scapp70's Full Review: Plastic Ono Band by John Lennon
John Lennon had released two singles in the late 60s and one in the 1970s. He also released his three avant-garde albums in 1969 as well. I regard the Plastic Ono Band album as John Lennon's first proper solo album, although it was released at the end of 1970.
Lennon released eight studio albums in his solo career, six in the seventies and two in the eighties. In my opinion, John Lennon's strongest tracks come from 1980's Double Fantasy album.
For the seventies, I would have to say that this album, Plastic Ono Band is his best from the Me decade. For the alternative, you have his Imagine album as it is too sappy for me as a whole. Then there's Some Time In New York City and it's way too political for me. Mind Games has a lot of filler amongst a few great tracks, and his Walls and Bridges has weak singles and just more filler. His Rock and Roll album, I don't even count it here, since it's all cover songs, no Lennon compositions.
Plastic Ono Band is his only body of original songs that have a consistency of quality.
Mother sort of sets the depressing tone of the album from the onset. That's not to say that this is a bad thing, and not all of the songs are downers. Mother sounds like it was put together quickly to showcase Lennon's therapeutic lyrics. It is very brave of Lennon to bare his soul to the world in his lyrics like this. The lyrics are especially personal coming from someone like John Lennon, where many people already know the little details of his life. In this song, Lennon pours out his heart to his late mother and estranged father. The song has a powerful emotive aspect and it only adds to the bravery of the song.
Hold On is actually a song that remained incomplete for a while from The Beatles White Album recording sessions. John finished up this gem, and this little song is one of the many highlights on this masterpiece album. I love that tremolo effect on the guitar, it really adds to the song's ambiance.
Working Class Hero is one of the strongest songs on this CD. Is this the first songs to mention the "f" word? I am not sure. I know it was originally in his Revolution 9 from The Beatles White Album, but it was later censored out. Working Class Hero is very Dylan-esque as far as the arrangement, where the guitar is just there to accompany a poem or statement. Being John Lennon, of course, the song is a lot more melodious than that.
Isolation is so simplistically sparse, the drumbeat, the piano chords and John's voice double tracked in some places. The lyrics and the melody compliment the music beautifully. It's another ballad, as are all of the songs except for two. Maybe ballad is the wrong word; the majority of songs are more like quiet unplugged renditions of the real songs, except these are the real songs.
I Found Out is OK. It's not one of Lennon's best efforts to write a song with a harder edge. He has definitely written quality rock songs in the past and later in his career. But, I suppose he needed a platform of some sort to let the listener know that Jesus was dead and he has "found out" people.
Remember sounds a lot like I Found Out, except for the chorus which has a slight hook. The two songs have that same monotonous beat with the drums and bass. That's not saying anything bad about Ringo's drumming; I mean he has done wonders with what he was given to work with. Anyway, this is another weak track by Lennon. I think what is missing from these two songs, and some others are Paul's middle eight contributions. Most of these songs only have either one part or at the most two parts to the song. It makes it boring after the first minute and half in most instances.
John's ballad Love is teetering on the fence whether or not it is a good song or not. It's pretty, yet boring. The lyrics are nice, yet repetitive. I think I'm leaning more toward boring and repetitive. It's just Lennon at the piano singing and no other instruments which sounds like it would be teetering in the opposite direction toward pretty and nice, but boring and repetitive are too darn fat.
Well Well Well is a Lennon rock song done well. Even with the primal screaming of "Weeeelllllllllll" in the middle and end of the song. The verse has a Jimi Hendrix feel where Lennon plays a lick on the guitar and duplicates the melody of the lick with lyrics. Actually, Lennon did the same thing before on I Want You (She's So Heavy) on The Beatles Abbey Road album.
Okay? Yes thank you. Look at Me is a great contrast to a song like Well Well Well, it's very quiet and gentle where Well Well Well is very loud and boisterous. John is again utilizing the finger picking style on the acoustic that was taught to him in India in 1968 by Donovan. That makes sense then why it sounds so similar to songs like Julia and Dear Prudence from The Beatles White Album. This is one of the better songs on Plastic Ono Band despite the derivativeness of himself. It's just John singing to his guitar.
John was very bold in naming two of his songs on this album. He named one Love which missed the mark in my opinion, and God which came out a lot better. You figure when you entitle a song with such strong words, the song had better live up to the title. God is sort of mimicry, in the sense that it's all about the breakup of The Beatles. Perhaps, that's why we love the song. The last minute and a half (right after "I just believe in me") is my favorite part. Here is where he has a melodious hook, and the lyrics are superb.
I was the walrus
But now, I'm John
And so dear friends
You'll just have to carry on
The dream is over
John ends his album with a mono recording of him singing into a tape recorder. My Mummy's Dead is just under a minute and it's one of the best songs on the album. Again, it's just John on the electric guitar singing along to it. It's a soft ballad without too many lyrics, but the lyrics are heart felt and emotionally powerful.
Although, the album's title is Plastic Ono Band, the voice of Ono cannot be heard anywhere on this album. It's up to you to decide if that's a good or a bad thing.
Bonus Tracks
They included the single Power to the People, which is nice. It wasn't released on any album, it was just a single, so it's good to have it included since it was only released four months later in March of 1971. I believe that this is John's first protest single. This song has a very New York feel with the horn section & the gospel-style backing vocals despite the fact that it was recorded in England on January 22nd, 1970. John wouldn't leave for the US until late summer that year. The backing voices and horns mask the fact that the song is one of those one-dimensional Lennon songs very well.
I think it would have been interesting to include Open Your Box, the original b-side of Power to the People. But still, I like the craziness of Do the Oz. Yoko is heard making siren noises in the backdrop, the guitar riff is monotonously hypnotizing, and John Lennon is screaming the lyrics.
1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. I Found Out
4. Working Class Hero
5. Isolation
6. Remember
7. Love
8. Well Well Well
9. Look at Me
10. God
11. My Mummy's Dead
12. Power To The People - (bonus track)
13. Do The Oz - (bonus track)
Performers
John Lennon - Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano
Ringo Starr - Drums
Alan White - Drums
Yoko Ono - Vocals, Wind, Woodwind
Klaus Voormann - Bass
Billy Preston - Keyboards, Piano
Phil Spector - Piano
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
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