John Lennon song by song album by album thread.

Jealous Guy --------------5/5
Great contribution from Nicky Hopkins on this one and the album as a whole.
I'm sure glad Child of Nature wasn't forced into making the cut on the White album, even though it probably would of been pretty good. Jealous Guy is much more thought out and a top notch Lennon cut.

Yep I've given up outside You Tube links....

 

Plenty perhaps but not enough.

 

Jealous Guy: 5/5

One of JL's all time gems.

One interesting thing to me is how it never faded from favor with me. At different ages it meant different things, but never stopped being powerful. That yearning vocal is an absolute match for the final lyrics.

 

Jealous Guy

A highlight. A powerful song, full of emotions and feelings with great vocals, beautiful melody and fantastic lyrics.

Sleeve notes:

Jealous Guy (4:14)
John Lennon: vocals, guitar, whistling
Nicky Hopkins: piano
Joey Molland: acoustic guitar
Tom Evans: acoustic guitar
John Barham: harmonium
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Jim Keltner: drums
The Flux Fiddlers: orchestral strings
Written by John Lennon
Produced by John & Yoko, and Phil Spector

About the song:

From Jealous Guy - John Lennon Plastic Ono Band (with the Flux Fiddlers)

"‘The lyrics explain themselves clearly: I was a very jealous, possessive guy. Toward everything. A very insecure male. A guy who wants to put his woman in a little box, lock her up, and just bring her out when he feels like playing with her. She’s not allowed to communicate with the outside world – outside of me – because it makes me feel insecure.’

– John Lennon, 1980"

Promo Film:

 

More about Jealous Guy...

Promo video for the promotion of the 1988 IMAGINE: John Lennon soundtrack and film, directed by Steve Purcell:

 

More about Jealous Guy...

Official music video (2003):

Notes from Lennon Legend DVD:

"A new video taken from footage of John recording "Jealous Guy" in the studio at Tittenhurst Park Studios in June 1971, and the "Jealous Guy" driving and rowing sequences (filmed on 21 July 1971) used in John & Yoko's "Imagine" film."

 

I thought I would share this version of Jealous Guy as performed by Bryan Ferry at Live Aid in 1985; as the Roxy Music version must be the most famous cover version of this song, & this must be the largest audience it has ever been played to: 40% of the global population!

 

A great cover version by Lou Reed, from a tribute show in honour of Johns music, 2001:

 

We may as well share the Roxy Music version, which was a number 1 hit in the wake of Johns Murder:

 

More about Jealous Guy...

1985 Single:

A single was released on November 18, 1985 for the promotion of Imagine Film on VHS.

7":





12":

 

A really cool live version by Donny Hathaway in 1972; interesting that the song was already being picked up by other artists, even though it hadn’t been released as a single:



Can anybody who was around at the time remember if Jealous Guy got much radio play or attention?

 

Jealous Guy. Beautiful melody. One of Johns best 5/5

 

Somebody at camp Roxy thought there needed to be a 6:12 version of Jealous Guy.

They were wrong.

But...it exists...so here it is:

(I apologise in advance)



from what a can gather from flicking through it, there’s just more whistling at the end that doesn’t seem to fit the music.

 

More about Jealous Guy...

1988 Single:

A single was released on October 3, 1988 for the promotion of the IMAGINE: John Lennon soundtrack:

Promo CD:







Promo 7":



7":

 

A great cover of Jealous Guy by Frankie Miller:

 

More about Jealous Guy...

Behind The Music: Jealous Guy - Imagine



"Diana Robertson (secretary): While the Imagine sessions were going on, I remember everyone working very hard, staying up all up all night, making food – we were all so busy. I remember being called into the studio at about five in the morning to listen to ‘Jealous Guy’ when it had just been completed, which was quite incredible. It just sounded so amazing, you know, the first time we’d all heard it, really beautiful. Everybody suddenly stopped and they said, ‘Listen to this’ and we were all completely silent and just listened to it. People were practically in tears, it was just so lovely, so pure. I feel very privileged to have been there on that day."

 

More about Jealous Guy...

The song was sampled by 9th Prince (2008):

 

More about Jealous Guy...

Finally,

A 1971 cover by Susan Shirley:

 

Odd how John and George tended to call the Badfinger guys in to provide such undistinguishable parts on their projects

 

Spot on!
Nicky's playing brings the song to a higher level and that goes for several songs on the album.

Jealous Guy 5/5 ... and that's three in a row!

 

One of his best.
.
John later revisited the melody of the first verse (I was dreaming of the past...) In Whatever gets you Thru The Night (first verse again) and later in Starting Over (Why don’t we take off alone...)

 

Badfinger made those records swing. Without them just another hohum Beatles solo song.

 

Couple things:

1) Roxy Music was never very popular in North America. Billboard shows one LP reached the top-30. Their cover of 'Jealous Guy' either wasn't released or didn't chart at all in the USA/Canada.

2) Don't believe any of the audience (or sales) figures you read regarding rock'n'roll events. They're pretty much all nonsense. 40% of the global population, my ass. (Not directing this at you, but rather the figures people throw around in magazines, websites, and the like. Bob Geldof, I'm looking at you!) First of all, nobody in China in 1985 saw Live Aid, so that's almost 20% off right there. For 40% of the globe to have seen it, it means one of every two humans alive in 1985 (outside of China) watched it. The entire African continent is another 17% percent of the world, so let's suppose some people in Morocco or Nigeria or South Africa watched some Live Aid (though I'm not sure anyone actually did), and we'll take the 14% of the remainder that, presumably, did not.

So, now, the math tells us that if nobody in China watched Live Aid and the vast majority of Africans did not watch Live Aid, then of the remaining 2/3 of the planet's population, 60% watched it. Really? Remember, this 60% of people includes Bangladesh (90 million), Iran under Khomeini (50 million), North Korea (20 million), etc., etc. So did 60% watch Live Aid in those countries? If -- as is more likely -- nobody did, then to make the 40% of the global population, we're looking at something like 90% of people in western and, more importantly, East Asia (besides China) countries watching it, which is just silly.



NOTE: Contrary to this post, I am actually fun at parties.

 

Jealous Guy is a great melody. I’ve always been lukewarm on the Imagine cut.

Love Roxy’s version, though!

 

Awesome spot re. the punctuation marks!!

I first heard Imagine in 1981 when I borrowed a friend's copy and recorded it on a cassette. (I bought my LP copy in about 1983 I think.)

I can't remember why but I recorded the sides the wrong way around, so that it started with Gimme Some Truth and finished with I Don't Wanna Be .... This meant the album started with a blistering opening and finished with the longest and, for me, weakest track, which I could easily skip back then in the pre-CD days. Though it never occurred to me at the time, it also split the three rock tracks up nicely and also broke up the run of slower tracks with the jaunty Oh Yoko and Crippled Inside as Tracks 5 and 7 respectively.

Edit: If you include How Do You Sleep in the tough rocker category, then reversing the sides gives:

rocker, slowy, rocker, slowy, jaunty ... slowy, jaunty, slowy, rocker, rocker!