John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

I really really like "Hold On". Wish it would have placed higher.

I think the self indulgence mostly showed later. He genuinely seemd to have mined his psyche and personal history on this record, to strip himself down to the man, instead of the god of beatles. So the great pop musician takes a backseat. The songs sound intimate, and - despite the odd bit of screaming, an acceptable habit for a rock n roll singer - the emotion lightly worn.

I agree! It is perfect in its imperfection...thanks for clarifying!

Kinda surprised you rate this album, ilxor!

It's an all-time favorite! Why surprised?

I think the self indulgence mostly showed later.

This is one of the most self indulgent albums ever released. Also, most of it is rubbish. But "Love" is still a beautiful song.

This is one of the most self indulgent albums ever released.

More than "Two Virgins"?

I'm possibly the only person that thinks it has a charm all of it's own.

I've searched for reviews but most degenerate into straight-out racism.

Played it again today. Remember is just so quietly insistent till the final boom

The Classic Album Plastic Ono Bank is currently on BBC iplayer (if you're in the UK) till 21st July.

Struck by how much Arthur Janov looks like Michael Palin with a wooly wig. And Elliot Mintz doing himself no favours with a creepiness aura.

Ringo and Klaus come over pretty well.

COOKIE!

I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in I-Ching
I don't believe in Bible
I don't believe in tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in yoga
I don't believe in kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me
Yoko and me
And that's reality

The dream is over
What can I say?
The dream is over
Yesterday
I was the dream weaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus
But now I'm John
And so dear friends
You just have to carry on
The dream is over

love this song, so much. it's amazing that a piece with a relatively slow tempo can build up so much tension (the series of I Don't Believes). that last bit ("the dream is over", etc) is such a perfect coda, lyrically and compositionally. it feels like the end of the 60s, not in a sad way or a optimistic way, it just is. he was in the center of the zeitgeist so i suppose it would make sense that he'd be one of the first to recognize that a unique moment had passed, but were dragged from the 60s kicking and screaming it still seems impressive.

sorry, meant to say "so many people" were dragged from the 60s blab blag blah

i still don't really think i understand the beginning of the song, though: "god is a concept by which we measure our pain". lennon told RS "pain is the pain we go through all the time. You're born in pain. Pain is what we are in most of the time, and I think that the bigger the pain, the more God you look for." i get that, sure...but did he mean that pain is the primary element that drives people to create the concept of god? and what kind of measure was he talking about? or was he just high?

He left out "I don't believe in yesterday". But at least he worked that line into one of his last interviews

the way john sings the last two verses of 'god' -- after the whole 'i don't believe...' section -- is so crushing. just so gorgeous and sad it's almost painful.

I don't think he knew what he meant tbh

xp

kinda feel like it's time for the anti-lennon backlash to take its course -- for my money this one and 'imagine' are the only two beatles solo albums i ever feel like hearing all the way through.

It's an all-time favorite! Why surprised?

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Tuesday, June 8, 2010 12:51 AM (2 years ago)

Hope you weren't waiting all this time for a reply, ilxor! (Or whatever you're calling yourself now, if you're still around...) Anyways, it was just some old poll you started plus a few random posts made me assume you hated the entire "classic rock" canon, or whatever.
(Sorry if there's any typos in this post - currently got asevere migraine & can only see the screen peripherally...)

i still read occasionally, i just dont ever really post, busy with life-- not big on classic rock but i do unequivocally love almost all beatles, lennon solo, and early mccartney/harrison solo (mccartney, ram, all things must pass...)

"Hold On" still my favorite here. I love the sound of this album, particularly how "Remember" feels like it could really fall apart at any moment, and does.

The pre-POB Lennon/Ono solo stuff is really wonderful and way too overlooked. I mean how awesome is it that singer/songwriter in the world's biggest pop band released this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBicW0CDdp4

*cookie*

otm

new screenname in honor of the number nine birthday boy

catalog added to spotify, btw (the major-label parts, anyway)

Today?

I
I found out

couple of days ago xp

This and YO/POB have so many moments of unfuckwithable Ringo brilliance.

otm...I like to think of them as one of the great double-album-that-never-were

Yeah the Starr-Voormann pocket rules.

Yeah, the songs and beats are not nearly as arranged as in The Beatles, but there is still hella groove.

? jim keltner is the drummer on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, not ringo

wwhahaaaaa? i'm totally wrong! wow, i never realized! go ringo

*cookie*

ha

Speaking of which, and this will be a real longshot, but is anyone familiar with a cover of "Love" from around '91 or so, came out (I think) not long after St. Etienne's cover of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and very much in the same vein (female singer, Soul II Soul-ish groove, etc.)? I heard it once, in a record store in Vancouver, thought it was great, didn't think to buy it, have never heard it since, have never been able to find anything about it on the web. I may have been stoned that day and imagined the whole thing. Please tell me I'm wrong.

― sw00ds,

I remember this! Early '91 and probably by The Dream Academy. Sounded like Danielle Dax's own cover of "Tomorrow Never Knows."

COOKIE

hold on could be my favorite song on this album

John's guitar and John's guitar sound = greatest ever?

the way it's mixed too. Scary shit.

COKIE

It was Ringo. There's a 'classic albums' documentary on this album in which he appears.

production on this album is amazing, lennon's guitar on "hold on" sounds like nothing else i've ever heard. there are also lots of weird, unsettling shifts within songs where it sounds like they cut from one take to another -- happens in the middle of "working class hero" and then in the 'I DON'T EXPECT YOU TO UNDERSTAND" part of "isolation," maybe a couple other places too. reminds me of the famous shift in PiL's "memories." used to bug me as a 14-year-old beatles fan who expected abbey road style production from everything, now i love it.

Keltner doesn't show up on Lennon's stuff until Imagine.

Voorman/Ringo rhythm section is a monster, also shows up on Don't Worry Kyoko on "Fly"

re: the changing guitar in "Working Class Hero," there's a funny bit in the Classic Albums doc where engineer Phil McDonald recalls John needing to re-do that last part of the song. Phil said, "Wait, you have to use the same guitar you used on the rest of the song!" John said, "Yeah, don't worry, it's the same one." Of course, John wasn't exactly meticulous about that sort of thing, and it wasn't the same guitar, which is why the sound changes.

Good bits here in which Voorman and Yoko praise Ringo's drumming here and on YO/POB:

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

Always feel like one day I will end up being disappointed with this album, that the veil will torn away and the artifice and self-regard will be laid bare, an embarrassment for all to see, but it never happens like that, he really knew exactly what he was doing when he made this and hit right in the center of the bullseye.

I don't expect you to understand

Wish I could've voted in this. Mother. But a great album all around.

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