John Lennon best studio album poll.

John's father left him and John was raised longing for a father figure.
His mom abandoned him too and he was raised by his aunt, knowing both his parents had dropped him.
When he was older he reestablished a relationship with his mother and they became friends, filling a void in his heart.
Then she was killed by a drunk driver.
His best friend was Stuart Sutcliffe.
So much that he let him in The Beatles even though he couldn't play an instrument.
Stuart was jumped and beaten severely.
A year later he died from a cerebral hemorrhage.
Brian Epstein was a manager to the other three Beatles but a close friend to John.
They even took a trip to Paris alone together.
Some have suggested there was an infatuation between the two.
Regardless they were close.
Brian died of a drug overdose in 1967.
Before he was 28, John had been abandoned by both parents, then lost to death his three best friends (Mom, Stuart and Brian)
He also had the guilt of becoming world famous right as his first child was being born and therefore never having a real father son relationship.
John Lennon was an emotional wreck.
Money and fame do not fix these things.

 

Side one of Live Peace In Toronto rocks.

I listen to it often.

 

Walls and Bridges - Lennon's masterpiece

 

That's a lot of Complex Trauma for a young child and then adolescent to have to experience. McCartney was probably the best friend any young man could have had trying to deal with all that. George too.

 

My heart actually leapt into my throat when it dawned on me that Lennon only released seven studio albums in his lifetime. Plastic Ono Band and Imagine are his best, but Walls & Bridges is my favorite.

 

Imagine for me.
I 'm not into all the primal screaming therapy, open wounds and pain ("Mother", "My Mummy's Dead") that there is in Plastic Ono Band. "Well, Well, Well" and "I Found Out" are practically the same song and both so tedious and plodding. These painful tracks drag the album down in my opinion.

 

I think the other three were certainly friends.
And maybe in the hearts and minds of George, Paul and Ringo they were extremely close to John.
But only John knew how close in his heart and mind they were to him personally.
I don't believe John would have latched on to Yoko in the manner he did had he had the type of relationship with the other three that we like to believe he had.
I always found it interesting how similar Paul's relationship with Linda was to John and Yoko's.
Becoming inseparable and part of their band's.
I think they both suffered from losing their mom's so young.

 

All Things Must Pass beats em all.

 

Imagine and Mind Games for me, by some distance. I have to be in the right mood for POB.

 

I think the fact that she was a woman probably had something to do with it.

 

He'd had other women.

 

I ultimately went with Imagine as I think it probably edges POB on variety and perhaps overall sound. POB is definitely a tremendous album and has some great songs and a certain underlying power (and feeling of pain) and perhaps therefore is not an album for all seasons.

I quoted the above as I too used to find I Don't Want To Be A Soldier a little tedious - no perhaps not tedious, more repetitive. However, some time ago I was listening to the CD on headphones and this track suddenly took flight. The sound was ferocious and the message literally hammered its way into my head like a mantra extolling the futility of war. It doesn't get skipped now! How Do You Sleep - I can see that it does not make for comfortable listening, but I'm sure it was just Lennon as he felt at that period in time and he put the song out as an honest statement of his state of mind at that period of time. I'm sure a year or so down the line he was probably laughing at the situation and thinking it was heavy handed but it got the anger out of his system. Now it stands as a bit of a diary of his thoughts at a particularly traumatic time and not as a permanent vendetta against his old partner in crime.

When you look back now, it is a shame that there is so little from his post Beatles time but it is still more than prolific when compared with modern day artists, especially when you take into account that he effectively retired for half of the decade.

Most of the later albums have their highpoints (which probably vary depending on the listener) but lack an overall consistency. However I think that this observation could be levelled at the other three also. They all had a lot to say initially but they subsequently lacked the support and internal editing that came with The Beatles during the time that they were a team. We got a lot more music probably as a result but perhaps not as many consistently top rank songs.

 

Imagine and Plastic Ono Band are my favorites. John could only make those extremely personal songs when he became a solo artist. Didn't John call Yoko mother?

 

"Money and fame do not fix these things."

Fame, especially in the unreal, overwhelming way the Beatles were famous, made it worse. As George said, "the fans gave their screams and we gave our nervous systems."

And John's prodigious drug use didn't help much either. He did great work and gave much pleasure but he was a lost and tortured soul.

 

As I said, a "part" of me thinks he's being a "whiner". The other part is aware of the various traumas you describe.

 

You may say I'm a whiner, but I'm not the only one...

 

Well, I've never before read a review of POB being an album of John even possibility being a whiner.
So congrats on your unique assessment.
But just to show you I'm not being harsh, I at times have thought John was being a bit of a baby with How Do You Sleep.

 

sometime in new york city.. now THAT took balls....and he was INTO it.....and he wasn't thinkin' bout rolling stone magazine or any thing else.....THAT was the album......and all the pretenders and synchophants will never understand what it was like back then...late '71, early '72.....being him....living in NY......and finally free from the BS of the past......may not be the most "creative" or " popular" or "succesfull" of his albums, but.......it had more balls than anything he EVER did.........and the vinyl......it still sounds heavy and righteous and good........don't know how to explain it but........those 2 albums still sound ****ing great on my turntable......yeah..that was his best album ever.......yet..few will recognize that......most will not "get" it.............and for them....imagine or pob would be the one......and that's ok...........but..the one with balls and energy and some kind of life force in the moment...will always be STINYC....(...i like them all tho....)

 

POB and SINYC. I've always found the second half of 'Imagine' rather patchy, whilst the other albums are all a bit 'meh'.

As to SINYC, many of the lyrics are undoubtedly trite (Lennon was certainly ahead of his time in the virtue-signalling stakes), but musically, its got an interesting gritty rawness; the contrariness also appeals to me.

 

The first two, obviously. If he had released a full album of his 1980 material and without Yoko's crap, it would be a serious contender though.

 

I tried to listen to it all the way through for the first time in ages but only got about 4 tracks in. Life is too short........

 

5 to 1 - 1 and 5....

 

A combination of 'Double Fantasy' and 'Milk And Honey' for me.

 

Yes. Yet some people are convinced you cannot be or aren't allowed to be unhappy if you are wealthy or famous.

 

This^^