Review Summary: "I was the Walrus...now I'm John."
The Beatles officially broke up in 1970, but, the unraveling of the band truly began on August 27th, 1967 when their longtime manager, Brian Epstein, died of an overdose of the narcotic Carbitral. The Beatles, who at the time had just released the groundbreaking
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and saw themselves at the forefront of the hippie movement during the Summer of Love, were suddenly left without a manager, and without a solid direction, they famously ended up trying to find themselves in India under the spiritual guidance of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in early 1968. The trip would become a major turning point for the band, as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and George Harrison all wrote a large collection of songs on their own, without much of the usual collaboration between Lennon and McCartney occurring. The Beatles returned home to record what would be
The Beatles (better known as
The White Album), which presented the three as vastly different songwriters, with different musical styles, different things to say, and differing opinions on the sound and direction that the band should take. Lennon had become especially disillusioned after returning from India. While Paul McCartney became obsessed with composing what John Lennon later called “Paul’s granny music,” Lennon’s post-India songs, influenced by his new avant-garde girlfriend Yoko Ono, had become much more intense, more personal, and often had a more to the point vibe, often sacrificing pop sensibilities in exchange for trying to express himself within the confines of the group. He fell into a serious heroin addiction during the late sixties, and began to venture away from the Beatles by releasing the singles “Give Peace a Chance” and “Cold Turkey” and “Instant Karma!” under the moniker The Plastic Ono Band, as well as making a few highly experimental tracks in direct collaboration with Ono. Lennon had made his intentions to do solo work clear to the rest of the band in late 1969, but it was never officially announced that he had left the Beatles until Paul McCartney officially did so himself in April, 1970.
Soon after McCartney released his first solo album, Lennon and Ono went to primal therapy sessions led by therapist Arthur Janov for about five months. During these sessions, Lennon’s troubled childhood – namely the profound effect of the loss of his mother, his true thoughts about being in the biggest band in the world and the abrupt end, his drug use, and the pressure of being an idol to so many in his generation – all came to light. It was after these revelatory sessions that Lennon, alongside a few session musicians (including Ringo Starr) began recording what would be his first official solo album, entitled
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album was an extremely powerful statement regarding Lennon’s feelings about love, loss, the aforementioned break-up of the Beatles, as well as his feelings about the changing world around him. The album is a relatively laid back affair instrumentally; outside of a couple of bluesy-dirges, Lennon is usually only sparsely accompanied musically. The album’s most prevalent instrument is piano, and sometimes features occasional guitar and slow drum backing, but, Lennon’s pained voice and outspoken lyrics are what rightly draw the most attention, with every word being lined with meaning. The most emotionally candid, slower, and instrumentally stripped songs are the best ones here, with the first track “Mother,” setting the table for the feel of the rest of the album. The song, which revolves around Lennon’s feelings of abandonment, also serves as his true goodbye to his passed mother over ominously slow piano chords and sparse drumming. In fact, one listen through the album clearly reveals a distressed man at its helm, with his personal heartbreak laid absolutely bare all over each track. Lennon takes no prisoners in expressing his emotions: on “Working Class Hero,” Lennon talks about the meaninglessness and tragedy of the working life, how “as soon as you’re born they make you feel small/by giving you no time instead of it all.” During “Love,” Lennon takes a warm look at his emotions about his relationship with Ono, and on “Isolation,” Lennon muses on fear, pain and how loneliness is just a condition of being a part of humanity.
However, the real emotional bomb on this album is “God,” which is the most brutal and up-front statement that he made during his whole career. It opens with the repeated sentiment “God is a concept, by which we measure our pain.” He then dives into a tense laundry list of things that he does not believe in, including (but not limited to) the Bible, Hitler, Kennedy, Jesus, Kings, Yoga, Mantra, Elvis, and Zimmerman (Bob Dylan), before finally ending with the albums’ seminal line: “I don’t believe in Beatles…I just believe in me. Yoko and me, and that’s reality,” before closing his thoughts with “The dream is over, what can I say?” All of the lines of “God” are delivered with such vitriol, pain and brutal honesty that you cannot help but be swept up in the beauty of the emotions being so candidly delivered. It is because of this emotional sincerity that
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is nothing short of being a perfect, yet, emotionally taxing and tumultuous roller coaster ride that closes the curtain on Lennon’s feelings on his childhood and towards his time with the Beatles. Lennon would never be as candid about his own emotions ever again, but remained a vocal critic of the world around him. This album revolutionized the way that the world perceived Lennon not only as a musical icon, but, more importantly, as an independent songwriter free to live his own life, and do what he wanted without being in the public eye as consistently. Lennon’s solo career was full of ups and downs, and tragically ended up being cut short outside the steps of the Dakota, but the magnitude of his contributions to the music of the sixties and seventies will live on through this touching, poignant and expressive set of songs.
