Once again, here we are in the perpetually listening to every record in my collection alphabetically and blogging unscholarly thoughts project. This installment stars John Lennon and Stan Levey.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The truth is that I never really liked John Lennon solo records. That’s the truth, even though I’m sad to say it. I don’t know if it is because the first Lennon solo album I ever heard was Live in New York City, which is terrible. Seriously. So my expectations for post-Beatles records started off negatively. Then again, I was the perfect age to watch Johnny Fever and Arther Carlson fight a Jerry Falwell sort of evil, and John Lennon’s lyrics to “Imagine” won. So there was always hope; a hope that John Lennon records would be awesome and as life changing as “Imagine” could potentially be. When he’s on fire, he’s awesome. But the Live in New York City John Lennon was definitely not awesome. Plastic Ono Band has some truly great moments (“God”, “Love”) and with Ringo and Klaus Voorman, the music always sounds great, even when Johnny’s not that happening (“Well well well”).
Imagine – Obviously, this is a great record. There is a reason that this is a classic. The writing is great and the production sounds fantastic, and in a way that sends me back to the 1970s to feel nostalgic. Greatest moment on the record? George Harrison’s guitar solo on “Gimme Some Truth”. Otherwise, honestly, I prefer the Donny Hathaway version of “Jealous Guy”.
Mind Games – Infinitely better than Plastic Ono, and filled with many great songs and great performances. Admittedly, there is a shift in the performance style that moves towards NYC session cats and that probably has an influence on how much I like this record.
Walls and Bridges – The infamous “lost weekend” album has a really strange, claustrophobic sound. I don’t know why exactly, but it seems to me that NYC records during this timeframe have a little bit of that anyway. I find it difficult to listen to, and this album is has more of the things I just don’t like about Lennon records…except “#9 Dream”, which has everything I love about Lennon. The melody is gestural and seems to follow more of the text painting rules dating back to Monteverdi than any classic, melody first motivic development approaches – repetition aside. The lyrics are almost surreal, or somehow they feel more like e.e. cummings than, you know, Chaucer or something. The studio tricks remind me of some of the things I love about Beatles records, given that this is more than just a nice song, and it needs the production to live. There is one more thing that I like about this album, but it’s more of a Beatles’ universe production question – how do they get the saxophones to sound like that? Every time that saxophones show up since “Lady Madonna”, on everyone’s album, the saxophones sound like they do on “Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)”.
Stan Levey – Stanley the Steamer – A great way to round this off, especially given the next batch of records (John Lewis, mostly) is with a tightly written and beautifully performed jazz record like this one. Very cool arrangements with killer musicians – wish I could have been there. Recorded in LA in 1954 and 1955 with Conte Candoli, Dexter Gordon, Frank Rosolino, Lou Levy, and…man I love this guy’s playing…Leroy Vinnegar.