John Lennon Solo Albums Poll

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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

btw to any interested here, I am planning on running the solo Beatles poll after the Wu-Tang poll wraps up

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

Οὖτις, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:03 (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, 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

Ah, I didn't realize the current version that's available of Mind Games was a remastered version of the original mix. Looks like some of Yoko's mix is on Youtube - check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audDh1q8YhU

Pretty sweet. More lively sounding, more clarity, drums sound nice. Still wish Gordon Edwards was a little more front and center.

timellison, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:54 (six years ago) link

Heck yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1J92pTmDUw

timellison, Thursday, 16 November 2017 23:59 (six years ago) link

my long-ago reaction to walls & bridges is that it just seemed kind of sad and tired, like lennon didn't really feel like making albums anymore but felt obligated to keep going. i can imagine a parallel universe where he never got back together with yoko and just kept making one samey so-so album after another, getting thrown out of nightclubs, getting drunk with ringo, occasionally scoring hits w/ catchy but instantly forgettable shit like "whatever gets you thru the night." i do remember "nobody loves you..." fondly, and of course "#9 dream" is probably my favorite lennon track post-1972 or so.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 17 November 2017 00:14 (six years ago) link

"Whatever Gets You Through the Night" is a depressing experience to listen to: fagged-out, a submission to the sounds of the times, complacent lyric.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 00:16 (six years ago) link

Either Bless You was a big influence on Bowie or Bowie was on it, I'm not sure. Bowie was maybe working on the Young Americans album at the same time? Bless You could fit right on it.

piscesx, Friday, 17 November 2017 00:29 (six years ago) link

I'm listening to Sometime in NYC and I have to say it *sounds* better than I remember it. A lot of kinda early r'n'r grooves that are pretty rockin. Lyrical content is largely a total misfire tho, no gettin around that.

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 03:24 (six years ago) link

Either Bless You was a big influence on Bowie or Bowie was on it, I'm not sure. Bowie was maybe working on the Young Americans album at the same time? Bless You could fit right on it.

― piscesx, Thursday, November 16, 2017

Lennon claims it was an influence on Jagger's writing "Miss You."

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 03:40 (six years ago) link

yeah when i finally heard sometime in nyc i was really expecting nothing since its reputation is so bad, but given that i was surprised how much i enjoyed it. the lyrics are pretty bad for the most part but the music has way more life to it than most of lennon's subsequent stuff. "new york city" in particular is a fun song.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 17 November 2017 03:45 (six years ago) link

We got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to got to...

Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Friday, 17 November 2017 07:02 (six years ago) link

Regarding Double Fantasy, which I don’t particularly like, it’s mostly considered overproduced yet the stripped down version doesn’t work better... It all comes down to the material being weak to begin with, I guess (with a few exceptions like « Woman » which is cheezy but really nice).

AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 17 November 2017 10:11 (six years ago) link

Yeah - it’s a bit sad because he was giving these interviews saying how he’d recovered his muse, but I suspect he knew the quality was very thin.

Luna Schlosser, Friday, 17 November 2017 11:36 (six years ago) link

I'd say "Nobody Told Me," "I Don't Wanna Face It," "Watching the Wheels," "I'm Losing You," "Cleanup Time," to name five, are his best songs in a decade.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 11:37 (six years ago) link

5 years of said decade being spent “baking bread”.

Luna Schlosser, Friday, 17 November 2017 12:34 (six years ago) link

“i can imagine a parallel universe where he never got back together with yoko and just kept making one samey so-so album after another, getting thrown out of nightclubs, getting drunk with ringo, occasionally scoring hits w/ catchy but instantly forgettable shit “

Sounds like a pretty ok life

calstars, Friday, 17 November 2017 14:31 (six years ago) link

The “Bless You” / Bowie idea is interesting. I can imagine Bowie doing the vocal, esp in the lower register

calstars, Friday, 17 November 2017 14:33 (six years ago) link

yeah I dislike the idea that lennon's contributions to Double Fantasy are work. Beautiful Boy, Losing You, Watching the Wheels, Woman, starting over...these songs are so good. WTF.

akm, Friday, 17 November 2017 14:46 (six years ago) link

are work? I obviously haven't woken up yet. weak, I meant.

akm, Friday, 17 November 2017 14:47 (six years ago) link

well, I find none of these songs great. Some are nice and alright. But I mean, we're talking about Lennon so no, they're not what I call great Lennon songs !

AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 17 November 2017 14:54 (six years ago) link

I'll keep 'Nobody Told Me', 'Woman' and 'Watching the Wheels' and maybe 'I'm Losing You', but that's about it.

Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Friday, 17 November 2017 15:08 (six years ago) link

agree

calstars, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:05 (six years ago) link

But my assessment - like some upthread - is biased due to hearing them when I was a kid

calstars, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:06 (six years ago) link

"Watching the Wheels" is probably the best of the bunch.

back to Sometime in NYC, this one in particular struck me as a pretty decent Spector-pop gem. Yoko does 60s girl-group!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe4jyGk3qIY

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:19 (six years ago) link

like there's actually a decent hook there

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link

and feminist-call to arms-as-girl-group-ditty is p clever imo

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link

There's some not bad tunes on that album, as long as you don't listen to the lyrics.

Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Friday, 17 November 2017 17:25 (six years ago) link

Watching the Wheels acoustic demo is his last masterpiece

flappy bird, Friday, 17 November 2017 17:42 (six years ago) link

"Whatever Gets You Through the Night" is a depressing experience to listen to: fagged-out, a submission to the sounds of the times

Is submission the right term, though? Lennon was quite enthusiastic about the era's hip discofied grooves in contemporary interviews. (I believe he did want a chart topper badly at the time, true.)

Scape: Goat-fired like a dog! (Myonga Vön Bontee), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:37 (six years ago) link

and it worked! his only #1 single. (which is sort of crazy)

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 19:39 (six years ago) link

his first #1 ("Starting Over" hit #1).

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:43 (six years ago) link

In the 1980 BBC interview he's quite touched that Elton helped him get his first #1 and John helped Bowie get his.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:44 (six years ago) link

that was after he died, right?

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link

"Starting Over" hitting #1, that is

Οὖτις, Friday, 17 November 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link

right

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:46 (six years ago) link

Both Lennon and McCartney kept their eyes on the charts to check out the competition from the beginning, really... they were still doing this in the mid '70s, but Lennon was obviously paying more attention to US trends as a consequence of living there, where McCartney was paying attention more to the UK chart - he carried on doing this until at least Flowers in the Dirt, and never stopped working with contemporary producers.

Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:51 (six years ago) link

Lennon was a fan of "Coming Up."

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 November 2017 19:52 (six years ago) link

Can't remember where I read this but apparently "Coming Up" and the music video are what inspired Lennon to start writing songs again

flappy bird, Friday, 17 November 2017 19:59 (six years ago) link

He was writing songs throughout his "house husband" period, though!

Gholdfish Killah (Turrican), Friday, 17 November 2017 20:03 (six years ago) link

was he? i thought he was pretty dormant creatively, busy "baking bread"... wasn't all of Double Fantasy/Milk & Honey written in 1980?

flappy bird, Friday, 17 November 2017 20:04 (six years ago) link


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