Original version – February-August 1969Ukulele version – January 23rd 2012
Katana: Vocal and guitar
David Barratt Ukulele and everything else
Produced by David Barratt at The Abattoir Of Good Taste,
Mixed at The Abattoir Mobile, Narita Airport, Tokyo
Photo by Nadia Itani
Written by John Lennon
Credited to Lennon and McCartney
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Known in certain circles as the guitarist and backup singer for Roma!, Katana was kidnapped in her infancy by a nomadic order of renegade Shinto monks and sold to an alcoholic Japanese sword maker, who reared her in the shackles of servitude in a mirthless Okinawan suburb. Forced to spend the days and nights of her youth toiling away in her master’s workshop, Katana was programmed to believe that she had sprung from the head of a Tamahagane blade during the ancient quenching process whereby the gentle curvature of a katana is attained.
On the day that she forged her first sword entirely on her own, she took the name of Katana. It was then that she knew the gentle curve would be her only escape. After sustaining a particularly rigorous beating at the hands of her drunken master, Katana slayed him in his sleep with a swift, single cut that nearly left him decapitated.
She then embarked on a career as an assassin that took her to Guam, then San Francisco, and finally New York, where she was hired by the owner of a Murray Hill laundromat to perform a hit on Roma!’s lead singer, Stiletto. While begging for his life, Stiletto offered Katana a spot in the band. It was an offer she couldn’t refuse.