SEPTEMBER 22 | TODAY IN ROCK HISTORY: John Lennon, Farm Aid, Bruce Springsteen
John Lennon Signs with Geffen Records
On September 22, 1980, John Lennon officially returned to the music business after a five-year hiatus when he signed with Geffen Records. Lennon had stepped away from recording and performing in 1975 to focus on raising his son, Sean, with Yoko Ono. During those years, which Lennon sometimes referred to as his “househusband” period, he largely withdrew from public life and devoted himself to family, spending time at home and pursuing interests such as sailing while fans wondered whether he would ever return to music.
The signing was a major coup for David Geffen and his newly established label. Lennon and Ono had attracted interest from several record companies, but Geffen’s personal approach and willingness to work with Ono helped convince them to choose his label. As Lennon’s official site recounts, Geffen sent Ono a telegram, she brought the message to Lennon, and Lennon immediately decided that Geffen was the one.
The agreement quickly led to the sessions that became Double Fantasy, the joint Lennon–Ono album that marked Lennon’s long-awaited return to recording. Released on November 17, 1980, the album featured Lennon and Ono alternating their songs across the record, with Lennon contributing “(Just Like) Starting Over,” “Woman” and “Watching the Wheels,” among others.
The album initially received mixed critical reactions, but its place in Lennon’s legacy changed dramatically after his death. It produced major songs including “(Just Like) Starting Over” and “Woman,” while Ono contributed tracks including “Kiss Kiss Kiss.” Only weeks after the album’s release, Lennon was murdered outside his New York City home, transforming what had begun as a remarkable comeback into one of the most tragic chapters in rock history.
That makes September 22, 1980, more than a record-business anniversary. It was the day Lennon formally stepped back into a world he had voluntarily left behind, unaware that his return would become the final chapter of his recording career and that the music he was preparing to share would soon carry a meaning far beyond anything he could have imagined.
Bruce Springsteen Goes “Plugged”
On September 22, 1992, Bruce Springsteen took the stage for an MTV Unplugged performance, the series that had become famous for intimate acoustic appearances by artists ranging from Eric Clapton to Nirvana. Springsteen, however, quickly demonstrated that he was not particularly interested in following the show’s formula. After opening with the acoustic “Red Headed Woman,” he brought out his band and plugged in, turning the performance into something much closer to a conventional Springsteen concert.
The remainder of the set was electric, drawing heavily from Human Touch and Lucky Town, the two albums Springsteen had released earlier in 1992. Rather than forcing himself into the stripped-down aesthetic that had become associated with Unplugged, he followed the instincts that had always defined his live performances and allowed the songs to breathe through the full band.
The unusual approach eventually led to the performance being associated with the title MTV Plugged, an appropriately ironic name for an artist appearing on a program built around unplugging. Some listeners and critics were disappointed that Springsteen had not embraced the acoustic concept more fully, while others responded to the raw energy of the electric set. The performance was subsequently released as the live album In Concert/MTV Plugged, preserving one of the more unconventional entries in the series.
Springsteen’s decision to stay electric reflected something fundamental about his approach to performance. Even when placed inside a format with clearly defined expectations, he was never particularly interested in behaving like someone else’s idea of an intimate acoustic artist. On a television show built around unplugging, Springsteen found his own version of the concept by plugging back in and letting the band do what it had always done best.
The First Farm Aid Concert
On September 22, 1985, the first Farm Aid benefit concert took place at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois. Organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young, the event was created to raise money and awareness for struggling American farmers, many of whom were facing financial ruin as the farm crisis of the 1980s intensified.
More than 80,000 people filled the stadium for a lineup that demonstrated just how broadly music could be mobilized around a cause. Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Tom Petty, Loretta Lynn, B.B. King and Johnny Cash were among the artists who took part, with performances moving freely between rock, country, blues and other American musical traditions. The variety was part of the point: Farm Aid was speaking to rural America through a musical language that crossed genre boundaries.
The inaugural concert raised more than $9 million and helped establish the Farm Aid organization, which continues working on behalf of family farmers, sustainable agriculture and rural communities. The concert also established an annual tradition that has continued for more than four decades, turning what began as a single benefit into an ongoing organization and one of the longest-running music-based activist efforts in American popular culture.
The timing was significant as well. Farm Aid arrived less than three months after Live Aid had demonstrated the extraordinary fundraising power of a globally televised musical event. Farm Aid applied that lesson to a distinctly American crisis, showing that musicians could use their audiences, visibility and collective influence to focus attention on issues much closer to home. The September 22 concert therefore became more than a successful benefit; it helped establish a model for how music could turn public attention into sustained action.
Three Weird September 22 Rock Factoids
September 22, 1980: John Lennon Signs With Geffen Just Weeks Before His Death
On September 22, 1980, John Lennon signed with Geffen Records, officially beginning his return to the music business after five years away. Lennon had spent those years largely focused on family life with Yoko Ono and their son Sean, making the decision to record again a major moment for Beatles fans and the music industry.
What makes the anniversary so strange is what happened next. Double Fantasy was released less than two months later, giving Lennon his long-awaited comeback, but he was murdered in New York on December 8, only three weeks after the album’s release. A day that initially represented the beginning of Lennon’s next chapter now stands as one of the final milestones of his career.
September 22, 1992: Bruce Springsteen Goes on Unplugged and Plugs In
Bruce Springsteen took the stage for MTV Unplugged on September 22, 1992, but apparently decided that being unplugged wasn’t particularly necessary. After opening with “Red Headed Woman” acoustically, Springsteen brought out his band and switched to a fully electric performance featuring material from Human Touch and Lucky Town.
The performance became associated with the wonderfully contradictory title MTV Plugged and was later released as In Concert/MTV Plugged. Few artists could take a television format specifically designed around stripping away amplification and respond by essentially saying, “No, let’s turn everything back on.”
September 22, 1967: The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus” Gets Its First Radio Broadcast
September 22, 1967, brought an early public glimpse of one of The Beatles‘ strangest creations when “I Am the Walrus” was first broadcast on British radio as part of the promotion surrounding Magical Mystery Tour. The song was deliberately constructed to be surreal, unsettling and difficult to interpret, with John Lennon combining multiple lyrical images and psychedelic studio effects into something that sounded unlike almost anything else on pop radio.
Even by the standards of 1967, “I Am the Walrus” was gloriously bizarre. Lennon later explained that part of the song’s nonsense was designed to frustrate people who tried to find profound hidden meanings in every Beatles lyric, making its first appearance on radio a fitting moment for one of rock’s great exercises in deliberate confusion.
final note
September 22 highlights the resilience, defiance, and compassion that define rock history. John Lennon’s signing with Geffen Records in 1980 marked the long-awaited return of one of music’s greatest visionaries, only months before his life was cut short. Bruce Springsteen’s decision to go electric at his supposed Unplugged session in 1992 reflected his refusal to conform, even within the framework of a popular television format. And the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 demonstrated how musicians could turn their voices into a lifeline for struggling communities, a tradition that continues decades later.
From comebacks to defiance to activism, September 22 reminds us how rock’s greatest figures used their influence to shape both music and society.
