Rating: **** (4 stars)
Title: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
Company: Apple
Catalog: SW-3372
Year: 1970
Grade (cover/record): VG/VG
Comments: original inner sleeve with lyrics
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4159
Price: $20.00
Cost: $1.00
! remember hearing this as a teenager and thinking it was borderline unlistenable. Ah, the ignorance of youth!
Co-produced by Lennon, Yoko One and Phil Spector, 1970's "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" is probably one of the most personal albums ever released. Apparently inspired by his recent bouts with primal scream therapy, these eleven Lennon originals were extremely harsh and raw and must have come as a major shock to long-standing Beatles fans anxiously awaiting another Lennon product. Clearly autobiographical, material such as "Mother", "Working Class Hero", "Isolation" and "Look At Me" laid bare Lennon's personal demons. With backing from Ono, Ringo Starr and longtime buddy Klaus Voorman, Lennon's tales of lost parents, personal insecurities and Beatles fragmentation ("I don't believe in Beatles" from "God") were uniformly angry, dark and harrowing. (Ah, and you though the rich had it easy.) On the other hand, those very characteristics and Lennon's knack for crafting simple melodies (check out "God"), helped make this album so powerful and endearing. Oh, "Love Is Love" is not only one of Lennon's prettiest songs, but also sports an atypically uplifting lyric. Apple actually pulled "Mother" as a single (Apple catalog number 1827). Backed with "Why" it went top-40 in the States. Given the rather trying nature of the material, the parent album actually sold quite well, eventually peaking at # 6.
"John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Mother (John Lennon) - 5:37
2.) Hold On (John Lennon) - 1:52
3.) I Found Out (John Lennon) - 3:37
4.) Working Class Hero (John Lennon) - 3:50
5.) Isolation (John Lennon) - 2:51
(side 2)
1.) Remember (John Lennon) - 4:36
2.) Love (John Lennon) - 3:24
3.) Well, Well, Well (John Lennon) - 5:59
4.) Look At Me (John Lennon) - 2:55
5.) God (John Lennon) - 4:10
6.) My Mummy's Dead (John Lennon) - 0:59