Thursday 14th December
Well, he was in the Beatles. In many ways he was The Beatles; his drive, his personality, his irrepressible rock’roll intelligence was what ensured that they were far more than just a great little beat combo. And even if Paul and George’s song-writing eventually eclipsed his, he did write Help, In My Life, Strawberry Fields and Day In The Life – to name but a few. But increasingly he became weirder and weirder (and heavier into drugs) – and then he met Yoko. And I believe he almost wanted her to become a Beatle, he was that besotted with her. He recorded a couple of un-listenable sound collage albums with her and incredibly thought they were actually relevant.
But when The Beatles finally imploded he released two brilliant albums. John Lennn/Plastic Ono Band was the most cathartic soul-bearing record we had ever heard; he laid his pain right down on the tracks and in many ways it was his masterpiece. He had been attending sessions of Primal Scream Therapy, where he and Yoko were encouraged to re-live the worst and deepest buried parts of their lives. For John this was probably losing his Mother. Twice, once when she left him with Aunt Mimi and then when she was killed in a road accident.
He followed this up with Imagine, a more accomplished and conventional record full of great songs which was a huge commercial success. At this point John was the biggest thing on the planet, we hung on his every word. Then sadly he began to throw it all away. Sometime in New York City was really poor, and even Mind Games was a bit bland and sub-standard. He parted from Yoko for his Lost Weekend which actually lasted 18 months. Walls and Bridges was another disappointment as was Rock’n’Roll. Everyone wanted him to write and record some great songs again, but he somehow seemed incapable or bored even. After a five year retirement where according to him he was a house husband and according to others he and Yoko were trying to wean themselves off Heroin, he released Double Fantasy where half the songs were his and half were sung by Yoko. It was much better and had a few very good songs, especially “Watching The Wheels”.
But I wonder; if he hadn’t been shot and killed just after its release what we would think of it now. And what he might have gone on to do. But we will never know. For me, the solo years were largely a disappointment – at least the albums, except for the first two, were. His best years were certainly with the Beatles. Maybe he had set the bar so high that he could never achieve such heights again. Still, what a man and what a life…
