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AUGUST 2015 JB Hi-Fi
FEATURE
JUST LIKE
STARTING OVER
Graham Reid considers the solo
albums of John Lennon, which are
reissued this month on vinyl.
H ad he lived, John Lennon would turn
75 on October 9. Which means –
because he had 17 years on the world
stage before his murder in 1980 – that he’s been
dead twice as long as he was alive and famous.
Recently Paul McCartney noted that Lennon’s
death turned him into a martyr, and its also
true that – perhaps largely through Lennon and
Yoko Ono’s mythologising – that this complex
man has been reduced to some broad strokes,
notably as that of a peace campaigner.
But it’s worth remembering that on the
Imagine album, which featured that wishful title
track, Lennon also sang the bitter How Do You
Sleep? which was an astonishing personal attack
on McCartney. Peace out, brother?
If you take out Lennon’s solo projects
during the final years of The Beatles – largely
unlistenable and now time-locked avant-garde
work with Ono, aside from the Live Peace
In Toronto album – he recorded seven studio
albums in the final decade of his life (not bad
a couple of Lennon’s Beatles and post-Beatle songs,
and then Ono takes us into a pre-punk/avant-garde
future with a whole side of screaming over rough guitar
jamming and riffery.
But here are all the studio albums from his still
astonishing John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band through
Imagine, the wobbly double Some Time In New York
City , the somewhat uneven Mind Games, Walls and
Bridges, the obligation covers album Rock’n’Roll,then
the final in his lifetime Double Fantasy (co-credited with
Ono) and Milk and Honey (also co-credited to Ono).
However, this month, the individual albums are also
being issued separately and because things like the
agit-prop Some Time In New York City have dated
badly (what does Rockefeller mean to anyone today?)
and the final two are musically less interesting (aside
from Ono’s songs, but she’s an acquired taste), you
may just want to cherry pick. So…
FOUR OF THE BEST FROM A FORMER FAB FOUR MAN
the angry Gimme Some Truthand gentle Oh My
Love. Then of course there is How Do You Sleep?
which is a brutal stab at former pal McCartney
(“The only thing you done was yesterday”). Further
proof of what a complex, emotionally volatile man
he was, but also memorable tunes.
Walls and Bridges (1974): The album which
divided critics, sold reasonably well, included the hit
Whatever Gets You Through The Nightwith Elton
John, and which has aged better than others in his
catalogue. If his emotions were still bouncing around
– Steel and Glass is a rewrite of How Do You Sleep?
with former manager Allen Klein in the sightlines,
Bless You a lovely and heartfelt ballad – his musical
gifts were assured. #9 Dream boasts a glorious
melody, Old Dirt Road co-written with Harry Nilsson
is unique in his songbook and Scared another of
his personally revealing songs set to a simple but
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970):
His first major statement post-Beatles
remains an extraordinary, musically spare and
emotionally bare collection. From “Mother, you
had me but I never had you” through to “I don’t
believe in Beatles, I just believe in me, Yoko
and me” this was therapy in song. This was
the most un-Spector production by Phil ever;
Lennon’s guitar playing is a searing revelation
(he wouldn’t return to anything this raw until
Ono’s Walking On Thin Ice at the end of his
life) and Ringo Starr’s drum fills are inventive.
Open-heart surgery on the soul and unique in
popular music.
Imagine (1971): Yes, the album with That
Hit-cum-Anthem but also the revealing Crippled
Inside, Jealous Guy (consider how many of his
Beatles songs were about jealousy) and How?,
effective tune. There’s a bit of filler (Beef Jerky,
What You Got) but the best (which also
includes Nobody Loves You) make this
one well worth discovering.
Rock’n’Roll (1975): Obliged to record three
songs for allegedly ripping off Chuck Berry’s You
Can’t Catch Me (for Come Together), Lennon –
separated from Ono, drinking heavily – employed
Phil Spector (also out of control) to oversee
some rock’n’roll sessions in Los Angeles. Out
of the ensuing chaos, headlines about drunken
behaviour and Spector making off with the master
tapes ,Lennon eventually managed to salvage an
album that was nowhere as bad as it might have
been and at its best (Stand By Me, Ain’t That A
Shame, Slippin’ and Slidin’, Bony Moronie) was
actually terrific party music from a man who had
little to prove and was obviously enjoying himself.
For more reviews, overviews and
interviews by Graham Reid see:
given he took five years off after his Rock’n’Roll
covers albums in 1975).
All of those albums and the posthumous Milk and
Honey, which was almost complete at the time of
his death, have long been out of print on vinyl, so
the nine album box set Lennon (Sometime in New
York City a double record) of the whole lot on 180gm
virgin vinyl has been welcomed by collectors and
those who just want to hear this music afresh.
It’s a hefty chunk of Lennon, although Live Peace
In Toronto deserved inclusion. It’s like a history of
rock’n’roll as the scratched together band which
included Eric Clapton rip through old rock standards,