features in: Album Chart of 1970 ● Album Chart of the Decade: 1970s ● 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die |
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] John Lennon - Mother (John Lennon) Songwriter |
A2 | [01:52] John Lennon - Hold On (John Lennon) Songwriter |
A3 | [03:37] John Lennon - I Found Out (John Lennon) Blues Rock / Soul Rock |
A4 | [03:48] John Lennon - Working Class Hero (John Lennon) Folk |
A5 | [02:51] John Lennon - Isolation (John Lennon) Songwriter |
B1 | [04:33] John Lennon - Remember (John Lennon) Pop |
B2 | [03:21] John Lennon - Love (John Lennon) Pop Ballad |
B3 | [05:59] John Lennon - Well Well Well (John Lennon) Rock |
B4 | [02:53] John Lennon - Look At Me (John Lennon) Folk |
B5 | [04:09] John Lennon - God (John Lennon) Soul Ballad |
B6 | [00:49] John Lennon - My Mummy’s Dead (John Lennon) Lo-Fi |