20 SEPTEMBER 21-27, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | other kids and John swimming — it was the happiest moments. The happiest moments.” Pang and Julian, who has praised her in numerous interviews and throughout the upcoming documentary, still speak fre- quently. His latest album, Jude, even uses one of the photos she took of him. “When I look back, one of the things I’m most proud of is reuniting Julian with his dad,” Pang says. She adds that her photos show that Len- non wasn’t what the public perceived him to be. “He’s not miserable. He’s not drunk,” she insists. “I saw someone who once said, ‘John can’t be that drunk to be doing all this work in this time frame.’ He did more work in our time together than he did in any time of his own solo career.” That included his collaborations with Elton John (Lennon played live for the fi rst time since 1966 with John in 1974, on the condition that Pang be in a spot where he could see her) and his records Mind Games, Walls and Bridges and the famous Rock ’N’ Roll album with Jim Keltner and Phil Spec- ter, all of which Pang helped record. Pang also witnessed the moment that would make any Beatlemaniac swoon: Dur- ing a Rock studio session at their place in Santa Monica, Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, came by. It was the two rock stars’ fi rst time seeing each other after fi ve years of fi ghting, and they greeted each other as old friends. They jammed together that night, with Stevie Wonder joining in, Mal Evans and Pang on tambourine, and Linda on organ. At that house, Pang took the last known photo of the two Beatles together. “When they saw each other, it was like they hadn’t left,” she recalls. “When we were back in New York, our fi rst visit was Paul and Linda. And every time they were in town, they stopped by.” Paul wasn’t the only Beatle with whom John reunited. “It was George Harrison that turned around and said to John, ‘I’m glad she’s with you,’ pointing to me as I’m sitting there,” Pang says, recalling when Harrison visited them during his 1974 Dark Horse tour. “And then he looked at me and he says, ‘I’m glad you’re with him.’ So it was really lovely. ... George had not seen him in a long time.” Later in ’74, Lennon and Pang moved back to New York, where they found an apartment together on East 52nd Street overlooking the river, and made a room for Julian. Pang was 23 years old. “It was a joy and pleasure,” Julian recalls in the documentary. “It was just Dad and May and happy, happy times.” While Lennon was recently sober, his spir- its were high; he was busy making music and doing more interviews than ever before. While he once derided his time with the Beatles, he was now responding “You never know” when asked if the band would ever reunite. And there was domestic bliss, as well, which is clear in Pang’s photographs. Every- thing was shaping up for a happy life: Pang says she and Lennon were looking at houses in Montauk in February 1975, and they were also planning a trip to New Orleans to visit Paul and Linda. “Writing-wise, he was ready to write with Paul again,” she recalls. Then everything changed with a single phone call. “Yoko called up when she got wind that he wanted to quit smoking,” Pang recalls: “‘Oh, my God, I found this great method. It’s under hypnosis.’ And you know when you get a weird feeling when somebody says some- thing like that? She was so insistent on the day that he had to go to meet the hypnotist. And I remember before he left, John saying to me, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back. We’ll go out to dinner; make a reservation.’” Lennon didn’t return to his apartment with Pang that night or the next — or ever again. She kept calling Ono, who wouldn’t answer. Finally, she was able to get through to Ono. Pang told her that Lennon had a dentist appointment, which apparently was some- thing she knew would get Ono to let him out of the house. Pang went to the dentist that day to meet Lennon in person, but he looked “dazed,” she recalls. “John’s going, ‘Yoko’s allowed me to come home.’ And I said, ‘Really? So where does that leave us?’ He goes, ‘It’s because she thinks it’s better for my immigration,’” Pang remem- bers. “I just looked at a guy that I did not recognize at that moment. We had already told lawyers that we were interested in buy- ing a house out in Montauk. So everything just stopped. Everything halted.” Pang and Lennon did stay in touch, and she says she saw him “quite often.” In their phone conversations, she would always ask if he was okay, and his one-word responses were unconvincing. “But I didn’t press it,” Pang recalls. “I just wanted to be sure he was okay. And I would always ask: ‘Are you talk- ing to Julian?’ Because to me that was very important. If nothing else, I wanted to make sure that he and his son were still in contact.” The last time they spoke was months before he was assassinated, Pang says: “He called me from South Africa, from Cape Town, in 1980, and he just wanted to talk. He said, ‘I’m trying to fi gure out a way to come so that we can get together.’ He just told me how much he missed me.” Lennon was killed on December 8, 1980. Pang went on to marry Bowie producer Tony Visconti in 1989; they had two children and divorced in 2000. “There’s no closure with me and John,” she says. “That’s the bottom line to that.” But Pang hopes to fi nd closure at least in setting the record straight on the “lost weekend,” by sharing her story through her photographs and documentary. And visitors at Bitfactory’s opening reception will get to see and hear it from Pang fi rsthand. Putting the collection together took her years, and business partner Scott Segelbaum has helped organize exhibitions in various cit- ies. “He’s been wonderful. He says, ‘You don’t really have to do anything, but we’re going to give people an experience. And the experience is the photographs that are there, but it’s also going to be your story, because you’re there, talking to these people. You’re going to give it to them because you’re fi rst-person, you’re the actual person who was with John,’” Pang says. “That’s what all these pictures represent,” she concludes. “It’s him. John.” The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang opens with a reception from 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 22, and runs through Sunday, September 24, Bitfactory Gallery, 851 Santa Fe Drive, bitfactory.net. Music continued from page 19 FOR MORE INFO & TICKETS MERCURYCAFE.COM FRI 9/22 THE PAMLICO SOUND W/ THE FABULOUS BOOGIENAUTS & MOXXY 7 - 12 PM JAZZ JAM W/GABE GRAVANGNO TRIO 6 - 9:15 PM POETRY OPEN MIC 9:30 - 11:30 PM SAT 9/23 JAZZ PEACE - IN THE JUNGLE ROOM 7 - 9 PM PRIVATE EVENT - BALLROOM 5 - 11 PM SUN 9/24 EAST COAST SWING LESSONS 5:30 - 8 PM SUNDAY NIGHT JITTERBUG FEATURING ODESSA ROSE! 8 PM JAM B4 THE SLAM 6 - 8:00 PM POETRY SLAM (RESPONSE!) THEN OPEN MIC 8 - MIDNIGHT THU 9/21 REX WINNFIELD WITH BRAY- DEN, LUVFREQNCS, SARDONYX, REV. 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