Plastic Ono Band (1970)
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*
13.Do the Oz*
* Bonus CD Tracks
 
It is the consensus among all critics
and most diehard fans that John Lennon's first real solo album,
with actual songs, is undoubtably his very best, and ranks amongst the
best of any solo effort by any member of The Beatles. In many cases,
though, this is a very sad record. Sad because John Lennon let's us all
deep inside of his heart and soul, and what we find is not pretty at
all, even downright ugly.
Around the latter half of the sixties, we saw The Beatles, and
particular John Lennon, become increasingly....well....weird. We
saw them run away from society and follow the Mahahrishi for some
transcendental meditation, saw Lennon divorce his "good English wife"
for that "weird Japanese lady" (that seemed to be forever, literally, at
his side), we heard all the bizarre experimental albums (one that
featured the above mentioned new girlfriend, along with Lennon, bullock
naked on the cover) and saw and heard all about the bed-ins for peace. It was definitely
one strange thing after another.
What this album sort of did in its own special way is to explain to us
why John Lennon had evolved into this rather curious character. This is
a confessional of the strongest kind. He bares his soul and lets us
know basically that, Beatle or no Beatle, he's had a miserable life and
feels incredibly cheated. Had the music not been so superb, it could
have been very easy to write the whole thing off and shake your head, but
the music is outstanding. Everything that John Lennon does well, he
does so on the album. The music is on many fronts - angry rockers,
quiet acoustic pieces, and some harrowing piano ballads. There's not a
bad track on the album.
It's not necessarily a fun listen. In fact, this is downright
depressing, and had this come from just about any artist, it would have
been extremely narcissistic, and, well, no one would have probably
cared. But this is a man that an entire generation had idolized, so we
don't mind the barrage. In fact, we wish we could reach out to the man
and give him a hug. I'm serious. Although the music is outstanding, we
can't escape the lyrics and the message. Whether it's a plea to his
dead parents that deserted him, the faith he had lost in fame and/or
religion, or the entire country and upbringing that was forced upon him,
it's a soul baring record in the strongest sense.
Not surprisingly, there's very little on the album that's "popular"
and/or would appear on a "hits" collection, but the whole album works
very well just as it is. The whole world now felt as though they
understood this man just a little bit better.
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