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Left-hander. Beatles collector. Likes sci-fi and other things.
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Reviews (3)
Aug 31, 2017
A goodbye that should not have been
1 of 1 found this helpful "Milk and Honey" is the first posthumous album from John Lennon, supervised by Yoko Ono. It contains songs that Lennon had always intended to be included on the followup to "Double Fantasy", so his songs are still rough around the edges in places. No doubt if given time, he would have reworked them, possibly even re-recorded some or all of most. John could take years to tinker with material, completely rewriting lyrics if he felt it was needed.
Yoko's material as a whole is more polished, and several of the songs ("Your Hands" is one) directly relate to her feelings towards John after his murder. The accusatory tone she would employ in "Double Fantasy" (such as "Moving On") is gone, replaced by a reverence for her departed husband. As such, "Milk and Honey" is somewhat more uneven than its predecessor.
That said, it's John's material that makes the album worth having, despite the fact that over the years, Yoko developed into a very good songwriter (I refer the interested listener to "Every Man Has A Woman Who Love Him", a compilation of her material covered by other artists). While some of John's songs would probably not have made the final cut ("Forgive Me (My Little Flower Princess)"), tunes like "Nobody Told Me" show Lennon in fine rocking style. The gem of the record is "Grow Old With Me"; an achingly beautiful ballad that exists only as a demo on a home cassette. In later years, Yoko would have Beatles Producer George Martin score the song, turning it into a bad copy of a Paul McCartney ballad. The unadorned version on "Milk and Honey" is much better, and shows us a glimpse of what it could have been, had John been able to record it properly. The sad irony of a man who would be unable to make good on his promise that "the best is yet to be" gives the tune an unintended poignancy.
Sep 06, 2017
One of the greatest albums ever
1 of 1 found this helpful In 1970 the Beatles had finally announced their separation, and each of the now ex-Beatles released solo albums. All were wildly different. Ringo put out two, the first being a collection of well-polished standards mainly from the 1940's (decades before this was a popular idea), and the second a slick Nashville country album that aside from featuring a young Jerry Reed, was very forgettable. Paul put out his self-titled debut, and while it did contain 'Maybe I'm Amazed',. it was also full of song fragments, which he would continue to litter his albums with for many years to come. George had 'All Things Must Pass', which as a two-record set, was a benchmark he would never again surpass (the 'Apple Jam' third record is a one-listen borefest).
And then there was John. His escapades with Yoko had already encompassed four albums (only half of one, the 'Live Peace in Toronto 1969' was worth the effort). So nobody really expected 'Plastic Ono Band' to be anything other than more strangeness.
Instead, we were given an album for the ages. While not as commercial as George's, it stands alone as the only album by any of the Beatles to really communicate the emotion and feeling of its creator. From the tolling bells that introduce 'Mother' to the scratch cheap phonograph sound of 'My Mummy's Dead', we get Lennon, more naked than 'Two Virgins', offering up his soul to his public. The songs are sparse, stripped lean and the more powerful for it. That this was three years after 'Strawberry Fields Forever' shows how John was just as much a creative dynamo as Paul (an opinion sometimes lost nowadays). The anger and grief and tenderness of John's voice come through on numbers like 'I Found Out', 'Isolation', 'Hold On John' (which would have fit perfectly on 'Imagine' a year later) and 'Love'. 'Remember' and 'Well Well Well' are blistering slabs of rock and roll also.
If this album is John's 'Sgt. Pepper', then 'God' is the new 'A Day in the Life'; he breaks down the illusions that many of us share and at the end, sings clear-eyed and newly awoken to the reality that it's all down to each of us, and maybe those we care for. 'Working Class Hero' does the same, and by giving voice to his own pain, reaches that pain we all share at one time or another.
The effect is simply stunning. Driven by Ringo's no-frills drumming and the excellent bass of Klaus Voorman (who only now is being seen for his underrated ability), John's guitar or piano (sometimes played by Phil Spector or Billy Preston) adds only what's required. Many musicians say a lot less with more noise. 'Plastic Ono Band' returns us whenever we want to a time when John Lennon was alive, breathing and thinking. It reflects how much we all lost when he left us.
Aug 16, 2017
It's John Lennon - duh!
Released in 1973, "Mind Games" is a greatly underrated album. Whenever I hear the opening strains of the title track, it takes me back to those distant times. John was struggling to deal with the breakup of his relationship with Yoko, and the critical drubbing of his previous album "Some Time In New York City" the year before. That said, many of the songs are wonderful - "Tight A$", "Out of the Blue", "Intuition", etc. Taken in the context of Lennon's career, it's a portrait of a man who was struggling to stay upright, but still capable of humour and sensitivity. It's often compared as a second-rate "Imagine", but like all great music, it perfectly captures its time, just as "Sgt. Pepper" is 1967 in a nutshell. It's certainly in the top three of all his solo work. Hearing it today, listening in on all the thoughts of a private man who lived in a public persona, one is sadly all too aware of how much he is missed. It's clear he had so much more to say to us.