Walls and Bridges

John Lennon temporarily separated from Yoko Ono directly after finishing his ‘Mind Games’ LP in 1973, and started a relationship with May Pang in California. This would be referred to by many as his ‘Lost Weekend’, fueled by partying, alcohol, and recording sessions for a covers album, ‘Rock 'n’ Roll'. However, sessions for this album quickly went downhill due to the alcohol and partying, ending up with producer Phil Spector running away with the recordings. Therefore, Lennon decided to shelve these sessions, and commence work on a new, original album, with some songs he had already written with Pang.

There can be a few songs found on this album that reflect Lennon’s feelings towards his separation with Ono, such as ‘Going Down on Love’, ‘What You Got’, and ‘Bless You’. ‘Going Down on Love’ also includes a reference to Beatles song ‘Help’. Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine:

Elton (John) sort of popped in on the sessions for Walls and Bridges and sort of zapped in and played the piano and ended up singing ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ with me. Which was a great shot in the arm. I’d done three quarters of it, ‘Now what do we do?’ Should we put a camel on it or a xylophone? That sort of thing. And he came in and said, ‘Hey, I’ll play some piano!