In the age of the single download, Jeff Harford
rediscovers the album . . .
Few of us would turn something as private as the dissection
of our personal neuroses into a very public, very vocal
purging of pain.
But then, few of us have what John Lennon had.
By the end of 1970, Lennon could count on a guaranteed
audience, eager to hear what he had to say in the wash-up of
the Beatles' demise.
Whatever they were expecting, it was unlikely to be the
off-the-leash therapy session he delivered.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (recorded and released
concurrently with Yoko Ono's solo debut Yoko Ono/Plastic
Ono Band) documents Lennon's cathartic release from
childhood miseries and unwanted adult burdens.
Fresh from four months of primal therapy under Arthur Janov,
he empties himself of repressed responses to the accidental
death of his mother and abandonment by his father, and comes
clean about his disillusionment with a catalogue of
religions, idols, mantras and myths he has either dabbled in
or been exposed to.
Twice, on album-opener Mother and on hardest rocker
Well Well Well, Lennon lets rip with a series of
tonsil-shredding screams that seem designed to test Janov's
theories on resolving past traumas through reliving them.
True to the unwavering display of faith that many Fab Four
fans had crucified him for, Lennon also reaffirms his love
for Ono.
On God - the album track that sees him list magic, I
Ching, the Bible, and the Beatles among the many things he
does not believe in - he states simply, "I just believe in
Yoko and me/That's reality" and goes on to explain that the
dream is over.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.