Lennon tour setlist, circa 1981

Since Lennon was robbed of the opportunity to tour behind the Double Fantasy
album, we can only imagine what his tour might have been like in 1981. What
would it have been like?

Would it have been an equal John and Yoko show, with alternating songs?

fattuchus...

Unfortunately, probably. Or it not exactly equal, the audience would
have had to sit through at least several Yoko squawkings, similar to
the One to One concert.

What kind of venues? Huge stadia? (Probably not good for John's nerves.)

Melvin...

heh heh. he said "stadia"...

Runnnerr...

heh heh, he said "huge"

More intimate, funky venues like theaters?

Who would have backed him up in his live band?

fattuchus...

John had said he had so much fun in the studio doing Double Fantasy, he
spoke about taking the studio musicians on the road. HIs back up band
probably would have been those musicians.

Those are all interesting questions but I was thinking today about which
songs we might have heard on that tour. I'll ignore any possible Yoko songs
as A) I'm not a fan of her stuff anyway and B) I'm really not sure how
effective she would have been in a live setting on such a tour.

fattuchus...

I saw John and Yoko perform at the evening One to One concert. Most of
the audience listened politely to Yoko's "singing" but they were
generally not impressed. She received tepid applause at best. However
the overall sound quality of the show was not the best either.

Here's what I'd guess we *might* have seen from a Lennon set:

Starting Over
Instant Karma
Woman
Number 9 Dream
Jealous Guy (at piano?)
Love (piano?)
Come Together
Yer Blues
Stand By Me
Mind Games
I'm Losing You
Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
Give Peace A Chance
early Beatles tune... A Hard Days's Night if he could hit the bridge... or
maybe Help...

encore: Imagine

fattuchus...

I can't see John doing Imagine as an encore. Based on past experience,
he would have sung Imagine as part of the main show.

I think All You Need is Love would be a nice encore.

I cannot imagine (sorry) Lennon getting away with only one encore but apart
from going out and doing another Rock N Roll cover I'm not sure what else
he'd do at that point.

Anyway, this set list is based on the guesses that 1) Lennon would include
some new material but feel compelled to perform some his bigger (and better)
songs from the decade-plus he'd been absent from the road and 2) He would
include a few Beatles tunes like Paul had been dabbling in Beatles songs at
the time but for the most part would keep them well outnumbered by solo
tunes.

Some of these songs were tunes that were performed live during his *rare*
post-Beatles live performances (Imagine, Come Together, Yer Blues, Whatever
Gets You Thru The Night), others really are just guesses. This isn't a very
"rocky" show, with plenty of ballads and more pop-oriented songs instead of
a lot of gutsy tunes. Knowing is age, voice, and the sound of the Double
Fantasy album, this is more what I'd expect the setlist to be...