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L PageContents: Peter La Grand, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, LivePeter La Grand has his own pageLed Zeppelin have their own pageJohn LennonPlastic Ono Band(1970)Plastic Ono Band was John Lennon's musical therapy, and it makes Joni Mitchell's similarly confessional Blue sound relatively tame in comparison. The first line is an icky oedipal reference, while Lennon disses an assortment of religions in 'I Found Out' and 'God'. In many ways, I find it difficult to like Plastic Ono Band, largely because I don't have a lot of sympathy for the portrait that Lennon paints of himself. Lennon blames his personal issues on his father leaving him, ignoring the fact that he had already perpetuated the cycle by leaving his wife and child for Yoko Ono. I'm not surprised that Lennon doesn't believe in God when his definition is "God is a concept by which we measure our pain", but the song itself is primarily focused on Lennon finding his own identity, with the conclusion that "I was the walrus, but now I'm John." While I have some conceptual issues with Plastic Ono Band, there's no denying that it contains some excellent songwriting. Producer Phil Spector gives the songs an uncharacteristic stripped down treatment, with John's piano and guitar joined by Ringo and bassist Klaus Voormann. 'Isolation', 'Love', 'Look At Me', and the secong half of 'God' are all beautiful, benefitting from the stripped down treatment. 'Look At Me' is particularly appealing, with Lennon more vulnerable then elsewhere on the album. 'Well, Well, Well' is a nasty and memorable rocker, while 'Working Class Hero' is arguably the highlight with a left-wing critique of society's conventions. 'Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/and you think you're all clever and classless and free/But you're still....peasants as far as I can see." The sombre mood is upset by the weird Guy Fawkes gimmick at the end of 'Remember', while the self-referential 'Hold On' wasn't a particularly good idea. The remastered edition has nice intimate sound, but the bonus tracks aren't welcome. 'My Mummy's Dead' closed the original album on an appropriately low-key note, but the effect is destroyed by the raucous 'Power To The People' (the aural equivalent to a really ugly political billboard) and 'Do The Oz' which has a neat riff but is spoiled by Lennon's screaming. On the rest of the album, Lennon's screaming is apparently catharthic and it works quite well. Plastic Ono Band is an overrated record, but it's still a fascinating listen; if you enjoy left-field Beatles' tracks like 'I Am The Walrus' and 'Tomorrow Never Knows', it's definitely interesting to find out more about the man behind them. 
Feedback: from Rob Eustace Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon(1997)Reportedly, Lennon's solo career began well with Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, but was decidedly patchy thereafter. Double Fantasy, Lennon's comeback album after five years of house husbandry, is apparently his next best effort, but half of it features Yoko Ono, so no thanks. Therefore, Lennon Legend is a good example of a uesful complilation; there is no way I want to explore Lennon's entire catalogue, so this one stop solution is an excellent option. Furthermore, some of the best songs on Lennon Legend are non-album singles, including 'Instant Karma!', "Cold Turkey' and 'Happy Christmas (War is Over)'. Lennon Legend gets off to a poor start with 'Imagine'; it may have an elegant melody, but as Steve Knowlton points out, the lyrics are ridiculous. "How's this for a utopian vision: you give up your religion, citizenship, and assets, in return for "living as one" with The People. Sounds great, Comrade! Where do I sign up?" As already noted in the Plastic Ono Band review, 'Power To The People' is merely a political slogan masquerading as a song. Otherwise, apart from some insipid but inoffensive material from Double Fantasy and the posthumous Milk And Honey, Lennon Legend is unmitigated quality. A positive aspect of being a credible musical figure, enhanced with dabbling in political agitation and avante-garde experimentation, is that when you deign to perform a love song, it comes across very sincerely. 'Woman' is an excellent straightforward love song, while "Jealous Guy' is another lovely ballad. Lennon shows that he has one of the finest voices in rock with his cover of Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me' and the fifties throw-back '(Just Like) Starting Over'. There are plenty of raw nerve ends exposed in 'Mother' (oedipus) and 'Cold Turkey' (Lennon giving up heroin), while the superlative '#9 Dream' is a gentler version of Lennon's pyschedelic work with the Beatles. It goes without saying that Lennon's solo work is a level below his work with the Beatles, but Lennon Legend represents an excellent solo portfolio. Lennon's assassination in 1980 remains a tragedy, as his career was regaining momentum (and he had resumed contact with Paul McCartney) and there's no predicting what would have happened next.
 LiveThrowing Copper (1994)There's a lot of reasons to dislike this album on paper (stupid band name [which rhymes with jive rather than give], musical unoriginality, pretentious lyrics.....) but Throwing Copper actually works surprisingly well in practice. The music may be a roughed up mixture of REM and U2, but Live are good musicians, and as long as they keep coming up with catchy anthemic choruses it's perfectly enjoyable. The music may be unoriginal, but Throwing Copper is saved from being formulaic nineties alt-rock by the pretentious of the lyrics. Ed Kowalczyk's lyrics are generally incomprehensible religious psychobabble, but that's fine because he has has a nice voice, powerful like Bono and vulnerable like Michael Stipe. It's only when he sings about mundane subjects ('Shit Towne'), that he really runs into difficulty. The whole album has a dark and brooding atmosphere that gives it an aura of self-importance and seriousness, making the lyrics seem less out of place than they should be, although it's still the odd coupling of straightforward but accomplished music and pretentious but bearable lyrics that make Throwing Copper album interesting. 'Waitress' is a microcosm of what makes this album tick; an incongruously chirpy melody, a throwaway lyric that seems like it's reaching for some deep universal significance and a thrashy performance all combine to create something quite unique in combination, even if they've all been done before individually. Full credit should be given to former Talking Head Jerry Harrison, who does a fine job in the producer's chair. Despite the odd throwaway track, Throwing Copper actually manages to successfully sustain momentum for almost an hour. There are lots of potential hits scattered throughout: 'I Alone' is a powerful rocker with a winning blast of feedback at the end, 'Lightning Crashes' is a brooding ballad that builds to a thundering crescendo while 'All Over You' is hard-edged and radio ready. There's also some substantial album tracks to back the hits up; 'Pillar of Davidson' is the album's highlight, an epic song with some kind of Christian commentary ("David's son" and "shepherd" certainly point in that direction) that I'd study more carefully if I took Kowalczyk's lyrics seriously. The conclusion where they overlay the anthemic chorus with a chant is arguably the best moment on the entire album. 'White Discussion' has a relatively experimental bent for Live, while the hidden country track shows the band are more than alt rock-pigs. Most of the other music I've heard by this band is pretty ordinary, but they somehow managed to create a really good album here. Nineties alternative rock in general and Live in particular may not be the flavour of the month right now, but this album is well worth a chance.
Secret Samadhi (1997) I accidentally deleted my dubbed copy of this so I can't review it properly, but it's definitely a huge step down from Throwing Copper. It has a few standout tracks, 'Lakini's Juice' is a riff-happy rock song, 'Rattle Snake' breaks out another catchy chorus and 'Turn My Head' is a nice little ballad, but the unifying intensity of Throwing Copper has vanished. The lack of muscle reveals the band's weaknesses, which have become accentuated since the previous album; stupid lyrics ('Century', 'Freaks') and a lack of musical imagination. Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend for the band: the further they've gone, the more generic and irritatingly pretentious Live have become. |
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Written 2001-2009, Graham Fyfe
