John Lennon (solo artist)

Great
Total votes: 5 (19%)
Mixed bag
Total votes: 13 (50%)
Crap
Total votes: 8 (31%)
Total votes: 26

Re: John Lennon (solo artist)

14
Apparently.
"I was at a dance club one night in Bermuda. Upstairs, they were playing disco, and downstairs I suddenly heard 'Rock Lobster' by the B-52s for the first time. Do you know it? It sounds just like Yoko's music, so I said to meself, 'It's time to get out the old ax and wake the wife up!'"
He was right though, Rock Lobster was inspired by Yoko's music.

Re: John Lennon (solo artist)

17
Some of the later stuff can sound overproduced to me but Plastic Ono Band has a great looseness and liveness to it. Poor Klaus even goes into the change one bar too early and has to do a quick recovery at one point.

1:09 to be precise.

They sound like rehearsal tapes but it's great like that. John, Klaus and Ringo were a nice little three piece.

Re: John Lennon (solo artist)

18
Not Crap! His guitar playing is quite loose, raw and emotional at times. You can tell John would let rip with an early take and move on, not agonizing over stuff in the studio. I like it. As stated, Plastic Ono Band is required reading. So good. I consider the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band album as almost supplemental to the Lennon one. Both great. 'Why?' Is some seriously punk shit and the band is kicking ass. But then again I am an unapologetic proponent of Yoko as an artist, musician, and all around awesome person. Her album Approximately Infinite Universe is really lovely.

While the song Imagine is played out, there are plenty of gems on that album. Gimme Some Truth!!! Come on! I also think there is some great material on Some Time In New York City. Mind Games has it's moments as does Walls And Bridges (Bless You is one of my fav John solo songs). I hardly ever listen to Double Fantasy or Milk and Honey but I'm sure I'll get around to it someday. I go way deeper on his solo catalog than Macca's. Whereas Paul seemed willing to go out on a limb with McCartney and Wild Life, everything else is just a little too goofy and polished to my ears. I like that John was willing to put some of his damaged self into the music and just put it out there.
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Re: John Lennon (solo artist)

19
John Lennon's solo career is marked with his insistence that his wife's art be taken at the same face value as his, that it had the exact same merit. A lot of people found this difficult to swallow.

Two Virgins, Life With The Lions and Wedding Album serve John's concept of LP as newspaper. Live Peace In Toronto is their first musical collaboration: John on side 1 and Yoko on side 2. Both John and Yoko's first solo albums, recorded at the same sessions, are titled Plastic Ono Band and have identical covers. Imagine's companion is Yoko's Fly. And on Sometime In New York City they alternate tracks, Lennon's little fuck-you to the general public: "If they really want to skip Yoko's songs, force the lazy bastards to get up and move the needle."

The concept broke down when their marriage did. Mind Games, Walls & Bridges and Rock & Roll are John having fun with his celebrity pals (Nilsson's Pussy Cats is the companion to Rock & Roll). Of these, Walls & Bridges is the most satisfying; the gorgeous #9 Dream is a standout.

After a five year hiatus in domestic bliss, John and Yoko returned with Double Fantasy, again alternating tracks. Watching The Wheels is a sad and perfect summation of John's career and life. The posthumous Milk & Honey is structured the same way.

Backtracking to Lennon's standalone singles: Give Peace A Chance is 45-as-musical-newspaper. Cold Turkey, released one month after Abbey Road, was rejected by the Beatles as too abrasive and uncommercial. Instant Karma, written, recorded and released in ten days, is brilliant; John allows Phil Spector to go over the top just enough. Power To The People is limp; even John realized his political songs were his weakest. And Happy Xmas (War Is Over) is John's successful attempt to write a modern Christmas carol.

All of these singles have Yoko songs on the flipsides.

What's that? Oh yeah, not crap.
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