I'd have to agree with you there, and I definitely was excluding the trio of LPs prior to Plastic Ono Band. The move to New York and plunging into the political scene had an adverse effect on the music in my opinion.
And other than during his brief sojourn with May (who really did revert him back to the old John and by all accounts, was the best thing to happen to him), he never recovered from it.
I think the whole Some Time In New York City fiasco drove it home to Lennon that not everything he did was automatically going to be a success just because he was "John Lennon, Former Beatle" or even "John Lennon". Frankly I think the massive failure of that album did irreparable damage to Lennon's confidence as an artist- he constantly seemed to "second guess" his art after that, and as a result generally played it safe and took very few chances in his music. After STINYC, Mind Games is about as "safe" a Lennonalbum as you can get. He took more chances on Walls And Bridges and tried baring his soul, but, again, he decided to bury the soul baring underneath a bunch of overblown Vegasy horn arrangements and other globs of overproduction. Just to send the OP off into another raving frenzy -- I'll reiterate that Walls And Bridges should have been RAW and STRIPPED DOWN ala Plastic Ono Band, or at least done like the demo arrangements found on the Something Precious And Rare b--tleg (excerpts of which are on Menlove Avenue)
Good and interesting observation. It also seems that his whole "peace and love" schtick became a bit subdued after that. Perhaps he realized that he had been laying the hippie philosopher image and the whole yoko thing on a bit heavy and needed to alter his self marketing strategy a little.
It's an OK album that could have been much better. John had some good material but the production and arrangements are a bit AOR for my taste. Tbh, I don't think Lennon had the natural rapport with American musicians that Bowie and Elton John seemed to have. The reasons for this are probably too complex for this discussion.
When people say Walls and Bridges is overproduced, I shake my head because I just hear lots of funk and soul influences which was new and fresh for his career. I love those warm horns and Bobby Keys' sax. People say it sounds dated ands very mid-70s, but that era of rock seemed dominated more by synths and glam rock styles, and neither are present on Walls and Bridges. All these instruments are live and really well played. John had the tendency to rush through recording sessions often but on this record he rehearsed his band in a very disciplined way. They obviously liked the songs because there are so many details to discover. I'm glad these songs were not produced minimally just like Plastic Ono Band. We already have one record like that.
Well, it wasn't a happy time in John's life while making that album,mot was during his separation from Yoko.
My issue with John solo was not his songs, but his often poor singing and amateurish production. From the phlegm in his voice on Imagine, it was all downhill from there except the last album. He definitely recovered with Double Fantasy but before that, the stuff needed a good producer - like George Martin, say, or someone of that calibre. Horns are too prominent in a lot of the work, it has that generic 70s sound when Tom Scott (not to put him down, he is a fine player) became "the" enhancement of the basic rock sound. One can argue he didn't care, which explains using Yoko on some tracks, but the work could have been much better with decent production. The songs themselves - the songs - are mostly very good except for the New York album (IMO).
I'm obviously one of those "people" yer referring too...as much as I hate the production on W & B you do make some good points about it- it's enough to make ya wonder if Lennon would have pursued that funk/soul/horns sound further had he not 'retired' in'75... And I've always thought the cover/packaging was the best thing about the album
Opinions are ones own, but the general public in 1974 disagreed with you. They thought that big horns sound suited John Lennon very well, and they made the album and singles hits because they liked it. Personally, I think it was a cool direction for him when his prior solo work had been dominated more by strings and blues guitar. He dabbled with horns on "Revolution 1" but that was pretty much it prior to Walls & Bridges...Paul and George had both added much more horns to their work than John did in the Beatles. Also, can someone DM about "Something Precious and Rare"? I'd love more info on that.
I absolutely adore it - my favourite Lennon album and all. But conjoined with Harry Nilsson's "***** Cats" and Ringo's "Goodnight Vienna" into a single album, it would be fantastic. Goodnight Wallcats, if you will
you know...since he died...my take on his albums changed a little bit....know..i appreciate everything he did.....back then....i didn't like it as much as mind games.....now...i have a different take on it....somehow..it seems a bit more grown up for him.....(still like MG more tho.....just the individual songs)
I absolutely agree. I love the arrangements and general sound of this album. It might just be the best produced of his solo career. The stripped down versions of some of the songs on Menlove Avenue just don't compare. The production saves one or two sub-par tracks, like Old Dirt Road, and really enhances strong material like #9 Dream and Nobody Loves You. Generally, I'd say the album - like many Beatles solo works - is underrated, but it falls a little short of John's best efforts (Imagine and Mind Games, IMO).
Funny that I wandered into this thread in the midst of another Yoko-bashing, because I was just thinking that although Walls & Bridges is a perfectly fine album - good, but not great - Yoko Ono recorded a superior album at the same time (A Story).
Here's my two cents. I bought this LP when it first came out, with the fold out flaps. My take on this one, it's a great album.
