John Lennon - The Sleepy Blind Lennon Album (1980)

I stumbled on this bootleg when I was preparing the recent Julian/John duet for Mike, and had almost forgotten that I had it. I'd always meant to clean it up and give it a new cover before posting it, but somehow it slipped through the net. It's an actual bootleg CD which appeared in 1990, after 'The Lost Lennon Tapes' were aired on the radio, as all the songs are taken from those broadcasts, and they mostly come from the 'Dakota Demos' that were recorded around 1980. When 'Serve Yourself' was first aired I remember that it caused quite a commotion, as it was a pretty much complete song from Lennon that hadn't been heard before, and this version is an even rarer piano version. You'll recognise 'The Worst Is Over Now' as an early version of '(Just Like) Starting Over' from 'Double Fantasy', and we also get the original Lennon demo of 'Free As A Bird', but the rest of the tracks are all new to me, so I hope you find something you are not familiar with as well. I've given the album a new cover in keeping with the title, which I guess is taken from the introduction to 'John Henry', which I've edited slightly from the original Sleepy Blind Lemon Lennon, as that didn't really scan. I've removed one track, which was a short cover of 'Only The Lonely' which didn't really go anywhere, and just so you know, 'Howling At The Moon' and 'Memories' are the same song done in different styles. 

Track listing

01 John Henry (The Steel Driving Man)/I Ain't Got Time
02 Serve Yourself  (piano version)

03 You Saved My Soul (With Your True Love)
04 The Worst Is Over 
05 When A Boy Meets A Girl
06 She's A Friend Of Dorothy's 
07 One Of The Boys
08 He Got The Blues
09 Cookin' (In The Kitchen Of Love) 
10 Free As A Bird
11 People (Angela)
12 On The Caribbean
13 Well (Baby Please Don't Go)
14 Gone From This Place
15 Howling At The Moon (electric)
16 Memories (Howling At The Moon) (piano)
17 Mucho Mungo