BRIDGETON - To May Pang, the 18 months that she spent with John Lennon in the early 1970s as his girlfriend and companion is the most discussed - and most misunderstood - period of the former Beatle's life.
It was during that time that Lennon had some of his more notorious liquor-fueled run-ins, such as the one where he and fellow musician Harry Nilsson were famously booted from Los Angeles' Troubador Club for heckling the Smothers Brothers.
While people have seized that and other drunken escapades as being indicative of the whole period, which Lennon himself called his "Lost Weekend," Pang said the time was rather a productive, nurturing era that included not only a successful solo album, but also reconnections and collaborations with old friends.
"I don't want people to think it was a down-and-out period for him, because it wasn't," Pang, 57, said in a phone interview Tuesday. "And if you really think about it, I mean really think, how could he be drunk and do all that work? It's one thing to say he was out and having a good time, but to say he was down-and-out every day of his life then, that's ridiculous."
Beatles fans in the region will have an opportunity to hear firsthand about Pang's relationship with Lennon in a free book signing at 7 p.m. Thursday at S.R. Riley's Musical Cafe, a Beatles-themed restaurant in Bridgeton.
Pang's book, titled "Instamatic Karma" and published earlier this year by St. Martin's Press, chronicles the time the two spent together through photographs Pang took. It includes various images of Lennon in his most intimate moments at the time, such as when he, staying at the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World with Pang and his son Julian in 1974, inked his signature to the legal contract dissolving the Beatles partnership.
Pang, a New York native who grew up in the city's Spanish Harlem section, worked for three years as a production assistant for Lennon and his second wife, Yoko Ono, before their relationship became an intimate one.
It happened in 1973, Pang said, at Ono's suggestion. The couple were on the verge of separating, and Ono approached Pang, who was then 23, with the proposal one morning as Pang was performing some office chores.
"Everybody who worked for them knew what was going on, but nobody ever said anything," Pang said. "I was quite surprised at 9:30 in the morning as I was going through the mail. The only reason that I ended up going out with John is because he pursued me in the end."
The pair initially went to Los Angeles, where they crashed at friends' homes in neighborhoods like West Hollywood and Bel Air. The two also spent time, Pang said, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
The two were together almost 24 hours a day.
Lennon's time in Los Angeles was spent working with legendary producer Phil Spector on his "Rock 'n' Roll" record, and Pang said she was present when Spector, who is equally known for his eccentricity as much as his musical brilliance, fired his gun in the studio.
"We always thought Phil Spector carried a gun loaded with blanks," Pang said, adding that she really was present at time. "But Phil is Phil."
When they went back to New York, they settled into a small penthouse apartment in an East 52nd Street building. The apartment was located on a dead-end street virtually adjacent to the East River, offering a sense of privacy that Pang said Lennon relished.
During that time back in New York, Pang added, the pair would often just lounge around, watching television - Johnny Carson, Pang said, was Lennon's favorite late-night, talk-show host - and decompressing.
Lennon also used the time to reconnect with old friends, and Pang said some of rock music's most famous luminaries - David Bowie, Elton John and Mick Jagger among them - would stop by to hang out.
Lennon also spent time in early 1975 with former bandmate Paul McCartney, who would often come over with his wife, Linda.
"During the time with him, I almost got John to be with Paul again," Pang said. "A lot of people didn't realize that the two of them were hanging out. Paul and Linda were constantly over. At one point, John said to me, 'What do you think if I started to write with Paul again?' It was just an amazing moment when he said that to me."
Pang also said she was given the opportunity to witness Lennon, who was known for his wry humor and caustic wit, in introspection.
"The side that you don't see of John is his sensitive side," Pang said. "We had gotten kittens from the studio, and John loved them. We ended up taking them home, and he was running around with them. He was upset when the kittens didn't want to play with him. It's the little things."
Lennon would often sit on the balcony, Pang said, smoking his French cigarettes. He eschewed the trappings of a rock star's life, like limousines and fancy restaurants. He enjoyed Americana and exploring the countryside, Pang said, and would love to just get in the car with Pang behind the wheel and go for a drive.
Pang also witnessed Lennon's creative process and even got to participate. She sang background vocals and can be heard whispering Lennon's name on the song "#9 Dream" on Lennon's 1974 album "Walls and Bridges."
"One of our big things was that we could speak music," Pang said, adding that Lennon didn't think he had a good singing voice. "We found out we had the same interests in music. What I didn't know about the older music he was into, he taught me that."
Pang said she will also gladly take questions from attendees at Thursday's event. She again said she hoped her input would be able to put to rest the negative notions about that time in Lennon's life.
"It wasn't that he was drunk and out of his mind the whole time we were together," Pang said. "I didn't want the myth to become truth, as it often happens."
