John was in quite a bad place, just before and after leaving The Beatles; apparently addicted to heroin.  It is arguable whether Yoko saved him or led to his decline, but together they had therapy from a controversial Psychiatrist who thought all our problems stemmed from unacknowledged pain from our childhood. John had certainly a traumatic time, his father left when he was a child, and his mother Julia, a somewhat free spirit, felt she couldn’t cope and left young John with his Aunt Mimi.  Julia kept in touch until she was tragically killed in a road accident when the boy was 10.  These events may well have shaped his ‘Rock’n’Roll’ spirit and drive, especially in the early days.

One result of the therapy was that John wrote and recorded the songs on this album, mostly based on his ‘pain’ and his love for Yoko.  It is a truly incredible record; bleak and yet starkly honest and beautiful.  The most autobiographical of any of The Beatles music it stand way above anything he did after this, although the follow-up album ‘Imagine’ is pretty dammed good too.  The album starts with the words ‘Mother, you had me, but I never had you’ – and ends with the song ‘My Mummy’s Dead’ – but in between there are a few lighter moments.  My stand-out tracks are ‘Isolation’,       ‘Look At Me’ and ‘God’.