Initial response to DOUBLE FANTASY?

I bought the single and album day of release. I thought the single was great but his work on the album was only ok. I will admit I had no desire to hear the Yoko songs then or now.

 

Didn't mind any of it apart from You're My An...

 

A friend told me a story relating to the topic of this thread. Seems he was drinking in a bar the night of Lennon's murder. A fellow rushed into the bar yelling "someone just shot John Lennon", to which my friend replied, "I didn't think his new album was that bad", and consequently got into a fistfight with the person who brought the news of the shooting.

 

Yoko's granny song.

 

Tra la la la la.

 

I remember Starting Over as a pleasant little milketoast Lennon song that didn't particularly make me want to get the album or the single. It was a nice single to hear on radio - a respite from the prevalent 'sound' of that period. I already had Shaved Fish. His new album was going to have to prove itself to me. It didn't wind up doing that. I was, and am, content with his prior albums.

 

'Double' Disappointment

 

I was very underwhelmed with Starting Over when I first heard it. I though it was bland and derivative. (It has grown on me since.) Then I heard Watching The Wheels and I'm Losing You, and liked them both a lot - that was the John Lennon I was hoping for. That's all I heard from the album before his murder, so senseless it's still hard to believe it happened.

 

Sales shot up after the event, like always happens. Then a Grammy for Album of the Year. Well, what do you think?

 

Strange I don't recall much critical review going on at the time, only that a handful of tunes (John's) were getting steady rotation on the airwaves.
Radio announcers were pointing out what pretty much everyone already knew .. that John had emerged from a five-year hiatus from recording, which was a long time to be inactive (in those days), especially for a Beatle. Starting Over, Watching Wheels, I'm Losing You .. all delivered what everyone expected, and then some. I found Woman and Beautiful Boy to have a certain child-like quality about them that I felt might have been better served with less "production veneer", an attribute which lent an air of tame domesticity I found just a bit too inhibited. Dear Yoko sounded pert to the point of off-putting, given this was the man who once castigated others for muzak. Time changes us; it is happening even as we contend "nothing's gonna change my world".

 

...If my phone's zany autocorrect function covered this up, I was referring to that review being in Creem...with it coming off as implying that Rolling Stone, IIRC, was the other magazine that had spiked a non-entusiastic review (My hunch/reading-between-linesing, I mean. No names given.) - or was it the more formally leftist Village Voice (that the Creem review dissed)? Bashing Christgau?
As for singles from DF, why do you think Geffen stopped at three and did not make " Beautiful Boy " 45 x 4? Some concern for Sean's feelings/safety, given him being name checked in the song? Back in the day, 3 singles was the mark of A Big Hit Album..." Rumours " had 4, II..
I recall that a later single release from DF was, possibly, the first mainstream/ big-time cassette single in the USA, predating the Go-Gos' " Vacation ", which seems to get the ribbon there.
Frankly, " Starting Over " came out during a horrid period for pop radio - and incredibly horrible period in my life - where " traditional " Top 40 radio had kind of died out completely in mid-1980 or so, the " death of disco " backlash had taken much R&B/danceable/soul material off radio, and the brief boomlet in skinny-tie " new wave ' had also fizzled out, and grey AC dirges were much of radio - Some of which might have been alright with more lively radio fare to contrast it with, but anyway...........

 

I seem to recall the John stuff being pretty well received critically and by the public.

 

And both are closed; what’s your point?

 

I remember lukewarm reviews that faded quickly after the shooting.

As someone said above, many looked at this as a clearing out of the cobwebs in anticipation of greater work to come.

I could do without ever hearing "Woman" again.

 

Yes, it was generally considered flirting with over-exposure to pull more that 3 singles from an album back in those days. 4 singles would definitely have been pushing it. [Especially with only 7 Lennon tracks on the album..]

Of course, this was pre-Thriller, with its 7 singles from a 9 track album.....

 

The album was going to be a big seller simply because we hadn't heard from John in 5 years. As for the alternating John and Yoko songs, it was conceived as a musical dialogue, and for me it works quite well as such. For some, it was a revelation that Yoko could do something other than 26-minute avant garde screamfests. Her songs hold up well alongside some of the early B-52s and Lene Lovitch records. The dreamy sound effects enhance the vibe of the album. I loved it from Day 1.

 

...Bluntly, - in an alternative universe - would Lennon have done a full-fledged tour behind DF? IIRC, Lennon. during the 1970-75ish, played some shows...but " groovy one-off gigs " in " youth culture centers ", Bangladesh, Toronto. et all. Did he do " full-fledged tours ". I semi-think not.
The " groovy post-Sixties youth culture " was dead and gone by 1980. Funny enough, even the " big-time rock biz " was in recession by then - Remember the " returned platinum " rekkid-biz bust of the late 70s? Presumably that extended to at least some Big-Time Rock Shows as well. especially?? those presumed to appeal more to the now-aging, but p'raps not enough so to be nostalgic, Sixties Generation. -
There might have been:
the drugs
general laziness)wanting to continue a house husband's life
being afraid of failing
the trouble of getting a touring band together
standing in JL's way - and, let us not forget, the possibility that John's idea of a John '81 tour might've definitely involved an on-stage role for Yoko! Bet some of you would've loved THAT.
I"be not read much much about John"s last days. so perhaps some here can cite definite chapter & verse. " Oh, no. He was going to tour ". If so...

 

It wasn't much to write home about. The songs were okay but it was overproduced. Considering it was 6 years after the last album of original material, half an album of "okay" stuff was a disappointment. I think I listened to it twice when it first came out and haven't ever felt the need to return to it since.

 

Just guessing, but I'd say his "point" was to direct the OP to about 300 messages that were mostly on-topic replies to his question.

 

My experience, too. I was just 15 at the time, but had become a Beatle fan early in 1980 and was busy collecting the group works with an eye towards exploring some of the solo material.

Lots of airplay for Starting Over, Woman, I'm Losing You, Watching the Wheels and even Cleanup Time in the Minneapolis area at the time of release (prior to 12/8).

 

I knew starting over, well before the shooting. I was only 11 or 12.
I thought it was a great song straight away.
Years later, having heard all Lennon's work, and all the beatles stuff, i hold the song in even higher regard. The Lennon songs on double fantasy are some of the most upbeat he ever wrote, and it comforts me, to some degree, that he sorted his head out.
I used to hate that yoko's stuff was on there. Now in some ways i think its nice that they did it together.

 

...I think I brought up some new stuff and started some new comment in this thread!
There are probably numerous people other than I who were not here when those posts were put up - Bluntly, who looks at old posts here that have been shut down? Taking away your input removes a large part of the reason a message board is fun, so..." Who wants yesterday's papers? "








inks, post: 19081352, member: 12973"]Just guessing, but I'd say his "point" was to direct the OP to about 300 messages that were mostly on-topic replies to his question.[/QUOTE]

 

So you DON'T want to read on-topic replies to your question, just because the thread is locked?
Ok, whatever.

 

I liked the Yoko songs, but John sounded like he was repeating himself. I ended up unloading it.

 

...I looked at some of the old posts, I think I brought up - sparked, perhaps - some new stuff!
How about we have on this thread, " No more Beatles threads IN GENERAL, we've said everything that could be said... "?






nks, post: 19081660, member: 12973"]So you DON'T want to read on-topic replies to your question, just because the thread is locked?
Ok, whatever. [/QUOTE]