A new John and Yoko film cracks the code of the best concert docs

ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO doesn't need to dwell on the show in question, however good it was

In the 10 years between the end of The Beatles and his murder, John Lennon played only one full live show. It’s easy to see myth in everything Lennon and his old band, but the numbers have always been easy to remember. The Beatles’ life span: 1960-1970. Lennon’s solo years: 1970-1980. Lennon’s life: 1940-1980. The number of Beatles albums simply sticks because it’s just so freaky to release 13 albums of any quality in a 7-year period, let alone that 13. Even Lennon’s final decade was neatly divided into five years of business as usual and five more of retirement, following the birth of his and Yoko Ono’s son, Sean. When the hiatus finally ended in November 1980 with the release of Double Fantasy, Lennon would be killed within less than a month. But how about that one show, surreptitiously called the One to One concert.

Performed at Madison Square Garden in the summer of 1972 (twice, in actual fact: a matinee and an evening performance), One to One was a full house of a post-Beatles Joh…