While John Lennon retreated into private life in 1975, he also fought a major legal battle that flew under the public radar. Mafia-connected Morris Levy, owner of Roulette Records, released Roots, an unauthorized version of a rock ’n’ roll oldies album John had been producing. Levy claimed the former Beatle had verbally agreed to market Roots via TV. The quick release of John Lennon Rock ’n’ Roll, the official album, resulted in two Levy lawsuits against John - and John’s counterclaims against Levy.
Lennon attorney Jay Bergen tells the intimate story of how he worked closely with John to rebut Levy’s specious claims. He also recounts how John explained his recording process in poetic, exacting terms for a judge who knew little about The Beatles and John’s solo career.
Lennon, the Mobster & the Lawyer catches the high drama of the courtroom skirmishes in this previously untold story. It also paints a detailed personal portrait of John and his world from 1975 to 1977, when he would soon welcome a new son and go into happy seclusion as a father and husband.
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Number:2868836 THUMBNAIL Uploaded By:JPGR&B SUBS Description: Front cover.
Number:2802567 Uploaded By:JPGR&B SUBS Description: Holding image created by JPGR&B in November 2021 in the absence of any publisher's details or images for the book.
Notes by JPGR&B from November 2021 when news first broke about the book, and before a publisher or front cover image had been revealed:
Jay Bergen was a New York trial lawyer for 45 years. He represented John Lennon in his protracted court battle with Morris Levy, a notorious Mafia front-man working in the New York City music industry in the 1970s. Over the course of the trial Lennon and Bergen became friends.
The trial stemmed from discord over an oral agreement where Lennon would record three rock-and-roll oldies from the 1950s that Morris would sell on a worldwide basis. The trial was finally resolved in 1977. Levy lost, to the tune of $151,000, roughly $727,000 today.
For the past four decades, Bergen has kept the entire court record of the trial, some 5,000+ pages in all. He thought he’d write a book about the experience but was persuaded to first present his story in theatres in front of live audiences. John Lennon, The Mobster & The Lawyer premiered in March 2018. For several years Bergen has been presenting evenings of storytelling, surprising and delighting audiences with personal anecdotes about the times he spent with Lennon, Yoko Ono and other rock and roll royalty.
Now Bergen has written that promised book about those times. “It’s a terrific story. It’s John’s story. It’s never been told. There have been articles written here and there, but nobody’s gotten it right, because nobody had the contact that I did with him,” says Jay Bergen - the only one of the three still alive - and does he have a story to tell.
The book will feature extensive court transcripts alongside Bergen's personal memories of Lennon, such as their shared love of '50s rock'n'roll. It captures the ex-Beatle at a point when he'd just become a father to Sean and was ready to disappear into his house husband years. "I wanted people to learn about this time in John Lennon's life when he just wanted to be John Lennon," says Bergen. "He didn't want to be an icon. He wanted to be a father, a New Yorker. Y'know, just living his life."