John Lennon and Yoko Ono threw the doors of his five-year "retirement" open to a small group of journalists during the period prior to the release of Double Fantasy and his assassination -- and some audio from a long interview that ran in the December 1980 issue of Playboy was released on a limited-edition LP. Issued a little over a month before the posthumous release of Milk and Honey, it amounts to a brief for the Lennon-Ono party line, depicting an unorthodox yet happy couple committed to love, peace, feminism, enlightened child-rearing, and straight talk. This is the Lennon so beloved of journalists -- direct, blunt-spoken, realistic, charming, witty, yet without the vitriol of a decade before. With Yoko chiming in now and then, Lennon dutifully promotes the then-upcoming Double Fantasy, talks of his adventures as a house-husband and his motivations for leaving the Beatles, and rhapsodizes about the impact of Yoko on his life ("She's the teacher, I'm the pupil") while heatedly denying her alleged Svengali role, renouncing again his position as a culture hero, and gently encouraging baby boomers to find their own paths. It feels like your sitting down in a booth next to Lennon and over-hearing casual conversation. Recorded over the Summer of 1980, these conversations capture Lennon's mood and outlook during what would be the last few months of his life.
Running time is approximately 1 hour.