John Lennon Solo Albums Poll

keeper

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

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.

Steel and Glass is a super-lazy re-write of How Do You Sleep (musically at least)

bah meh

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.

Heck yeah

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

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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...

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).

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.

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.

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

“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

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

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.

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

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 !

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

agree

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

"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

like there's actually a decent hook there

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

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

Watching the Wheels acoustic demo is his last masterpiece

"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.)

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

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

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

that was after he died, right?

"Starting Over" hitting #1, that is

right

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.

Lennon was a fan of "Coming Up."

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

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

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

'Free as a Bird' was written in 1977, for one.

I mean, if anyone thinks a songwriter with instruments lying around the house can just switch off their creative impulses for five years, then y'know, that's just naive.

you're just talking metaphysical nonsense

https://i.imgur.com/y4YErKh.jpg

I understand what you mean and agree in a way but it is totally possible for a songwriter to go through a long period in which, for whatever reason, nothing gets done.
I mean, not comparing, but I have always made songs but at some times (personal issues, work, family, whatever), you can really spend years without making songs although there are instruments and all available.

Free as a Bird is not on Double Fantasy or Milk & Honey.

yeah obviously he probably noodled around but he was busy "breaking bread." i'm pretty sure he wrote most of if not all of DF & MH in 1980

No, but 'Free as a Bird' was still written in 1977, as was 'Now and Then', not to mention numerous other demos from 1975-1979 that have been heavily bootlegged and are out there if you can be arsed to seek them out.