John Lennon would have been 70 this week. As you may have heard, the entire solo Lennon catalog is being reissued, remastered, reboxed, rebought. There will be countless reassessments of the man’s solo career, with references to long outdated terms like primal scream therapy and lost weekend. These reassessments will likely include seemingly outrageous defenses for generally considered turds, like Some Time in New York City and Rock ‘n Roll. There are bonus discs involved in these reissues, including demos from the Plastic Ono Band debut and a stripped-down Double Fantasy (“But not stripped down enough, not stripped of Yoko’s songs!” I hear some of you cackling). Best yet, if my reading retention was on, you can buy these CDs, including the bonus discs, individually rather than being tied to shelling out for the 11-CD box set, as is too often the case in these massive reissues.
As Lennon’s solo career is reconsidered, some of us in the Halls of Rock may find ourselves rolling our eyes and snorting over the original Lennon Pass. However, it’s hard to argue that Lennon is not a deservedly a beloved and missed figure. Who can blame any of us for having interest in re-examining a solo catalog that was mostly disappointing in its time? To spark this week’s inevitable reassessment of John Lennon’s solo career, let’s hear your gut answers to the following Lennon-oriented Dugout Chatter questions…after the jump!
- Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
- Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
- Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
- What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
- Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
- For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
- Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
- Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
I look forward to your responses.
• what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
#9 Dream, Mind Games and Gimmie Some Truth
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
Hmmm… Maybe “God.”
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
Every Man Has A Woman…
Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
Can I just say all the tape slap?
For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
I’d like to have heard him take on what I’d summarize as being the increasing stupidity and superficial-ness of American culture.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest or John’s Shaved Fish?
Wings, but I feel guilty about it even though it’s true.
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
Maybe Imagine, I don’t know. I am so tired of the title track, I almost always turn it off. But then, since I had kids I think maybe I should leave it on so they can hear it.
* Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Mind Games
#9 Dream
Instant Karma
* Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
Working Class Hero
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish
* What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
none, i hate everything about all of her music. that is separate from hating her bullshit pretension.
* Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
I don’t really love solo Lennon for arrangements or production or instrumental interludes
* For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
having a conscience in the modern world.
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish
* Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
Shaved Fish
what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
I’m Losing You
Cold Turkey
Jealous Guy
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
“Mother” I prefer the Live In New York version if i need a “go to”
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
The Two of them Dancing in the Nobody Told Me Video… for audio? none of it.
Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
Guitar Tone in I’m Losing you is damn cool
For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived…N/A Lennon was killed when I was 9. I do remeber the day and I knew The Beatles and a few of his solo songs. My dad bought Double Fantasty the day it came out, but I don’t think he owned another solo record from John.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
LOVE Wings Greatest…sorry!
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
I just looked at my ipod and saw that I did not have any Lennon solo on it. An oversight for sure (i recently had to erase and reset it). I will update my ipod tonight and add Imagine, POB, and the Best Of from a few years ago that had all of the singles. Also the Soundtrack to the Imagine Mmovie, which is what I think of when I think of John. I saw it twice in two weeks when I was in high school and would have gone again if it was still in the theaters.
I don’t go to John’s solo stuff to remember him. Twist And Shout, Bad Boy, Don’t Let Me Down, I’m A Loser
My band from 1989-1993 got back together this weekend for a show of cover songs (we have not played a cover song together since 1993)
We did Come Together and Rain for John (and Whole Lotta Shakin for Jerry Lee)
Great answers, so far. Keep ’em coming!
# Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Gimme Some Truth, #9 Dream, Love
# Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
God
# Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Ringo’s, I bought John solo albums, but wouldn’t feel like buying a bunch of Ringo albums.
# What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
Her performance as the “wind” on Plastic Ono Band. Must have been an SBD.
# Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
George’s guitar solo on Gimme Some Truth
# For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
Lou Reed as his music was meant to sound? No. Global warming seems up his alley.
# Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest or John’s Shaved Fish? Wings Greatest, since that’s the choice. But I had that John Lennon Collection album for a good 25 years before buying any Wings collection.
# Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
I guess a stripped down Double Fantasy sounds interesting because for all they hype it seemed wimpy to me. But I think maybe taking some reverb off Walls and Bridges might reveal a few things too. Maybe those are things I don’t wanna hear though. I guess I’m the only one who hates that slappy reverb on Instant Karma.
* Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
#9 Dream, Cold Turkey, One Day at a Time
* Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
“Working Class Hero”
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish
* What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
Don’t have any, though I heard a recent Plastic Ono Band a year ago that I thought was pretty good.
* Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
From the last verse of “Going Down on Love” when there’s a little call-and-response between John and the bass line.
* What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
Jersey Shore
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish! No “With a Little Luck!”
* Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
Walls and Bridges. Always liked that one.
God, I’m so sick of the Beatles. Solo Beatles stuff is of almost no interest to me. My answer to all of these questions is that I’d rather listen to anything by Yoko.
For the life of me, I cannot imagine being sick of the Beatles. God knows that for a lot of my life I have listened to them excessively. Yet I find their work endlessly interesting and rewarding in ways that have changed at different times in my life. For that, they all get the Lennon pass, in my book.
Before getting to this, I want to just note that among all the rock and roll, or even just general celebrity, casualties of one kind or another, who “died before their time,” the only one that really touches me the way the death of someone you actually knew touches you, is Lennon. I truly wish he had lived to a ripe old age, not necessarily because he would have made great records again (though he might have), but because he was fun and interesting to have on this earth.
* Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
–Instant Karma, #9 Dream, Gimme Some Truth. Honorable mention to Mind Games, which has grown in stature for me as the years have passed. I think it is a brilliant song but only a so-so recording.
* Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
–Mother. Too much screaming.
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
–Shaved Fish.
* What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
–I like the parts where she is silent. But, stretching matters, even though it only appears on any Lennon solo album as a bonus track, I think Walking on Thin Ice is very cool.
* Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
–John’s harmonica on Oh Yoko or George’s slide on How Do You Sleep
* For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
–I think for the most part he wrote about himself, so he would have written about the passage through middle age and into old age, his children growing up, his marriage evolving or ending, sickness, mortality…who knows?
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest or John’s Shaved Fish?
–Wings Greatest. I think it is a good compilation, as such things go.
* Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
–I want to say Mind Games, in the hope that it will turn out to be more interesting overall than it actually is. But more likely, Imagine, or better still, a bootleg I have of alternate versions of the songs without the strings and such. I like that a lot.
sorry!
i forgot about
Watchin The Wheels and Nobody Told Me.
those are my top 2 Lennon tunes.
A few years ago, I would have died to play this game. Now, I’m just eh. I love The Beatles and all, but I understand where steve is coming from. I don’t HATE them, but so much has been said. I still love them to death.
What are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Off the top of my head: “Nobody Told Me” “What You Got” and “Jealous Guy.”
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
I’ll go with “Working Class Hero” but it could easily be “Mother.”
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
I have the new Ringo hits collection, but I’ll still take Shaved Fish.
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums?
“Walking On Thin Ice”
What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
The War on Terror/Iraq/9-11.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
I never owned Wings Greatest. I love solo Paul and I think he gets a bad rap. I’ve always maintained that he and John both are to blame for some crappy music. The difference for me is that John’s crap may have been crap, but it was interesting crap. Paul’s crap was just crap. I’ll go with Shaved Fish.
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
Walls and Bridges.
TB
* Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
1. Isolation
2. #9 Dream
3. Watching The Wheels
* Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
-Working Class Hero
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Ringo’s best of. I’m more apt to dig deeper into Lennon’s solo catalog and thus a “greatest hits” collection would serve me no good.
* What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
while not on an original pressing of the record (but included on the reissue of Some Time In New York City)…”Listen, The Snow Is Falling” gets my nod of fave Yoko moment.
* Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
Nothing is standing out at the moment
* For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
Did anyone read the Vanity Fair article Lennon at 70 (http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/john-lennon-at-70-201009)
* Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest, John’s Shaved Fish?
Going with Wings here as well.
* Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
Walls and Bridges…mostly because I just saw the Nilsson documentary and was revisiting the Nilsson catalog.
*Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Hmmm…my first instinct is to say “Cold Turkey,” “Gimme Some Truth” and “How Do You Sleep.”
*Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
I like all three of them, very much, but “God” is, even moreso than “Mother,” blatantly about John and nobody else, and for that reason it can get on my nerves.
*Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Ringo. SHAVED FISH is awful, mostly because of the stupid medleys.
*What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
“We’re All Water” is great. I’ve always loved that crazy song.
*Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
I love the slide guitar solo on “Gimme Some Truth.”
*For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
Reconciliation with friends.
*Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest John’s Shaved Fish?
Again, Wings, because they don’t monkey with the songs on it.
*Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
WALLS AND BRIDGES. Other than “#9 Dream,” I never liked it, but I wonder if maybe there’s at least one good song that has gone over my head all these years.
Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Instant Karma, Mind Games, whatever Gets You Through the Night
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
Mother, I guess.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Can we make this a split?
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
I don’t like Yoko.
Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
I have no idea. I pretty much say, “meh” to his solo career.
For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
Getting old.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
Wings for sure. It’s got Jet on it, right?
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
The Rolling Stones Rock n Roll Circus
Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Off the top of my head “I Found Out,” “Nobody Told Me,” and “Beautiful Boy.” (You know what’s funny? “#9 Dream,” which so many of you have listed, is a song I can never identify by title. I know I like it when I hear it, but I can’t put the title and the song together. Walls and Bridges is one of a few Lennon solo albums I don’t own – and I think I barely know it.)
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
Tough question. To me each of these vaunted songs fail to deliver the goods on various levels, but I think “God” is the worst both musically and in terms of overwrought lyrics.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish probably gets a slight nod.
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
That song pudman13 mentioned is a good one I’d completely forgotten, but doesn’t Yoko make a sound at the end of “Beautiful Boy” and/or “Hold On Yoko?” I love those songs, so if she makes any sound on them they get my vote. I do like her debut Plastic Ono Band, but for purposes of this question that doesn’t really count.
Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
Also a tough question for me, because most of his albums after the first one have such generic sounds. I do like the repeating “weeping” guitar and 1/8th note keyboard stabs in “Mind Games,” though. Others have identified some great parts I hadn’t thought about.
For those of us who grew up with Lennon and looked to him for some guidance on how life might be lived, we were fortunate to hear him write about “adult,” not-typically rocking things like parenthood and maintaining a long-term relationship. What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
So many come to mind, but I’d be most curious to know how he was getting on with his long-overdue sense of comfort and maturity while still being his frequently crabby, cynical self. “Nobody Told Me” may have been as perfect a final song as he could have left behind at that time. It’s still open-ended and a bit nasty.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest or John’s Shaved Fish?
Wings Greatest.
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
I should finally pick up Mind Games. I’ve loved that single since childhood, but I never bought the entire album.
BTW, does anyone know if The Great 48 has heard Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band record yet?
Three favorite songs:
Instant Karma
Mother
#9 Dream
Needle lifter:
Working Class Hero
Favorite Yoko Moment:
Walking on Thin Ice (I know it doesn’t meet the stated criteria, but I’m sticking with it.)
Pick a Hits collection:
Blast from Your Past (I have serious problems with Shaved Fish, particularly the truncated “Give Peace A Chance”. Dated or not, it’s essential.)
Didn’t get to write about:
The (second) break up with Yoko
Greatest Hits Face off: Wing’s Greatest (See above. But I would take “The Lennon Collection” over any of them.)
Revisit:
Mind Games. I don’t think I ever gave it the attention I need to to decide whether it’s good or not.
I missed the instrumental moment. I really like the bass line on Whatever Gets You Through the Night.
Hey #9 Dream really was a comer, wasn’t it?
what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
Instant Karma
Cold Turkey
Mother
Meat City – I had to give that a shout-out
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
Working Class Hero
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Tough Call but I have to go with “Blast From Your Past” – That’s all you need from Ringo. John’s albums have more intrinsic worth
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
Yoko – Give Peace a Chance
Instrument -riff in “Cold Turkey”
What life issue that he did not live to write about do you most wish you could hear him sing about today?
The physical ailments that come with getting old!
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatestohn’s Shaved Fish?
“Wings Greatest” – You get “Jr’s farm” and “Hi X3”
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
“Imagine”
Isolation, Watching The Wheels, Instant Karma! (I may like a few others better, but I’m trying to be less cool here).
I think God is actually pretty funny, and intentionally so, plus I never get tired of hearing John Lennon seem to proudly boast that he “don’t believe…in BUTTER!” Similarly, I can make time for Working Class Hero because I always think he’s saying “they hurt you at home and they hit you with spoons.” Mother is great, but man, that is relentless and you need to be ready for it.
There are better Lennon compilations, but I would tell someone who had this as a choice to just go get Ringo instead of Blast From Your Past, while I can imagine Shaved Fish might satisfy what they want.
Does Milk & Honey count? If so, I think Yoko’s “Let Me Count The Ways” is genuinely lovely, and I say that as someone who doesn’t have much time for her music otherwise.
Either one of the drum fills on Instant Karma! or when the whole band comes in with him on Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out. I suspect the weakness in this area will, rightly, be a point of discussion this week.
How hard it was to program a VCR.
Wings. Solo Paul > Solo John. That said, I suppose this is a case for Shaved Fish, since I think there’s a ton of great, underrated obscure stuff in McCartney’s solo career, while I don’t think looking for the same in Lennon’s solo stuff would be nearly as rewarding.
Walls and Bridges is his most underrated. I think there’s a lot of great stuff between that and Mind Games. (Surprise Surprise from W&B and Out The Blue from Mind Games are the two I left out of my favorites list above so I wouldn’t intimidate anyone with my coolness.)
So, what’s the beef with Working Class Hero?
My beef is that I find the music boring and the song going on too long. I wish Lennon could have put the words to a tune that would have taken advantage of his voice. I don’t hate the song or anything, though.
boy, I agree with a lot of alexmagic’s comments.
Without worrying about coming off as cool (remember, you’re already hanging with the likes of us), what are your three favorite solo Lennon songs?
“#9 Dream”
“Instant Karma!”
“God”
Which vaunted song from the Plastic Ono Band album do you least feel like spinning on any given day: “Mother,” “Working Class Hero,” or “God”?
“Working Class Hero” is OK, but the least of them. “Mother” is so simple and brutal. I love how in “God” he so personally declares the death of Beatles and then after a moment of silence, kindly asks us all to carry on with our lives without them. Kind of like that Shatner “get a life” sketch, but with a lot of heart. “The dream is over”… that kills me every time, whether applying it to life’s disappointments or to John’s death. (Though obviously he means the fab 4 as “dream”.)
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Ringo’s Blast From Your Past or John’s Shaved Fish?
Shaved Fish
What’s your favorite Yoko moment on any of John’s solo albums, including the jointly credited Double Fantasy?
I guess I haven’t listened thoroughly enough for a long time to remember what moments those might be.
Excluding the first singles and songs from Plastic Ono Band, what’s your favorite instrumental moment (eg, solo, cool lick, drum fill) on a Lennon solo album?
Ringo’s double-time drum fills under “momma don’t go” in “Mother” fade out, along with the funereal piano reverb there.
Choose one Greatest Hits album: Wings Greatest / John’s Shaved Fish?
The balance tilts heavily to Wings Greatest.
Which Lennon solo album are you most interested in revisiting this week?
I regret that my close familarity with Lennon solo has grown weaker because with the exception of reacquiring Plastic Ono Band, it’s all on vinyl, so I can’t just throw it on. I need to get or convert Walls and Bridges and re-listen to it because I played that record to death when I was a kid.
Did you all see that the Nutopian Embassy sold recently?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/realestate/07deal1.html
Great answers everyone!
I will celebrate Jonh’s life and lament the fact that I will never hear his song about trying to program his VCR to record The Jersey Shore (although I think I will have to write and record this song Myself)
GOD pt 3
Sitting on the sofa, Yoko and Me
Changing channels on our new TV
Snookie is on and it’s somthing to See-HE-HEEE
But there is a flashing 12:00 staring back at me.
I don’t believe in The Situation, Don’t believe in Music Television, Don’t believe in Viacom, Don’t believe in Jersey, Don’t believe in Beiber…Just believe in me… and that’s the new reality.
Video Tape Recording is a concept, by which we measure our needs.
Excellent, jungleland2!!!