Song of the Day 1/14: John Lennon, “Instant Karma!”
Remember Bill O’Reilly, the Fox News blowhard? You probably haven’t thought about him in a long time – Fox News 86’d him back in 2017 over his long history of sexual harassment lawsuits, and he’s struggled to find an audience ever since. He’s still out there, though, and the other day he floated back into view long enough for people to point and laugh at him one more time.
In case you haven’t been through the remainders section at Ollie’s recently, O’Reilly has had a second career as the co-author of a series of books whose titles all start with “The Killing Of,” followed by the name of the subject: Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Patton, Jesus – he and co-author Martin Dugard have churned out 13 of titles in as many years.
So maybe O’Reilly should have thought longer before hopping on the Ron DeSantis book-banning wagon. In a case of damn-near-instant karma, Florida’s Escambia County School District pulled two of his titles from its libraries. O’Reilly reacted exactly the way stuck pigs always do, complaining that now things had gone too far. Instead of writing history, maybe O’Reilly should try learning from it.
“Instant Karma!” was released before the Beatles had formally disbanded, because Lennon had written the song the morning of Jan. 27, 1970, and was so enthusiastic about it he booked studio time to record it that night, backed by George Harrison on guitar, Klaus Voorman on bass and Alan White on drums.
Producer Phil Spector, who hadn’t worked in years but was in London at the invitation of the Beatles’ new business manager, Allen Klein, manned the boards. Spector asked Lennon what sound he wanted. “1950s,” Lennon responded. After some overdubbing, this was the result. It was in stores 10 days after it was recorded, and it went to No. 5 on the Hot 100.
No cover can do the song justice, because nobody can equal Lennon’s impassioned vocal. So Jack Antonoff, who records as Bleachers, took it in a different direction in 2022 for the “Minions” soundtrack.
