John Lennon Solo Albums Poll

no, not blaming his drinking, but more like, lennon kind of riding the train w/him, and in the end lennon had a fortitude that nilsson didn't, and hence didn't have to pay the same kind of consequences

I wonder if John experimenting with alternate tunings in the 60s or if he just was too fucked up to notice the guitars were tuned oddly.

John was totally familiar with multiple tuning styles and he uses a bunch of different ones throughout the Beatles catalog

Dear Prudence uses both open D and drop D iirc

"No Bed For Beatle John" consists of John and Yoko singing the text of press clippings about themselves, in a cappella chant style.

lol

have we had a thread about Lennon solo books? just slightly off topic but has anyone read the new(ish) Philip Norman biog?

There should be a poll. The Pete Shotton one is amazing.

Classic Lennon books:

Pete Shotton - probably the best one out there
May Pang - good account which brings out a lot of the flaws, but makes him more human
Fred Seaman - needs to be treated with some caution, but has an air of authenticity about it for the most part

I did read the Philip Norman one when it came out - but found it quite a dull read. And disappointingly he seems to go for the Eliot Mintz PR line about the Lost Weekend.

Yeah my interest in Shotton was piqued by the Nowhere Boy film. I must get that. I was only vaguely familiar with him but he was clearly more of an important figure than i realised. Or at least you know the film appears to suggest as much.

What's the Eliot Mintz line Bob? And indeed who's he?!

holy fuck amazon:
John Lennon: In My Life by Pete Shotton and Nicholas Schaffner (Hardcover - Nov 1994)
2 used from $165.00

that's a shame

I paid £12 for a paperback on Amazon about 3 months ago.

$165 ! wow how long has it been put of print?

*out

Elliot Mintz is, or was, effectively PR for Yoko - and constantly put out a stream of stories patching up the mythology of John and Yoko as the great romance, minimising the Lost Weekend period, and glossing over John's depression of the mid-to late 70s.

Fred Seaman's assessment:

"She (Yoko) told Mintz to play up her role as businesswoman and to publicize her reliance on psychics. Mintz had once told me that he did not think that press reports about Yoko's confidence in psychics were good for her image. I was therefore astonished when he agreed with everything Yoko said. He was a consummate sycophant."

Really into Walls and Bridges today, especially this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSS2ABconDg

I'm...not fond of Woman.

if i recall, the original demo on the lennon anthology has some real power, but the MOR production on double fantasy really takes the life out of it.

I'm...not fond of Woman🕸.

was just thinking about how pathetic double fantasy & the interviews he gave in 1980 would be seen if he had lived longer

the contrast between the playfulness and inventiveness of lennon's earlier lyrics and shit like "after all, it is written in the stars" is p depressing to me. and yeah the "little child inside the man" stuff suggests that lennon spent a little too much time absorbing, i don't know, self-help books and psychobabble during his period of exile. the double fantasy stuff i honestly enjoy most is the lighthearted stuff like "starting over."

CLEANUP TIME

I love 'Woman' - beautiful song. Lennon was pretty much spent creatively by 1972, but he still turned out the odd gem.

Love it too, mostly for sentimental reasons

I mostly prefer Yoko's tracks on Double Fantasy to John's, though.

Season of Glass is a better album

yes and yes

I would have voted for John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band like everyone else, but second choice would have been Walls & Bridges, surprised it got no votes.

I think there's three great songs on Walls & Bridges, and two of 'em were singles.

been thinking how being freed from the Beatles really invigorated his songwriting, so many great songs (and def a fair amount of his best) came out in that '69-'72 period. And then around when he splits with Yoko he seemed to mostly lose the plot.

Yeah, '69-'72 was a great period for him artistically (with the exception of Some Time in New York City,I guess.

But: 'Give Peace a Chance', 'Instant Karma!', 'Cold Turkey', 'Mother', 'Working Class Hero', 'Imagine', 'Jealous Guy', 'Oh My Love', 'Gimme Some Truth', 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' ... I mean, you can't fuck with any of those.

and that production/mixing style he hit on with Spector with the pounding rhythm section + slapback vocal echo was such a great combo. Gives the grooves in things like "How Do You Sleep" a real oomph.

xp

Lennon loved slap-back on his voice, didn't he? It's on his better Double Fantasy songs. Too bad the drum sound is so awful on that record.

But: 'Give Peace a Chance', 'Instant Karma!', 'Cold Turkey', 'Mother', 'Working Class Hero', 'Imagine', 'Jealous Guy', 'Oh My Love', 'Gimme Some Truth', 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)' ... I mean, you can't fuck with any of those.

Well, you can, but that much should be obvious.

Even after that there was 'Mind Games', '#9 Dream', 'What You Got', 'Woman' and 'Nobody Told Me' ... he could still write a great song, just not as many of them. The arrangements of a lot of Lennon's solo stuff can render a lot of it feeling really samey, though. I wish his solo career was a touch more diverse.

xpost:

Nah, all of those tracks are flawless. Perfect.

yeah his sound got really limp w out Ringo and Voorman and Spector imo

Bring on the Lucie and One Day at a Time are hidden gems on Mind Games

agreed that POB and Imagine are two of the best produced records ever, rhythm section is just incredible

After The Beatles broke up, you could have been forgiven for thinking John and Paul would come out with mammoth blockbuster releases and George's record would have been less popular, but John put out this raw confessional record, George put out a mammoth blockbuster and Paul put out a record of him pissing about like it was no big deal.

In hindsight, by the time Band on the Run came out in '73, both John and George were already past their prime - whereas Paul just went from strength to strength commercially and still had many great songs in him.

I can't bear to listen to "What You Got" and "Going Down on Love." You know how on that Billy Joel thread certain 1986 sound like the Forgotten '80s of shitty sunglasses and terrible DX-7 sounds? Those two Lennon songs constitute the Forgotten '70s.

Ah yeah, I like 'Bring on the Lucie' too!

(x-post)

everyone so otm about the Mind Games deep cuts. i really like that album.

Me too. "Out the Blue" and "I Know" as well. And "Only People!"

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.

Wrote on "I Know (I Know)" some years ago:

http://thisiheard.blogspot.com/2012/01/john-lennon-i-know-i-know-1973.html

it's remarkable how bad Mind Games sounds to me, compared to the mix on Pussycats, which sounds great

It's a shame. Gordon Edwards on bass. He's great on "I Know (I Know)!"

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.

nice

So long as "Cheer Down" gets votes.