From JOHN LENNON by PHILIP NORMAN : ROULETTE RECORDS's MORRIS LEVY

quotes from pages 745-746 hardback edition of Philip Norman's JOHN LENNON biography...

Christine Trzyna here.

In WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC, we've mentioned a number of early rock and roll managers. One of them is Morris Levy, who both Wes Bryan and Buddy Knox had dealings with in the late 1950's and early 1960's. At they time he was the Roulette Records guy. In this book we learn that Morris Levy also had a deal with John Lennon. In 1975 John still owed Morris an album.

"To show that he and his band were not slipping back into old L.A. ways, he (John Lennon) broke an iron rule and sent Levy several tracks in a rough mix. But, tired of waiting around for his royalty cut, the Octopus issued the unfinished tracks as an album on his own Adam VIII label, titling it Roots:John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits, jacketing it with a garish head shot from the Let it Be Era and marketing it as a cheap-shot TV special offer. The result was a second round of litigating, with Levy suing John for defaulting on the judgement from their earlier court case and John counter suing for release of inferior product under his name without his authorization.'

"... On the witness stand, according to Bob Gruen, "John had to explain why a rough-mix tape was not meant to be sold on the market, and he ...described the difference between that and a final mix and how it was made.... He was incredibly clear and coherent and I remember thinking, if I was a musician this was the best description I could possible have."

John Lennon was awarded more than $144,700 and succeeded in having the Adam VIII compilation withdrawn from sale.

"Rush released before too many TV viewers could send their money to Morris Levy, John's fully mixed album was entitled simply Rock and Roll. Buyers who were expecting a straight nostalgia trip in the current mode were in for a surprise. Some of the tracks, like Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sure" and gene Vincents "Be Bop-a Lula," certainly were just as he used to play them with the Quarrymen and first -draft Beatles in Liverpool and Hamburg. Others, like Bobby Freeman's "Do you Want to Dance?" and Larry Williams, "Bony Maronie" were slowed down almost beyond recognition; Chuck Berry's "Sweet Little Sixteen," seemed to have collided with the Coasters' "Little Egypt," while "You Cant' Catch Me" sounded like the Beatles "Come Together"....