Yoko Ono Takes Early Lead in Fight Over Lennon Tapes

Yoko Ono stepped closer to suppressing a black-and-white tape featuring her husband John Lennon writing songs, smoking marijuana and talking about putting LSD in then-President Richard Nixon's tea. In a Boston courtroom yesterday, a judge ruled in favor of Ono while casting doubt on production company World Wide Video's ownership of the tapes. The footage, edited down to a two-hour film entitled 3 Days in the Life, were supposed to make their debut at a school in Maine until Ono's lawyers intervened with cease-and-desist letters. The tapes were shot by Ono's pre-Lennon husband Anthony Cox and sold to World Wide Video in 2000.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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