Ah yeah, I like 'Bring on the Lucie' too!
(x-post)
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Wednesday, 15 November 2017 19:15 (six years ago) link
everyone so otm about the Mind Games deep cuts. i really like that album.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 15 November 2017 22:40 (six years ago) link
Me too. "Out the Blue" and "I Know" as well. And "Only People!"
― timellison, Wednesday, 15 November 2017 23:04 (six years ago) link
Some "Julia"-like finger picking on the beginning of "Out the Blue."
Would be fun to take a crack at remixing that album, for sure.
― timellison, Wednesday, 15 November 2017 23:30 (six years ago) link
Wrote on "I Know (I Know)" some years ago:
http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2012/01/john-lennon-i-know-i-know-1973.html
― timellison, Wednesday, 15 November 2017 23:57 (six years ago) link
it's remarkable how bad Mind Games sounds to me, compared to the mix on Pussycats, which sounds great
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 00:01 (six years ago) link
It's a shame. Gordon Edwards on bass. He's great on "I Know (I Know)!"
― timellison, Thursday, 16 November 2017 00:03 (six years ago) link
btw to any interested here, I am planning on running the solo Beatles poll after the Wu-Tang poll wraps up
debating whether Pussy Cats is eligible given the extent of Lennon (and Ringo's) involvement. Inclined to let any of George's Travelling Wilburys songs be eligible as well. Basically if a Beatle wrote it I'm inclined to let it in.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 00:06 (six years ago) link
nice
― flappy bird, Thursday, 16 November 2017 02:01 (six years ago) link
So long as "Cheer Down" gets votes.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 02:46 (six years ago) link
It will get one from me :)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 02:50 (six years ago) link
Yeah, 'I Know (I Know)' and 'Out the Blue' aren't too bad. I think Mind Games could have turned out better if he'd been more focused on the songwriting front and had a team of musicians that could have injected a bit of excitement into the proceedings.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 06:59 (six years ago) link
Lennon died a couple of months after I was born, so his songs were around a lot in my early childhood. I think 'Woman' was among some of the first songs I ever heard, and I still really like it for, yes sentimental reasons but also because I like the melody and overall sound. I think it's easy to look at a lot of these songs from the perspective of an adult music enthusiast and say 'oh but this is terribly cringey and maudlin', but I wasn't thinking that way when I was a kid, or even a naive teen, so I can't look at it in this objective way.
― Fox Mulder, FYI (dog latin), Thursday, 16 November 2017 10:57 (six years ago) link
You remember "Woman" from when you were two months old? That's some power of recall.
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 November 2017 11:00 (six years ago) link
I think that it’s normal that there are only 2-3 good/great songs on some of his solo albums because, in a way, that was his default rate in the Beatles after Revolver/quitting touring.Iirc he was quite lazy after the beatlemania days (rightly so) and never as productive as McCartney. So it was a pain in the ass having to « produce » news songs whenever a new album was planned.He was on fire again for a while with the band split but I suppose he went back to his « lazy » mode, hence the 2-3 songs + filler.
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 16 November 2017 14:25 (six years ago) link
also, hard drugs.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 16 November 2017 14:26 (six years ago) link
LSD/Heroin : Pepper to Get Back Cocaine : Abbey Road to Imagine Heroin : the rest of the 70?
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 16 November 2017 14:35 (six years ago) link
You remember "Woman" from when you were two months old? That's some power of recall.― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, November 16, 2017 11:00 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, November 16, 2017 11:00 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
As far as I know, people back then would continue to play records they'd bought months, if not years after the fact
― Fox Mulder, FYI (dog latin), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:04 (six years ago) link
'68-'69 was Lennon's heroin period.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:06 (six years ago) link
I was thinking that all his best work was done while he was still living in the UK. Has he done anyting on par with his best work after moving to NYC ?
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:16 (six years ago) link
Yoko got back on heroin in 1980, according to Philip Norman.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:29 (six years ago) link
I was about to say Albert Goldman told a different story about Lennon's stopping heroin ca.1969.
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:50 (six years ago) link
Brandy Alexanders: 1973-74.
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:52 (six years ago) link
if he was with Bowie and Elton in 1974, he did coke
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
That was '75 I think?
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:05 (six years ago) link
Elton was '74.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:07 (six years ago) link
Nilsson was around so Brandy Alexander and Cocaine periods were running simultaneously.
― Terry Micawber (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:08 (six years ago) link
there's a funny bit in the last BBC documentary where he explains the horrible reasoning behind getting Nilsson, Ringo, and Keith Moon in a house in Malibu or something ("At least that way I thought they couldn't get in much trouble....bad idea!"). The brandy bottle was out by 10 am and they'd be falling all over the floor. The nightmare lasted until Lennon quit cold turkey and took the Nilsson tapes back to NYC with him.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:10 (six years ago) link
if he was with Bowie and Elton in 1974, he did coke― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 16, 2017 3:58 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 16, 2017 3:58 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Given that there's a very well known bootleg floating around from this period where Lennon is offering Stevie Wonder a "toot", I'd say yes.
Harrison also on the devils dandruff in the '70s, too.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 18:54 (six years ago) link
he did hard drugs pretty consistently from the mid-60's on. like when the FBI was spying on him to figure out if he was a threat to national security, the report came back "Mr. Lennon is constantly impaired by narcotics."
― flappy bird, Thursday, 16 November 2017 19:16 (six years ago) link
and the "house husband" period = reclusive junkie years
― flappy bird, Thursday, 16 November 2017 19:17 (six years ago) link
Anyway, to drag the conversation away from the mythology and back to the music, I'd say Lennon had two great periods. One, of course, was from 'Please Please Me' (the song) up to and including Revolver (the "Beatle John" period, if you'd like) and the other was from The Beatles up to 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' (the "I'm not Beatle John, I'm John" period)
Even though he still came up with 'Strawberry Fields Forever', the bulk of 'A Day in the Life' and 'I Am the Walrus', all of which are thoroughly classic, there's this sense that Lennon had got a bit lazy during their psychedelic period, contributing half of 'Baby You're a Rich Man' and dashing off 'Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite' and 'Good Morning Good Morning' for the sake of having something to record (even if they're still great songs, IMO) and not to mention joke things like 'You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)' ... by the following year, he'd pretty much hit upon the hard-edged approach that would define his solo material.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link
Across the Universe was written in late '67/early '68, too
― flappy bird, Thursday, 16 November 2017 19:49 (six years ago) link
I should mention that while all members of The Beatles contributed some shockingly sub-par material to The Beatles, they also contributed some great stuff. In John's case: 'Dear Prudence', 'Happiness is a Warm Gun', 'I'm So Tired', 'Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey', 'Sexy Sadie' and 'Julia'
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 19:53 (six years ago) link
why are we discussing TWA here?
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:03 (six years ago) link
We're discussing Lennon's songwriting periods.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:08 (six years ago) link
let's talk about the mythology instead
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:08 (six years ago) link
I was thinking that all his best work was done while he was still living in the UK. Has he done anyting on par with his best work after moving to NYC ?― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, November 16, 2017 3:16 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, November 16, 2017 3:16 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Imagine was the last Lennon album to be worked on in the UK, so aside from a few select tracks you may be onto something.
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:12 (six years ago) link
Pussy Cats is up there with his best work imo
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:14 (six years ago) link
Pussy cats rules!
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link
The thought of having to cram all those solo classics plus all those great deep cuts is making my head spin... even more so when I factor in Lennon and Harrison too!
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:49 (six years ago) link
*onto a ballot
― Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Thursday, 16 November 2017 20:50 (six years ago) link
walls and bridges got robbed in this! not that it's the best but I'd put it right behind Imagine in 3rd place, barely edging out Double Fantasy
― akm, Thursday, 16 November 2017 22:57 (six years ago) link
also re: mind games yeah that album sounds like shit. did the yoko remix a few years ago fix any of that?
― akm, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:02 (six years ago) link
re: Walls and Bridges - really? I totally hate "Whatever Gets You Through the Night's" exhausting and forced jollity. "Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out" is the keep off that one imo.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:03 (six years ago) link
keeper
― akm, Thursday, November 16, 2017 5:57 PM
insanity
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:21 (six years ago) link
it has great songs on it, "nobody loves you," "scared", "bless you", "#9 dream", "steel and glass", "Old dirt road"....I mean, those are great. It's such a great bottoming out album. I do like the demo versions of some of these that were on Menlove Ave slightly more than the final versions but still.
― akm, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:32 (six years ago) link
Steel and Glass is a super-lazy re-write of How Do You Sleep (musically at least)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:35 (six years ago) link
bah meh
― akm, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:48 (six years ago) link