[John Lennon] - The Record Plant

New England Piano Company, Boston, Massachusetts, upright, serial number 71904, 55 3/4 x 61 3/4 x 26 1/2 in. (HxWxD), heavily modified with original action housed in a later oak case designed to display the interior without front or side panels; soundboard and case cracks, some repairs, modern key covers of plastic.

heavily modified with original action housed in a later oak case designed to display the interior without front or side panels, soundboard cracks and some repairs, key covers replaced with plastic.
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The upright piano from New York’s Record Plant recording studio,  played and recorded  by numerous rock legends

This piano has a long illustrious history with some of the most famous rock musicians of the 1970s and 1980s, much of it recounted in an accompanying letter by Jack Douglas. Douglas was the producer and/or engineer of recordings by John and Yoko (“Imagine,” “Walls and Bridges”, “Double Fantasy”), The Who (“Who’s Next”), Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Pattis Smith, Slash, and the New York Dolls among many others. In the PBS documentary “Lennonyc,” he is one of the experts presented, based on his experience at the Record Plant (from 1969 until it closed in 1987).

The Record Plant began in New York in 1968. It was the first studio to give musicians a comfortable, casual “living room” environment rather than the white-walled, flourescent-lit, clinical setting that was the norm until then. The first sessions recorded there included The Soft Machine’s eponymous album and Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland.” Located at 321 West 44^th Street, Hendrix used to leave his sessions to hang out after hours at Steve Paul’s Scene, around the corner on West 46^th.

According to Douglas the piano “was in use at Record Plant for as long as I was there. … I personally saw Don McLean play it during the sessions for the song ‘American Pie’ … At some point … [we]inserted tacks into the hammers to give it that special ‘Honky Tonk” sound. It was then moved to studio ‘A’ shortly before John Lennon arrived for the ‘Imagine’ sessions. John fell in love with it as soon as he sat down to play it. It’s sound was rich and bright and had a certain nostalgic sound that John associated with early American Rock and Rhythm and Blues.  I saw him sit at the piano many times working at the piano parts he would use on this album or composing new songs. For the rest of it’s days that piano was known to us at Record Plant as ‘The John Lennon Piano’ he loved it so much he had it moved to every studio he worked in at the complex. I watched him write songs with both Elton John and David Bowie at this piano. He used it for composing and as an instrument on ‘Walls and Bridges’ and when we were mixing ‘Double Fantasy’ in the ‘Mix Room’ he had it brought up and installed in the wall next to the control room so he could go bang on it between mixes. It was there on his last day on earth, which he spent with me in the ‘Mix Room’ working on ‘Walking on Thin Ice.’ He was playing that piano shortly before he left.”

Douglas goes on to report of its use by Bob Dylan, Pete Townshend, Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Patti Smith, Rick Derringer, Judy Collins, Lou Reed and Alice Cooper. “I liked to use it as an effect to heighten the percussive sound of the guitars. It can be heard on the Aerosmith albums ‘Get Your Wings’ ‘Rocks’ and ‘Toys in the Attic.’

An instrument with incomparable associations in Rock Music history.