Starting Over with John and Yoko (Paperback)

“This is one to linger over.” ―Publishers Weekly

On August 7, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono made their triumphant return to the recording studio after a self-imposed five-year absence. Roger Farrington, an up-and-coming photographer from Boston, was hired to get “the shot” that would announce their comeback. It would be Lennon’s most intense press scrutiny since the heady days of the Beatles’ maiden voyage to America in 1964, and for Farrington, it would be the assignment of a lifetime. Just four months later, Lennon’s assassination would plunge the world into mourning.

Reproducing, for the first time, the entire run of Farrington’s iconic photographs from that day, Starting Over transports readers back to 1980 and into Manhattan’s Hit Factory, where Lennon and Ono recorded their acclaimed LP Double Fantasy. With supporting photos and other ephemera, Farrington and renowned Beatles historian Kenneth Womack capture a poignant moment in music history and provide an insider’s look at celebrity photography in the pre-digital age.

KENNETH WOMACK is a professor of English and popular music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Over the years, he has authored numerous books, including Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles, John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life, and Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans.

ROGER FARRINGTON is a Boston-based publicity photographer. His images have appeared in publications worldwide, including Time, Newsweek, People, Parade, Vogue, Town & Country, New York Times, Washington Post, Paris Match, and The Boston Globe. Besides his iconic 1980 images of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, other celebrities Roger Farrington has photographed include Andy Warhol, HRH Prince Charles, Matt Damon, Cher, Richard Pryor, Elton John, Jay Leno, Alec Baldwin, Dionne Warwick, Cyndi Lauper, Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Charlton Heston, Liza Minnelli, Billy Joel, Vanna White, and many others. His work has been exhibited in Boston, New York City, Liverpool, and Tokyo, and is held in private and public collections.