'Lost' moments: Exhibit glimpses John Lennon's romance with May Pang through her lens

Nov. 5—John Lennon was May Pang's first boyfriend.

Seen through a current lens, their relationship resembles a human resources nightmare.

He was her boss; he was 10 years older. She was 23.

"The Lost Weekend: The Photography of May Pang," running from Friday, Nov. 10, through Sunday, Nov. 12, at Santa Fe's Edition One Gallery, tells Pang's version of their story.

She was Lennon's lover and companion during the musician's self-described "Lost Weekend" from late 1973 through 1975.

Pang had been working as John and Yoko Ono's personal assistant for three years when Yoko asked her to date John. Both Pang and other staff members had sensed tension in the marriage.

"She said, 'You know John's going to see other people,' " Pang said. "I'm thinking, 'Someone else is going to come into this madness?' Yoko said, 'You don't have a boyfriend. You'll be nice to John.' "

Pang was appalled.

"I said no. I just kind of hoped it was back to normal."

Lennon was working on his 1973 album "Mind Games" at the time. He made his first move in the elevator on the way to the Record Plant.

"He turned around, and he grabbed me and he kissed me," Pang said. "I yelled at him.

"He started laughing and said, 'I've been wanting to do this all day.' Then we got in the car and he had this smile on his face."

Despite her misgivings, he charmed and cajoled her.

She shed tears the first time they slept together.

"I was crying because I didn't know where this is going. He said, 'Neither do I.'

"They were having a rough time in their marriage. I kept saying, 'Why would he want me?' He said, 'Why not?' I never even knew he even liked me."

Yoko asked for a divorce in 1974. John readily agreed. But it never happened.

"He said, 'Fine.' He kept asking her (about it) and she said the stars weren't right.

"He said, 'I'll be a free man in six months.'

"I was in love with him and he was in love with me," Pang said. "He told (the journalist) Larry Kane after we split up that his happiest times were spent with me."

Despite many published accounts, Pang denied the so-called "Lost Weekend" was nothing more than an alcoholic binge. That perception stemmed from when Lennon and the songwriter Harry Nilsson were famously thrown out of Los Angeles' Troubadour in 1974 for heckling the Smothers Brothers.

"He wasn't like that with me," she said.

Pang encouraged John to reconnect with his family and friends. His son Julian hadn't seen his father in three years. When Julian called the Dakota office, Yoko wouldn't let Pang put the call through.

"I knew it was time for him to see his father," she said. "Yoko told me, 'I don't get along with him.' "

When Pang and John moved in together in New York, John's ex-wife Cynthia brought the 10-year-old Julian to visit.

"I told John he had to suck it up," Pang said. "He hadn't seen Cynthia since the divorce. He was feeling nervous."

Paul and Linda McCartney were regular visitors.

"They would just show up. They would discuss what are you doing? What projects are you working on?"

Pang was with Lennon when he recorded "Mind Games," (Pang whispered John's name on "#9 Dream"), "Walls and Bridges" and "Rock and Roll." He collaborated with Nilsson, Elton John, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Ringo Starr, among others. He wrote "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)" for Pang.

"They were very nice to me," she said. "The highest compliment came from George (Harrison.) We came to see him at the Plaza Hotel. He was talking to John and he looked at me and said, 'I'm glad you're with him.' Then he looked at John, and he said, 'I'm glad she's with you'.

"Even Keith Moon came up to me and said, 'This is the old John I remember.' "

Yoko called the couple constantly, sometimes as many as 15 times a day.

"It got to the point where (John) said, 'I can't talk to you' and he hung up on her."

Ultimately, Yoko lured her husband back by telling him she knew a hypnotist who could help him quit smoking.

Pang knew it was over.

"I didn't see him for the whole weekend," she said. "I think it materialized after she realized John and I were serious."

The couple were about to buy a house in the Hamptons.

"The only thing he ever said was, 'Yoko allowed me to come home.' "

Pang still saw Lennon up until his 1980 death. He sent her notes and called her.

"It was bigger than both of us," she said. "I also wanted to see that he was OK. He was more vulnerable. He couldn't be himself in public."

Pang went on to work in music publishing and make jewelry. She married famed record producer Tony Visconti and had two children. She decided to release her photographs to tell her version of her and John's relationship.

"I treated him as John the guy I lived with," she said, "not the Beatle."

The exhibit coincides with the digital release of the feature film documentary "The Lost Weekend: A Love Story."