top Ten | January 3, 1970