HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Feb. 4, 2005 Forget that some of these tracks sound like living-room demos, or that a handful of the song choices are the producer's self-indulgence. Revel in this voice from the past, a voice we audaciously took for granted in its day and that we need to hear in new ways. Yoko Ono is, for better or worse, the caretaker of all things John Lennon. In this instance, however, we've got to hand it to her. This album is Lennon like we've never heard, sparse in form and disturbing in content, the most honest of artists presented in the most honest context yet. To be sure, gawking at stark-naked John is surely no longer in vogue but complete honesty from a pop artist has got to count for much in this age of laissez-faire lip-sync, vamp nee Disney and digital reconstitution. Sit back, listen, and learn. This document contains little more than John's voice and John's guitar, with no frills whatsoever. Even the three live tracks, culled from concert recordings, are unadorned. To listen to this Lennon is to be confronted by him. There are all the voices of Lennon we've long known: the political Lennon ("The Luck of the Irish"); the philosophical Lennon ("God"); and the intimate Lennon ("Dear Yoko"). All of that and more can be found here, and the context complements those voices, rather than detracting from them. Take the chilling catharsis of "My Mummy's Dead," with its nursery rhyme structure and sing- along melody, already unsettling in form. Add to it the over-the-phone effect of this recording, with the toy-guitar plunk-plunk of Lennon's self- accompaniment, and you have a eulogy fit for the X-Files, a look into the darkness of Lennon's personal angst that will leave you shaken. The acoustic take of "Imagine," on the other hand, recorded live at the Apollo in 1971, is Lennon with outstretched hand, recasting his simple and profound anthem with a gentle strum that is more earnest and inviting than even the excellent piano lines of the original. Between these points - Lennon at his most connected and disconnected - are "Working Class Hero," "Cold Turkey," "Watching the Wheels," "Real Love," "Well Well Well," ""Woman is the Nigger of the World," and other diverse snapshots. More than an album of memories, it's like a glance inside Lennon's most personal journals, as what-you-see-is-what-you-get as pop music is ever likely to be. If Yoko contributes anything to this collection, it's the album's theme, the acoustic guitar. Once a primary color of rock, the acoustic guitar and its unique palette of chords has fallen away as an explication of young emotion in the post-Van Halen arena. Its finest advocates - of which Lennon is one and Dylan is another - can muster a pool of emotion surpassing even that evoked by their lyric, with a simple splaying of notes from a conventional chord. When any thirteen-year-old can match the fingering, it all comes down to the emotions underneath. No Lennon fan could fail to love this document. No one interested in getting to know Lennon can listen and fail to do so. We never thought we'd say this, but ... thanks, Yoko. ------------ About the author: Scott Robinson has written for publications ranging from Rolling Stone to the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of "YesTales," a poetic biography of progressive rock's most colorful band. Email: drsrobinson@att.net Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
