It’s not all rock ’n’ roll
QUESTION Was John Lennon forced by a lawsuit to record an album?
This refers to the furore surrounding John Lennon’s sixth solo album, Rock ’N’ Roll, which was released on February 21, 1975, and was his first not to have any self-penned songs.
Originally to be called Oldies But Mouldies, recording started in late 1973 with producer Phil spector, but due to disagreements, the sessions fell apart. spector was involved in a car accident and it took some time for Lennon to get the tapes from him.
he decided only four takes were acceptable and re-recorded the others, which included some Chuck Berry songs. his album Walls And Bridges was released in October 1974, so it was decided to hold back the release of Oldies.
Meanwhile, Lennon was sued for copyright infringement over the claim that Come Together on The Beatles’ Abbey Road album was a plagiarised version of Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me.
Lennon settled out of court and agreed to include some Chuck Berry songs on his next album. in a show of good faith, he gave Maurice Levy, the publisher of Chuck Berry’s song catalogue, the rough tapes from the spector sessions.
Levy created an album out of the tapes, which he advertised on U.s. TV and released by mail order on his record label, Adam Viii, on February 8, 1975.
Called John Lennon sings The Great Rock & Roll hits, it was sub-titled Roots, the name by which it’s more usually known. Levy claimed it was authorised by Lennon and Apple Records, which was hotly denied.
Levy sued Lennon, Apple and Capitol when the album was pulled. Lennon counter-claimed. Levy won $6,795 (£4,924) in damages, but Lennon was awarded $145,300 (£105,302) for ‘damages to his reputation’ due to the poor sound quality and the ‘horrible album cover’. On appeal this was reduced to $84,912 (£61,537).
Production and distribution of Roots was halted. The 3,000 copies that had been pressed are highly sought after.
Graham Calkin, Basildon, Essex.
QUESTION Can glass bottles and drinks cans be infinitely recycled?
DRINKS cans are made of aluminium or steel and there is no loss of the metals’ inherent properties during recycling, so there is no limit to the number of times this can happen.
in Europe, 74 per cent of aluminium drinks cans are recycled. Three-quarters of all the aluminium ever produced in the world is still in use. R. Fell, Metal Packaging Manufacturers
Association, Peacehaven, E. Sussex. iN ThEORY, glass can be recycled endlessly with no loss of quality. Using heattreated bottles and jars is more energy efficient than raw materials. Britain recycles 71 per cent of container glass.
Glass retains its original colour when re-melted, so if you mix colours you end up with a brownish glass. some modern recycling facilities have optical sorting equipment to separate the colours.
Test tubes, lab glass and incandescent light bulbs aren’t recycled. Pyrex can’t be recycled with ordinary glass.
however, if paper labels or glues aren’t removed, the glass will take on a blackish hue from carbon contamination.
Degraded glass can be used as aggregate in concrete, fibreglass for insulation, a flux when producing bricks, in water filters or as an industrial abrasive.
Dean Cowan, York.
QUESTION What is the origin of the phrase pork barrel politics?
THE meaning of this American phrase has shifted. Originally, it referred to any government spending of taxpayers’ money, but came to mean spending that benefits the constituents of a politician as a way of gaining support, especially around election time. Nowadays, it means any form of dubious politics.
The precise origin of the term isn’t known, but it may relate to slavery. Pork was preserved by salting and was kept in barrels. The use of the term may relate to slaves fighting for a share of salted pork from the barrel when it was handed out by the slave owners.
This migrated into political terminology as a metaphor for the way politicians squabble over public spending.
The first use of the modern sense of the term is in the 1863 story The Children Of The Public by Edward Everett hale. An American Unitarian minister active in the anti- slavery movement, he wrote books with social reform at their heart.
A decade later, the phrase started to be used for public spending.
The hallmark of pork barrel spending is that whatever it pays for is of little value in economic terms and benefits only a small area. The benefits may be short-lived, such as building projects.
Bob Cubitt, Northampton.
QUESTION What is the oldest rolling stock still in use on the London Underground?
FURTHER to the earlier answer about the London Underground 1972 stock on the Bakerloo line, from 1967 until this year, the oldest in public service — and, indeed, the oldest of all UK rolling stock — were two generations of Tube trains on the isle of Wight line from Ryde to shanklin.
When the line was electrified in 1967, it was provided with standard stock, built between 1923 and 1934.
They replaced steam-hauled carriages, which were probably the oldest passenger stock in Britain. By 1992, they had been replaced by 1938 stock, built between 1938 and 1953.
The island Line has introduced a third type of Tube train, D78 stock, built between 1980 and 1983.
This means that for the first time in 50 years, the isle of Wight no longer has the oldest passenger carriages in the UK and even has some that are newer than the oldest stock on the Bakerloo Line.
Bob Bell, Croydon, Surrey.
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