10 things you need to know about May Pang
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Appearing this Sunday, August 25, as part of Liverpool's International Beatle Week is May Pang, the former personal assistant to John Lennon and Yoko Ono who was drawn into a romantic relationship with Lennon for 18 months when Ono and Lennon temporarily separated in 1973.
Pang's recent documentary about that time, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, will be screening at the fest, and it's highly recommended for an insight into John and Yoko's fractious situation back then, and May's role in John's life as a friend and confidant.
May's own story doesn’t begin and end with that love affair though; for the New York-born daughter of Chinese immigrants during a time of tough cultural transition, music was her destiny and saviour, she tells Classic Rock.
1. She didn’t grow up in Chinatown; she was shaped by the hard knocks of Harlem
"My parents arrived in the US and I was their first child to be born in America, in 1950. We lived in Spanish Harlem where they owned a laundry business, and I asked my mother why we didn't live in Chinatown, where our community had gathered. She said it was 'too dirty' – that was her line, but she was really saying that she wanted more.
"I wasn't easily accepted in Harlem, and sometimes that was painful but living there opened my eyes up to other people, and other ideas. My upbringing was totally different to my older sister, who came over from Hong Kong when she was 23 and entered a semi-arranged marriage with a husband who had a place in Chinatown which she never left. That life was not going to be for me."
2. Rock'n'roll and soul music changed her life
"We had a TV set and from an early age I realised that there was all of this amazing music coming out of there thanks to shows like American Bandstand. My father used to get crazy about it; when he was home we had the sound of Chinese operas all over the house, but I wanted to listen to songs that would shape my life and mean so much to me. This music made me feel less alone; my mother had put me into Catholic school because it was the best education but I wasn't Catholic and people who were like me, Chinese people, were at least a mile, two miles away.
"I first saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was the show to watch. I was 13, 14 and had heard of them, and I wanted to see why they were so special. Suddenly, there they were, and everything was so different about them; their singing, their look, their personalities. I was gobsmacked and wanted to hear more so I went out and bought what records I could get my hands on – to this day I still have those original discs."
3. She walked into the New York Apple Records office… and got a job
"I didn't like school, and then I quit college, looking for a job. My mom wasn't so happy, but she said, 'Alright.' A job agency sent me to a place where they were looking for a receptionist. I thought, 'I can do that, pick up the phone, take messages.' It was a Japanese bicycle company and not the best fit for a Chinese person at the time. One day I was meeting a girlfriend in the lobby and she said, 'You know who's in this building? The directory here says Apple Records.' I said, 'I'm going upstairs to ask for a job.' My girlfriend said, 'You're nuts!'
"I went up to the 41st floor and stepped out of the elevator. A woman looked at me like I had five heads. She said, 'Can I help you?' and I asked her if the company had any jobs, but she said no. I was looking around the floor and said, 'Do the Beatles ever come here?' And she chuckled and said no, not at this exact moment. Then the doors opened behind her and lots of people flooded out, it was lunchtime. She called out to the crowd, 'She's looking for a job,' and a man said to me, 'Come back after lunch,' so I did.
"They asked me did I type, did I do accounts, did I do this, did I do that? I said yes to it all, even though I didn't. I got a job! They soon got it that I'd winged it; I couldn't use their calculator, for a start. But I would come in early to teach myself all the things I was lacking. They liked my attitude. I wanted to work, and to learn, and nothing scared me. They don't want somebody that could do everything anyway; they're gonna get bored and leave. I was being challenged and really enjoying it."
4. May's first work outside of the Apple office was on Yoko's avant-garde films
"We had two films to do, both by Yoko. John had his ideas, like his film Erection – a brilliant film about a building that was not pornographic [laughs]. I was so happy because I had a chance to get out of the office. One film was called Up Your Legs Forever, which asked 365 people to 'donate' their legs for peace. Yoko said to me, 'I want you to ring these people,' and she gave me her phone book. I was a little nervous as it was people like Jackie Kennedy and Andy Warhol.
"Mostly I would get through to secretaries but sometimes it would be the actual person, 'Oh, okay, what are the details?' Some politely declined. The second film was Fly, and this was following a fly crawling over a woman's body. It was hard to capture flies that were that were good at acting [laughs].
"We found out there were places where you could go and order flies, like a science centre. Sometimes the flies were half dead, so when they needed more flies, I got some college kids to go around restaurants to see if there were any flies there that we could grab for the shoot. One time, one of the best flies flew off, and people were screaming, 'Catch that fly! Don't let it get away!' It was too funny."
5. May was soon became production coordinator for John and Yoko's music
"This meant booking the studio and the musicians, making sure all the equipment was there, securing sheet music, everything, so that when John, Yoko or the musicians walked into a session it was all ready. John was very, very meticulous when it came to recording. If he said a seven am call, you better be there at seven am. One famous musician, I'm not gonna say who it was, missed the start. It was 10 minutes past, and John's going, 'Where is he?'
"I chased this musician down and found out that he'd overslept. I said, 'Do you know what time it is? We're waiting.' And he goes, 'Oh, my God!' and he ran down to the studio, making it to us about 20 minutes later. As he walked in, John just looked at him – a look that said, 'You don't want to cross me.' And that musician never did do that again. John was a good boss, though. He didn't care what you did after the session, but he sure did care when you were on his time."
6. You can hear May sing – and whisper – on 1974's Walls & Bridges
"I'm on #9 Dream. I did not know I was going to be doing that! This was at Record Plant in New York. I was busy in another room because I didn't always like being where the musicians were working. The assistant engineer came running in to where I was and he said, 'John needs you.' And I'm thinking, 'Oh God, what is it that he would need?'
"I walk into the control room and I can see the studio. It's dark with a light over one lonely microphone and a stand. John says to me, 'Okay, I need you up there,' and he's pointing to the studio. I said, 'You need me up there?' And he goes, 'Yes, I need you to sing, and I need you to whisper. I said, 'What am I whispering?' 'My name,' he says.
"So, wow… oh, my goodness. John provided the ambiance for me by turning down the lights and making it intimate. So that's the feeling you hear on the on the song. I knew other crew and musicians were lurking around, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, I gotta do this now.' At first they were all laughing about it. And then John said, 'Okay, quiet, quiet…' And I did it. Then I was asked to sing on the chorus of the song, so it was me, John, [pop-soul singer] Lori Burton and [guitarist-vocalist] Joey Dambra who did that, the four of us becoming known as the 44th Street Fairies."
7. In her documentary, you see a close bond between May and Julian Lennon. May brought John and Julian together years after his split with Cynthia
"Part of this idea came from the problem I had with my own father. When John and I were together you could see Julian being this young boy at a tender age who needed his dad, and they hadn't spoken for three years. I thought it was very important to try and put them back together, and let Julian see John and talk to him on a more regular basis. I could see John being very nervous every time he'd call Julian and he'd say, 'Oh, God, I wish Cynthia wasn't there.' I'd say to him, 'You can't say that. You haven't seen your son.'
"I was trying to be the voice of reason and, at the end of the day, John and Cynthia had never got the closure that they needed when they divorced. This responsibility to assist seemed to fall onto my plate; I really needed this to finally give everybody their peace. And it worked – after the initial reconciliation, when John would call Julian every week, or if Cynthia picked up the phone, there was no more of this angst. It would be more, 'Oh, hello, Cyn, how are you?'
"It was very liberating, and my relationship with John could now involve Julian, which was great. Cynthia and I remained friends until she passed, which was devastating to me, because the only other person that understood one hundred per cent of the stuff that we had gone through with John was each other."
8. A drug-free tee-totaller, May found herself with John in thick of it with of the notorious Hollywood Vampires – Alice Cooper, Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson and Micky Dolenz
"This was Alice's drinking club, and, at first, it was entertaining. And then, after a while, it got boring. Harry Nilsson, who we loved dearly, knew how to stir the pot, and I used to argue with him. The stories that were told on those nights, John and I would be like, 'Oh my God!' especially at what Keith Moon was telling us, such as him and his roadies nailing furniture to the ceiling of hotel rooms. John would be sharing stories too, from the Beatles' days, but nothing could top The Who.
"John liked the partying, drinking aspect of it, but he also liked that I was there, not drinking or doing anything. I was the only one that could say, 'No, we need to get up in the morning, we have x, y, and z to do'. John didn't feel he could do that, because they were just on top of him. But the thing was, who was going to feature in the papers or news the next day after these nights out, even if he was behaving himself? John. And he was very aware of that and looked to distance himself eventually."
9. As a song-plugger and publisher, May paired Judas Priest with an unusual songwriting partner
"In the 80s I worked for United Artists Publishing and had a stable of writers, one of them being a Christian writer, Bob Halligan Jr. It wasn't easy to get his work assigned so I called him and said, 'Listen, I can't use your songs. Can you write something else that I could take around?' In those days, the newest band that had just come out was Foreigner and I really wanted a song for them.
"Three hours later, he calls me up, saying, I've written something. Can I bring it to you?' He came in and I immediately loved it. I gave him a little guidance and we demoed it and the first person who put a 'hold' on recording it was John Waite. John held onto it for ages, then wanted a lyric change so I withdrew it, and then found out that Judas Priest was looking for one more song for the album Screaming For Vengeance. They loved the song, it was (Take These) Chains!
"They wanted to record another one by Bob, Some Heads Are Gonna Roll, but there was no more room on the record, so it went on Defenders Of The Faith [1984]. I was very happy for Bob. We remained friends; it's the only time I turned to Christian writer into a heavy metal writer [laughs]."
10. May met and married producer Tony Visconti
"I originally met him when John and I were together; we were introduced to David Bowie by Elizabeth Taylor at a party and met Tony after that. 10 years later, there was a new music seminar and Tony was one of the speakers on a panel. I went along, and thought, 'I remember him,' and we chatted and went to dinner, and hung out for a couple of days.
"I didn't see him again until I was in London for something, and by pure chance I was in the Groucho club with a girlfriend who was producing a commercial and having a meeting there. I was sitting waiting for her, making a list of people to catch up with. I looked through my address book and thought, 'Oh, Tony, I haven't talked to him in four years,' and I wrote down his name. Just as I did that, he walked into the Club.
"My girlfriend saw the look on my face, like, 'Oh, my God, what just happened? I just wrote his name. And there he appeared.' So that's how it started. We married in 1989 and The Beatles' In My Life was played at our wedding. We were together for over a decade and had two children. Neither of them went into the music business – one is in alarm tech and the other is a visual designer – but they can both sing!"
International Beatle Week is on now. May's documentary, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story is on Amazon Prime.
