The story behind this song is the stuff of legends. It’s easy to forget that the story of John Lennon post-Beatles was not all just being a house-husband and loving Yoko.  Some will remember that there was the infamous “Lost Weekend” which truthfully was more like two years, from 1973-75 where Lennon ran off with Yoko’s assistant to Los Angeles, hanging out with legendary boozing and reckless types like Harry Nilsson and Keith Moon, Phil Spector and David Bowie, and in the case of this song, Mick Jagger.  There are two competing claims for the origin of this song; one has Lennon playing guitar and producing, the other has him just producing, but this legendary session has everyone from crack session drummer Jim Keltner to Al Kooper (organ extraordinaire who played with Bob Dylan among others), Jack Bruce of Cream on bass Harry Nilsson on backing vocals and Bobby Keys (who played almost every sax solo in the seventies) providing the horn break. The song material fits Jagger like a glove, a dirty blues euphemism. But the star of the show is John Lennon’s production, a greasy concoction of bass and punchy horns, that makes this track just so damn perfect. If there was anything that better defined the rock star lifestyle in the 70s in all its excessive glory, I’d be hard pressed to believe it.

Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)- Mick Jagger (Produced by John Lennon)