Whimsical sketch by John Lennon from 1974 depicting himself with Harry Nilsson and Jesse Ed Davis [Lennon's guitarist] standing around the pool table at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco in LA.
In June 1973, as Lennon was about to record Mind Games, Ono decided that she and Lennon should separate. Lennon soon moved to California with his and Ono's personal assistant May Pang, after Ono had egged her on, and embarked upon an 18-month relationship with Pang he would later refer to as his "Lost Weekend". Lennon had planned to record an album of rock 'n' roll oldies with producer Phil Spector, but these sessions became legendary not for the music produced but for the chaotic antics fuelled by alcohol. Lennon and Pang returned to New York and Spector disappeared with these session tapes.
Lennon was rehearsing his new material for his Walls and Bridges record with a handful of musicians at Record Plant East in New York City in July 1974. Musicians included Jim Keltner on drums, Klaus Voormann on bass, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar, and Arthur Jenkins on percussion. These were some of the players Lennon had been with in Los Angeles, but here they were under orders to avoid the drinking and carousing that had characterised the earlier interaction.
This drawing is part of the infamous lost weekend period when the three of them were in town recording with John Lennon. John Lennon initialled the sketch and Jesse Ed Davis has signed the reverse as provenance as well as providing a short handwritten note as authentication.
