John Lennon Solo Albums Poll

and the "house husband" period = reclusive junkie years

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.

Across the Universe was written in late '67/early '68, too

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'

why are we discussing TWA here?

We're discussing Lennon's songwriting periods.

let's talk about the mythology instead

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

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.

Pussy Cats is up there with his best work imo

Pussy cats rules!

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!

*onto a ballot

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

also re: mind games yeah that album sounds like shit. did the yoko remix a few years ago fix any of that?

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.

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.