“John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band” by John Lennon - album review

features in: Album Chart of 1970Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die external-link.png

TJR says

Arriving just in time for Christmas 1970 was the 4th long player from the 30-year-old singer-songwriter, his first properly focused album post-Beatles, an excorcising of some personal demons. Stripped back of Beatles polish, the raw and candid set is often affecting, if not always exciting. “Working Class Hero”, just John and his acoustic guitar, blows the roof off. For four glorious minutes he channels his inner Dylan, spitting hard-hitting lines at every turn, as you will him on, all the way. Decidedly left, the song rallies against those who would seek to own you, control you: “Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV, And you think you're so clever and classless and free, But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see.” The same people in fact who would try and prevent you from using the fuck word. Fuck them. Old pal Ringo Starr pops up to drum on “Isolation”, a heart-on-the-sleeve pop ballad with a nuanced delivery from Lennon that serves it well. The same formula is succesfully applied to the late album highlight “God”, built romantically on a Love-Letters-straight-from-your-heart piano bed, avowing a seemingly all-new non-belief system which includes magic, the I Ching, the Bible, tarot, Hitler, Jesus, Kennedy, Buddha, mantra, the Gita, yoga, kings, Elvis, Zimmerman and, shockingly, the Beatles! He now just believes in himself and Yoko. Music is the best therapy. John knew.

The Jukebox Rebel
08–Jan–2016

Tracklist
A1 [05:34] 5.5.png John Lennon - Mother (John Lennon) Songwriter
A2 [01:52] 4.8.png John Lennon - Hold On (John Lennon) Songwriter
A3 [03:37] 4.8.png John Lennon - I Found Out (John Lennon) Blues Rock / Soul Rock
A4 [03:48] 10.0.png John Lennon - Working Class Hero (John Lennon) Folk
A5 [02:51] 6.2.png John Lennon - Isolation (John Lennon) Songwriter
B1 [04:33] 5.5.png John Lennon - Remember (John Lennon) Pop
B2 [03:21] 4.6.png John Lennon - Love (John Lennon) Pop Ballad
B3 [05:59] 5.5.png John Lennon - Well Well Well (John Lennon) Rock
B4 [02:53] 5.3.png John Lennon - Look At Me (John Lennon) Folk
B5 [04:09] 6.5.png John Lennon - God (John Lennon) Soul Ballad
B6 [00:49] 5.0.png John Lennon - My Mummy’s Dead (John Lennon) Lo-Fi

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