(The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) Ben Urish, Ken Bielen-The Words and Music of John Lennon-Praeger (2007) (8 page)

that is, Bob Dylan. This is puzzling, because Dylan would seem to be the

iconic image, and Zimmerman the actual man. In the recording of the song

on the posthumous CD collection
Acoustic,
Lennon does sing Dylan and not

Zimmerman and in reproductions of his handwritten lyrics, Dylan is listed

as well.

24 The Words and Music of John Lennon

Lennon concludes that he only believes in himself, although he imme-

diately enlarges that certainty to encompass Yoko Ono. For him, that is all

that is real. Unlike Paul Simon, for Lennon there are no bridges over trou-

bled water that can mediate human pain. After his creed, or noncreed, listing

those whom he no longer believes or never believed, the melody shifts and

Lennon sings to the listener, who more than likely still embraces the Beatles

myth, “The dream is over.” He was the “dreamweaver,” but he states that

he is “reborn.” And, he tells listeners to go on without him. For him, there

is nothing else, and his listeners have to recognize they are alone as well.

Lennon “reborn” is no longer dreaming and no longer taken in by myths,

including those partly of his own making.

The album concludes with a brief but powerful song titled “My Mummy’s

Dead” that couples nursery-rhyme simplicity with stark emotional depth.

Lennon sings in a weary and quizzical manner about his mother’s death, and

the sound fidelity matches that of some of his later posthumously released

home demo cassettes. The effect is memorable and chilling. And such is how

the album ends, capturing the essence of psychological pain and intimating

at its persistence.

Yoko ono / PLastic ono Band

Most of Lennon’s fans at the time may have been glad that this compa-

nion album to
John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band
was not packaged with it as

a double record set, but perhaps it should have been, since both are emo-

tional soundscapes. In addition, the albums have similar front and back cover

images, and they share the same musicians and same spare style—in sound as

well as the exploration of raw emotion.

Lennon’s improvisational guitar work and the myriad of sounds he man-

ages to create must have been in his mind when he gave the
Rolling Stone

interview two months after the recordings were made, for he truly does make

the guitar “speak” throughout Ono’s album.4 Each track conveys core emo-

tions with minimal or nonexistent lyrical components. The opening cut is

a powerful number titled “Why” with searing, cascading guitar work from

Lennon matching Ono’s vocals as she screams the title word over and over

along with nonverbal vocalizations. Firm support from Ringo Starr on drums

and Klaus Voorman on bass keeps Lennon and Ono solidly on track. As

much as any of Lennon’s numbers from his album, this cut embodies slicing

pain, and the couple’s musical interactions are a marvel to hear, in what is

clearly one of their finest joint efforts.

Of course, the inner rage of “Why” would have to be followed by the

languid but still tumultuous in its own way “Why Not.” Once again Len-

non frees his guitar playing and creates a wide variety of accompaniments to

Ono’s now echoed vocals. Other numbers use the natural sounds of birds

Gimme Some Truth, 1970–1973 25

and trains to augment the aural approximations of emotional and mental

states of being. Each song uses different musical foci, especially rhythmically,

to support the emotive content. “Greenfield Morning” and “Touch Me” are

the other standout tracks in an album that showcases some of Lennon’s most

adventurous and inventive guitar playing.

“Power to the PeoPle”

Not surprisingly, the psychological intensity of “Mother” was not exactly

top-40 pop material, and the single only made it to number 43 on the U.S.

charts. Lennon then turned back to the more outwardly directed and socially

conscious thinking of “Give Peace a Chance” for his next nonalbum single,

“Power to the People.”

At its heart, the song is another populist anthem, with an overall sound

similar to “Instant Karma!” due as much (if not more) to co-producer Phil

Spector’s return as to Lennon’s predilections. A chorus intones the title four

times as the sound of marching feet, similar to clapping, opens the record-

ing and sets the rhythm. Lennon’s echoed voice takes the lead another four

times, helped along by tumbling percussion and Bobby Keyes’s aggressive

sax playing.

The opening verse references Lennon’s Beatle song “Revolution” by nearly

repeating the line “Say you want a revolution,” while making the important

change of replacing “you” with “we.” In “Revolution” the opening state-

ment was followed by the tentative “well, you know, we all want to change

the world.” Here, however, all tentativeness is gone; the line is followed

by “we better get it on right away” and a call for listeners to “get into the

street.”

The generalities continue, as the next verse summons workers to “get

all they really own.” The final verse is most striking for its feminist stance,

declaring that the “woman back home” needs “to be herself so she can free

herself.” Each verse is broken up by the repeating refrain of the title, which is

tripled and faded out at the end.

As generic statements of mass empowerment, the sentiments work, as does

the song as an upbeat attempt to straddle counterculture ideals and main-

stream disaffections. Simple, direct, and rousing without being vindictive,

the song may be little more than sloganeering, but it is not necessarily less

of an accomplishment because of it. As Lennon got more specific about his

causes in his songwriting over the next year and a half, the success of this song

would illustrate just how difficult such an attempt was to properly manage.

The song’s lack of stridency and ability to be broadly interpreted helped it to

the number-11 position on the U.S. charts.

The flip side was an experimental piece by Ono titled “Touch Me” and had

been included on her
Plastic Ono Band
album. The track was substituted for

26 The Words and Music of John Lennon

the U.S. release when “Open Your Box (Hirake)” was censored in the United

Kingdom. “Touch Me” is a gritty effort, with grumbling and staccato guitar

work from Lennon under Ono’s alternately fractured and wavering vocals.

Early on, the piece includes the sound of a tree falling, presumably recorded

when no one was there.

the elastic oz Band: “God save Us” / “do the oz”

Lennon’s next single was something of an anomaly in his career.
Oz,
a

countercultural underground British newspaper, was in legal trouble with the

British government, and Lennon and Ono decided to support the journalists

by releasing a single in hopes it would be a fundraiser.

Lennon assembled a band, this time calling it The Elastic Oz Band, and

selected Bill Elliot (later vocalist for the group Splinter) to handle the lead

vocals for Lennon and Ono’s song “God Save Us,” oddly using the term

“God” in a more conventional sense than in the song “God” on the
Plastic

Ono Band
album. Lennon recorded a guide vocal that Elliot copied and,

with echo added by Phil Spector, the recording sounds more than a little

like Lennon himself. The guide vocal version is included in the
John Lennon

Anthology
under the title of “God Save Oz” and seems finished and polished

enough to consider it a long-lost Lennon single.

The song resembles Lennon’s “Move over Ms. L” from three years later

in that it has a fast, rollicking pace helped along by some tight horn work.

Lyrically, Lennon and Ono return to the idea behind “Give Peace a Chance,”

mixing the serious and the absurd. The lyrics primarily list things God should

save us from, as well as things we should fight for. On the more serious

side, listeners are told they should “fight for children’s rights,” a fairly radi-

cal thought in 1971; on the more absurd side, it is suggested to “fight for

Rupert Bear,” probably even a more radical stance, if taken literally.

On the flip side, Lennon keeps the vocals, such as they are, for himself

and Ono. “Do the Oz” is a methodically paced, experimental number with

a heavily echoed Ono going through various vocal pyrotechnics as Lennon

shouts, “Do the Oz” and off-kilter “Hokey Pokey”–influenced instructions.

The sound is shattering, with a simple chugging, repetitive rhythm pushed

along by guitar and electric piano. The use of the word “God” in the title and

lyrics may have kept the single from getting much airplay. It is not clear how

successful the disc was in raising money for
Oz,
but it did succeed admirably

in becoming a Lennon rarity and collectible.

imagine

Lennon’s next album was a conscious attempt to create a more palatable and

audience-pleasing product than
Plastic Ono Band
had been. Lennon thought

that
Plastic Ono Band
was “too real” for most listeners and that
Imagine

Gimme Some Truth, 1970–1973 27

conveyed the same message “sugar coated.”5 Phil Spector was brought in

to co-produce with Lennon and musicians including George Harrison and

two members of the Beatle protégé group Badfinger. The songs cover quite

a range, including everything from a charmingly goofy love song for Ono

to an extremely vitriolic attack on Paul McCartney. Helped by the instant

classic status of the title cut (a number-three hit on its first release in the

United States before becoming a perennial favorite), the album is habitually

the Lennon album most admired by fans alienated by his
Plastic Ono Band
’s

all but unrelentingly stark content.

Even before his murder, the title cut from Lennon’s second post-Beatles

album, “Imagine,” was well on its way to becoming a modern classic of pop

music. Lennon even chose to sing it for his appearance at the birthday cele-

bration of media mogul Sir Lew Grade in 1975, which turned out to be

Lennon’s last public performance. Since his murder, the song has increased

in popularity and poignancy and is regularly revived. It is the song most asso-

ciated with him from his post-Beatles career.

Ono’s conceptual art, especially her instruction pieces, has been credited as

the inspiration for the song. And if not only understood as a comment on the

nature of reality, her oft-quoted remark, “The dream we dream alone is just

a dream / The dream we dream together is reality” (used as lyrics to her song

“Now or Never”), bears this out. The first step toward change is to imagine

something different.

The twist that makes the lyrics of “Imagine” more palatable than the simi-

lar sentiments expressed in “God” is the addition of the sweeter instrumental

accompaniment along with the lack of specific finger-pointing in the lyric.

“Imagine” may be the most subversive pop song recorded to achieve classic

status. Lennon marries instrumental music that could have accompanied the

sentimental, melodramatic compositions of the prerock era with the idea of

a world without religion or civil states. The tension is created by juxtaposing

an understated melody with a frank and radical message. The listener is, in a

sense, deceived into absorbing the song’s message.

Lennon’s dream is of a world with no heaven or hell awaiting us. The

strong implication is that we must make the best world we can here and

now, since this is all there is or will be. But because we are asked merely to

imagine—to play a “what if” game—Lennon can escape the harshest criti-

cisms, and the subversive seeds are planted. Those offended by the lyrics

are responded to as Lennon’s former band mate Ringo Starr did during a

television appearance on a Barbara Walters special in 1981. When challenged

regarding the song’s statements, Starr replied, “He said ‘imagine,’ that’s all.

Just imagine it.”

The title of the song “Crippled Inside” is a succinct summary of the mes-

sage of the lyric. Lennon presents another of his psychological explorations.

The lyrics complement the subjects Lennon addressed in the previous
Plas-

tic Ono Band
album. The song is about the “masks” or fronts that people

28 The Words and Music of John Lennon

put on. No matter what their outward appearance or what bogus activities

they participate in, it is what is in the heart that counts. And the lyrics make

it sound as though just about everyone is “crippled inside” in one way or

another.

The song combines a country and western feel with a little Tin Pan Alley

sensibility, creating an ironic contrast with the lyrics. George Harrison pro-

vides some exuberant slide guitar work, with Lennon urging him on with a

“Take it, cousin!” The piano work by Nicky Hopkins is also notable, bring-

ing a ragtime / early jazz feel to the song. Lennon has to be using satire here,