"Milk and Honey" by John Lennon and Yoko Ono – ***

First released: 1984

John Lennon mentioned in one of his last interviews that he and Yoko had an excess of material and that a second album with this title would be coming out in early 1981, and after that he would be going out on tour. I was truly excited about this prospect about a new album and tour so soon and then the tragedy struck. I still thought the album was going to come out in early 1981, but it took until 1984 and two solo Yoko Ono albums before the material saw the light. "Nobody Told Me" was the taster single and promised great things to come and then I got this album and realized that Lennon really hadn’t finished his work (especially on "Grow Old With Me") and Yoko recorded her material more recently, creating kind of an ersatz duet album like "Double Fantasy".

I figured that that was the end of Lennon’s unreleased stuff as Lennon wasn’t known to leave much in the can. This still was true but there was still some more stuff. One wonders what would have happened had Lennon stayed alive into the 80s, 90s and beyond. I feel that he would have put out a few more albums, but eventually I think he would have tired of the grind of producing new work and never work at the levels of McCartney, more like George Harrison.

I was planning to send a letter to John and Yoko in late 1980 requesting that they quit smoking because it would shorten their lives. I never sent that letter.

This was the first LP to come out concurrently on CD. In 2001, it was remastered and reissued adding the Lennon version of "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him", "Stepping Out (Home Version)", "I’m Moving On" and "Interview With J&Y December 8th, 1980".