Where have I been? I
had never heard Widespread Panic's version of The Beatles' 1969 single, "The
Ballad of John and Yoko" until today.
Widespread Panic
never gets the attention it deserves among the pantheon of Southern rock bands,
a genre that I really like. It helps (me, anyway) that their relatively new
drummer is Duane Trucks, the younger brother of the great Derek Trucks. I'm in
awe of the Allman-Trucks progeny's musicianship.
John Lennon wrote "The Ballad," which was a self-centered ode to his marriage to and "Bed-In"
protest-honeymoon with Yoko Ono at the Amsterdam Hotel. The Beatles' break-up
was well underway in the spring of 1969. Despite considerable
tensions, however, Paul was very supportive of John and played on the track.
Interesting, neither George nor Ringo was involved with the recording.
Nonetheless, the B-side of the single did feature George's ditty, "Old Brown Shoe."
It's funny to note
that Spain's then-dictator and fanatical Catholic Francisco Franco is said to have hated the song. Was
it due to what some labeled the sacrilegious references to "Christ" and
lyrics such as "they're going to crucify me." Nah. His objection was
political. Spain and the U.K. were sparring over Gibraltar at the time and he
disapproved of the line, "You can make it ok, you can get married in
Gibraltar near Spain." And that's precisely where John and Yoko did get
married.
Widespread Panic's
jammy live version of the tune is infectious. After all, they are highly regarded as a jam band in the spirit of The Dead and Phish. John Bell's vocals are so crisp
that I actually heard words that were indecipherable to me in John's original
version. Jo Jo Hermann provided a wonderful piano interlude and
Jimmy Herring's lead guitar was better than what John or Paul wanted to offer back in
1969, without George. Widespread Panic also has an acoustic version of the tune on their 2012 album, "Wood."
Photo courtesy of Bandit Lights.