John Lennon song by song album by album thread.

More about Beef Jerky...

A cover by Claus Nielsen:

 

Beef Jerky 1.25/5

 

Had never considered the phrase "Steel and glass" as equating to skyscrapers.....Duh
Nice work......disagree about the parody comment though.
Peace

Beef Jerky
Pretty impossible to call an instrumental by the greatest singer of all times who is himself not a virtuoso musician a five out of five......That said, it pretty well thought out and tightly performed by this group of session players. Flows well on the album, but the remastered version sounds in your face and overly cluttered as these type productions do. 3.5/5

 

Beef Jerky
What a total bore. A pedestrian blues workout (other than speaking the title 4x) that doesn't even have a decent instrumental solo. Really the only redeeming feature of this track are the 3 times when the band drops out for 3 sec other than the guitar cribbing Paul's Let Me Roll It riff. Lennon has released some painfully bad tracks before, but this is the first time he has gone the painfully boring route. This is filler plain and simple. Should have axed this track and replaced it with Here We Go Again or Move Over Miss L. Actually would have been room for both as (sneak preview) there is also a track yet to be discussed that should have been axed.

Rating 1/5

 

I'm just kind of fascinated that John "Mr Message" Lennon wrote and recorded a funky instrumental track.

Move Over Miss L is leagues better than this one, but John must have liked it for whatever reason, probably because it was a lot of fun to record, and it is a nice funky groove with a wicked mechanical guitar riff. Reminds me of some modern Strokes stuff....

But I wish John had kept this in the can and brought it to his session with Bowie for them to riff and vamp some kind of lyrics/melody on top of this together.

I just don't buy a Lennon record to hear an instrumental.

2.5/5

 

Beef Jerky is forgettable, just like some of Paul's instrumentals. The only moderately interesting moment is the bit of guitar that clearly echoes Let Me Roll It.

 

Beef Jerky - Works well enough as the theme to the Lost Lennon Tapes, in such that you just hear bits of it here and there and it sets the tone for the show. As a standalone song on this or any album? I struggle to think of any musician who would rank higher on the "I'm not interested in an instrumental from them" list. 1/5

 

Steel and Glass - 3/5
Beef Jerky - 1/5

 

I'd rather listen to Beef Jerky than to Mother. Harmless fun. 3/5

 

Beef Jerky

It's harmless enough and I like the guitars and the throbbing bass. I can imagine it popping up in a 70s soundtrack. However, it's a bit of unnecessary filler on Walls and Bridges, which is 46 minutes long, and so had I produced the album, I would have suggested either leaving it off or maybe editing it down to about two minutes. Putting it on Side 2 along with Surprise, Surprise and Ya Ya wasn't the best idea either. Collectively, they weaken what up this point has been a very strong album: 2/5.

 

Beef Jerky. Its a favourite track of mine. I like instrumentals. This is a good 70's R&B take on the genre. It's John's Hari's On Tour. Move Over Miss L wouldn't have been a good fit to the mood of the album imo. I think it was established up thread (or somewhere), that John had the riff on tape before Let Me Roll It was written. Who knows, maybe aspects of the riff was something J&P had in their back drawer.

 

I generally dig rock intrumentals, but this one is, again, boring. Horns don't bother me; "Beef Jerky" chanting does. Guitars are nice.

2/5

 

The production could be better, but I think that Beef Jerky is a catchy little interlude on the album that fits in well and adds some variety. The track itself is catchy and has that very memorable (if simplistic) guitar melody.

I'd agree it's dated a bit, but I still enjoy it for what it is.

3.6/5

 

Beef Jerky, decent little instrumental and love the Paul tribute.... 2.5/5

 

I forget it’s there and when it appears I don’t mind Beef Jerky. It’s just a bit of fun. A song doesn’t always have to have someone singing lyrics for me to enjoy it.

I know I’m a broken record at this point but the remix of this is so good that it improves it by one point.

2/5

 

Beef Jerky (3,5/5) Sure, it's filler, but it's good, delicious filler. I don't know, Walls And Bridges is one of those albums that puts me in such a good mood that I truly enjoy even things like that. As noted earlier, it's rather well constructed with different sections, starts and stops and the icing of the cake, John "rolling it back" as it were.
What's more, the track actually paints a reasonably vivid picture of a somewhat stately, mundane party where all of a sudden the people start demanding their beef jerky. And then the beef jerky is served and they all fall all over it. Could this be a commentary on a consume-orientated society? Or is beef jerky even a codeword for cocaine? Anyway, an enjoyable track, which once again highlights Lennon as a true music lover. I am no sure which guitar part is him and which Jesse Ed Davis, but to me the Lennon personality shines through even through his guitar phrases.

 

John & Jesse both played the riff in unison; I assume John plays rhythm?

 

Barely competent. Album filler in every sense.
Edible beef jerky however is mmm mmm good !

 

Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox) – "She makes me sweat / And forget who I am". John was certainly red-hot for May! Even though he stopped living with May Pang shortly after this record came out, he evidently still carried a torch for her until his death, and, if you believe May, was still visiting her and sending her messages right 'til the end (I personally don't doubt that at all). Still, the "I - love - her" parts at the end sound a little forced to me, as if predicting the end of something temporary....

3 / 5

Steel And Glass – As everyone notes, this is "How Do You Sleep Part 2", for Klein, yet another father-figure who John felt let him down. Comparing them, I think "How Do You Sleep" has much the better chorus, but this one has more interesting lyrics. (It's almost creepy how John sings exactly the same melodic phrase as "How Do You Sleep" in the end of each long note, and the orchestration, and saxophone, play nearly the same melody as on the earlier song.) Jesse Ed Davis was a big contributor to John's music around this time, and I love the effect on his electric guitar on this track. Not as good as "How Do You Sleep?", so... not much impact.

3.5 / 5

Beef Jerky – Nice little jam. Tight. (Didn't need the horns... again.) Without horns, this would be pretty good. With them, it's... okay. I mean, I like it.

2.5 / 5

 

"Beef Jerky"

OK, I'm late to this thread, very very late, but Walls & Bridges was my first-ever Beatle solo album and I have fond memories of playing it day-in and day-out for months as a young teen/preteen. Formative listening.

"Beef Jerky" is no Lennon masterpiece, but I've always enjoyed it, and it adds to the on-again, off-again party vibe of the record (party, burnout, party, burnout... Lennon's LA experience in LP form).

A few years ago, I was introduced to "Soul Finger", and it feels like the template for "Beef Jerky". Crowd noises, prominent horns, chanting of the title during the song, etc.



3/5

 

"Beef Jerky": I think is an exciting instrumental. Maybe the rockiest of the former fabs instrumentals. Yeah, I could do without the chants, but it's a fun track. 4/5 The outtakes and rehearsals are better, but the horns don't bother me.

 

I find Hari's On Tour to be a far superior listen.

Bern

 

Beef Jerky - completely forgettable. 1/5

 

Beef Jerky 1/5

 

"Beef Jerky" certainly had its seeds in this demo version of "Tight A$":



However, note that the "Let Me Roll It" riff is absent in that early take, which means it was added later. Indeed, I think this reinforces the idea that John borrowed the riff from Paul's song. It's hardly a coincidence that he did that right after "Let Me Roll It" was published, also taking into account that the song has a Lennon-esque spirit with lyrics that were presumably dedicated to John.