It's hard to believe but 30 years have passed since John Lennon was so tragically taken away from the world. To commemorate his musical career and what would be his 70th birthday, Capital Records has just remastered and re-released Lennon's entire studio album catalogue - from 1970's "Plastic Ono Band" through 1984's posthumous release "Milk & Honey."
Also marking it's 30 year anniversary is Lennon's last proper studio record,"Double Fantasy." Produced by Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper), "Double Fantasy" was not a John Lennon solo album but a collaborative effort by Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. When released, it was Lennon's first studio album in 5 years and his first to feature new Lennon compositions since 1974's "Wall And Bridges." Needless to say… fans around the world were clamoring to hear new John Lennon music.
After Lennon's death the album achieved many accolades: It went to #1 on the Billboard album chart, spawned 3 top 10 singles, won a Grammy Award in 1981 for "Album of the Year" and eventually went on to sell 3 million copies to make it John's most successful post Beatles release.
With all that history how does one review "Double Fantasy" 30 years after it's release? Well, just like you would review any album… listen and see if it holds up as a body of work.
*Yoko Ono fans might want to stop reading here.
I had never heard "Double Fantasy" in it's entirety but I was quite familiar with all the albums hit singles: "(Just Like) Starting Over," "Woman," and "Watching The Wheels" they are in my iPod and when they pop up I find myself singing along. Whoever said McCartney was the "light-side" to Lennon's "dark-side" needs to listen to these 3 Lennon-penned pop songs!
I also knew that, of the 14 songs on the album, 7 were written and performed by Lennon and 7 were written and performed by Yoko Ono. The songs were then sequenced in a kind of he said/she said way. For example, John sings track 5 "I'm Losing You" and then Yoko sings track 6 "I'm Moving On." That's a great idea for a semi-concept album sung by a famous couple in the music business. Given a pairing of equal talent such as James Taylor and Carly Simon during their wedded years this would have been great. The problem here is thatYoko Ono is not a good singer. In fact, I would say… she can't sing at all. And that is the downfall of "Double Fantasy."
As good as the 7 John Lennon tracks are (and by the way they aren't just good… they're great) Yoko's songs are unlistenable and are like speed bumps through the whole album. I was really trying to give the Ono songs a chance -- even wondering if they might be good if they were sung by someone else. But, for me, they are just bad. Luckily with the invention of the CD player and iPod, we can skip these songs and get right to Lennon. In 1980 you just had to drop the needle and let the whole thing play warts and all.
Now I know it's easy to slag Yoko Ono and I'm not here to do that. John and Yoko were soul mates and Lennon's affection for her can be summed up in the lyrics to track 12 "Dear Yoko." "Even after all these years, I miss you when you're not here" and "Even if it's just one night, I miss you and it don't feel right." That's how it always was for John and probably still is for Yoko.
Since his passing Ono has kept his legacy alive through various charities and his music alive through the many CD reissues including this one. She's a great business woman… smart and tough and a loving mother to Sean. Did she break up the Beatles? If that were true then it would mean that "love" broke up the Beatles so try and wrap your head around that conundrum! Unfortunately, love can't buy you a great singing voice.
The new reissue of "Double Fantasy" is a 2 CD set that contains the original album and a new "Stripped Down" version that brings Lennon's voice to the foreground while losing a lot of the 80's instrumentation. For me, "Stripped Down" doesn't make "Double Fantasy" any better or worse but it is a nice companion piece and definitely worth a listen.
Drumroll please… the 7 John Lennon songs… 10 out of 10 drumsticks!!
"Double Fantasy" the album… 6 out of 10 drumsticks!!
There's a reason my husband calls this "Half a Fantasy". You summed it up well without completely Yoko-bashing (which is too easy and not fair).
ReplyDeleteA few months ago, I played "Beautiful Boy" for my son Sean (who's almost 3), but he freaked out that one of the Beatles knows his name.
Lennon's "Double Fantasy" songs are staggering (post-scream therapy?), and I have his half of the release on my iPod as one fantastic album.