Cold Turkey
| "Cold Turkey" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Plastic Ono Band | ||||
| B-side | "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)" (Yoko Ono) | |||
| Released | 20 October 1969 | |||
| Recorded | 30 September 1969 | |||
| Studio | EMI, London | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 5:01 | |||
| Label | Apple | |||
| Songwriter | John Lennon | |||
| Producers |
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| Plastic Ono Band singles chronology | ||||
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"Cold Turkey" is a song written by John Lennon and released as a single in September 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records. It is the second solo single issued by Lennon and it peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 14 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's first appearance on an album was Live Peace in Toronto 1969 where the song had been performed live on 13 September 1969 with Lennon reading the lyrics off a clip-board.[5][6][7]
Writing and recording
[edit]According to Peter Brown in his book The Love You Make, the song was written in a "creative outburst" following Lennon and Yoko Ono going "cold turkey" from their brief heroin addictions, as well as the direct effect of withdrawal syndrome.[8][9] Brown states that Lennon presented the song to Paul McCartney as a potential single by the Beatles, as they were finishing recording for their Abbey Road album.[10] This was refused. The track was eventually released as a Plastic Ono Band single, with sole writing credits to Lennon.[8] Lennon referred ambiguously to his substance abuse in some songs on the White Album in 1968, where the compositions were mostly individual and introspective, including "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", as well as on other songs from previous Beatles albums.
"Cold Turkey" was the first song Lennon wrote for which he took sole credit; his previous compositions, including his first single release, "Give Peace a Chance",[11] were attributed to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, although the credit for "Give Peace a Chance" was later changed to Lennon alone.[12]
In the last major interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980, published by David Sheff in his book All We Are Saying, Lennon explained the anti-drug meaning of the song:
"Cold Turkey" is self-explanatory. It was banned again all over the American radio (after "The Ballad of John and Yoko" for other reasons), so it never got off the ground. They were thinking I was promoting heroin, but instead... They're so stupid about drugs! They're always arresting smugglers or kids with a few joints in their pocket. They never face the reality. They're not looking at the cause of the drug problem. Why is everybody taking drugs? To escape from what? Is life so terrible? Do we live in such a terrible situation that we can't do anything about it without reinforcement from alcohol or tobacco or sleeping pills? I'm not preaching about 'em. I'm just saying a drug is a drug, you know. Why we take them is important, not who's selling it to whom on the corner.[13]
"Cold Turkey" was recorded in Abbey Road Studio 2, and features Eric Clapton.[10] There are other versions besides the single, several of which are acoustic, and a live version included on Live in New York City that features Ono adding vocalizations.[14]
Release and reception
[edit]The single was released with a standard green Apple label, with the words "Play Loud" printed on the spindle plug of the UK pressing and above and beneath the spindle hole of the US pressing. This instruction would also appear on the labels of Lennon's next solo single, "Instant Karma!".
Cash Box described the song as "brilliant, controversial and an absolute smash."[15] Record World called it "a chilling musical rendition of withdrawal."