John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. Backed by the Plastic Ono Band, it was released by Apple Records on 11 December 1970 in tandem with the similarly titled album by his wife, Yoko Ono. At the time of its issue, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band received mixed reviews overall, but later came to be widely regarded as Lennon's best solo album.[2]
Co-produced by Lennon, Ono and Phil Spector, it followed Lennon's recording of three experimental releases with Ono and a live album from the 1969 version of the Plastic Ono Band. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band contains a largely raw production sound with songs heavily influenced by Lennon's recent primal scream therapy. Its lyrics reflect Lennon's personal issues and includes themes of child-parent abandonment and psychological suffering. The tracks were recorded in September and October 1970 at Abbey Road Studios in London, simultaneously with Ono's similarly titled solo album.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US Billboard 200. In 1987, Rolling Stone ranked it fourth in its list "The 100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years" and in 2012, ranked it number 23 in their list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It was voted number 244 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000).[3] In 2000, the album was remixed with two bonus tracks, "Power to the People" and "Do the Oz". The album's 2021 Ultimate Mixes reissue, in the eight-disc Ultimate Collectionbox set, features 159 previously unreleased mixes, demos, outtakes, and isolated track elements.[4]
Background
The level of his pain was enormous... He was almost completely nonfunctional. He couldn't leave the house, he could hardly leave his room... This was someone the whole world adored, and it didn't change a thing. At the center of all that fame and wealth and adulation was just a lonely little kid.[5]
– Arthur Janov, on Lennon's psychological state
Following the break-up of the Beatles in April 1970, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono undertook primal therapy with the guidance of Arthur Janov for four weeks at his London offices. The three then flew to Los Angeles to continue the therapy for four months.[6] Janov's therapy technique emphasised emotionally reliving repressed childhood traumas rather than analytical discussion.[7]
Lennon and Ono stayed in a rented house in Bel Air, keeping a low profile and committing fully to Janov's course.[8] Lennon embraced the discipline as he had Transcendental Meditation in the late 1960s, and the act of engaging with past traumas became "too primal".[9] Ono later commented that primal therapy helped curb his possessiveness towards her, as he recognised that his feelings of jealousy stemmed from events that took place long before they met.[9]
With the experience he received from the therapy, Lennon was able to channel his emotions into an album's worth of self-revelatory material.[10] In July, he started to record demos of songs that would show up on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. On 26 July, he taped numerous demos of "God", which includes the line "I don't believe in Beatles".[11] "When a Boy Meets a Girl" was among the songs Lennon demoed at this time, but he did not record it for the album.[12]
Lennon's therapy was never completed due to the expiry of his US visa.[10] Janov had intended that Lennon's treatment would require a minimum of a year, such was the severity of his trauma.[13] Janov expressed concern that the therapy had ended prematurely and that Lennon's rediscovered anger over his childhood remained unresolved.[14]
Music and lyrics
Lennon's experience in primal therapy strongly influenced both the lyrical content of the album, pushing him toward themes of child–parent relationships and psychological suffering,[10] and the simple yet intense style of the album's music.[15] Throughout the album Lennon touches on many personal issues: his abandonment by his parents, in "Mother" (though he denied that that was what the song was about on a posthumously-released live album); the means by which young people are made into soldiers, in "Working Class Hero"; a reminder that, despite his rage and pain, Lennon still embraces "Love"; and "God", a renunciation of external saviours. In the piano-driven climax of "God", after listing a handful of things he does not believe in, including Jesus, Hitler, Buddha, Elvis, "Zimmerman" (Bob Dylan) and Beatles, Lennon proclaims that he believes only in himself and Ono.[16]
"Look at Me" dates from the period of the White Album (1968),[17] and is built on a fingerpicking guitar pattern very similar to the one Lennon used in "Dear Prudence", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and "Julia". Donovan claimed that he taught Lennon this technique while the two were in Rishikesh in 1968.[18] "Remember" uses the same piano riff that Lennon played in the discarded coda to the Beatles' July 1969 recording of "Something".[19]
"My Mummy's Dead", which closes Plastic Ono Band, is partly set to the tune of the nursery rhyme "Three Blind Mice".[20] The recording used on the album was taken from Lennon's Los Angeles demos.[21]
Recording
Having exhausted the extensions of their American visas, Lennon and Ono returned from the US on 15 September 1970.[22] Soon afterwards, Ono miscarried at close to eight months pregnant, and Lennon's equilibrium was tested when his father, Alf Lennon, resumed contact, having recently remarried and become a father again.[23] At Alf's request, they met up at Tittenhurst Park for Lennon's 30th birthday, but Lennon launched into a primal therapy-inspired tirade against him[24] and, according to the account Alf left with his solicitor, threatened to kill him.[25]
Recording for the album took place at Abbey Road Studios in London, beginning on 26 September.[26] Lennon played guitar or piano on the songs, with bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Ringo Starr as the other core musicians.[27] The album title refers to the Plastic Ono Band, the conceptual band Lennon and Ono formed in 1969 of various supporting musicians they would use on their various solo albums. Lennon asked Phil Spector, who had produced Lennon's hit "Instant Karma!" earlier that year,[26] to co-produce the new album. Since they were unable to contact Spector before recording began, Allen Klein, Lennon's manager, took out an advertisement in Billboard magazine that read: "Phil! John is ready this weekend."[28]
Spector and Apple artist Billy Preston each played piano on a track.[5] During the sessions, Lennon, Voormann and Starr jammed on a variety of songs in between recording the new tracks: "When a Boy Meets a Girl", "That's All Right Mama", "Glad All Over", "Honey Don't", "Don't Be Cruel", "Hound Dog" and "Matchbox".[27] They also taped the basic track for Starr's "Early 1970" in which the drummer describes his relationship with each of his former bandmates;[25] in the verse dedicated to Lennon, Starr sings, "They screamed and they cried, now they're free".[29]
As longstanding friends of Lennon, Voormann and Starr were disturbed by his emotional behaviour in the studio.[28] In his 2004 book Postcards from the Boys, Starr recalls that Lennon would burst out crying or start screaming midway through recording a track.[30] Voormann said that Lennon would change from being upbeat to highly emotional and would discuss his feelings with Ono as they listened to playbacks in the studio control room. In Voormann's view, the effects of Lennon's therapy were especially confronting to Starr, since "The old John was gone; it was a different John. It wasn't the one he was used to."[28][nb 1]
According to music critic Richie Unterberger, bootlegs from the sessions suggest that Lennon was far from the despondent artist reflected in the finished album.[32] As the ensemble recorded "Remember" on 9 October, Lennon's 30th birthday,[33]George Harrison visited the studio and delivered a tape of "It's Johnny's Birthday", after Ono had asked Lennon's friends for musical greetings to mark the occasion.[34][nb 2] The session tapes reveal Lennon and Starr's delight at Harrison's arrival.[37] In author Robert Rodriguez's description, the meeting reflects the three former Beatles' closeness, at the expense of Paul McCartney, as well as Lennon's playfulness while making Plastic Ono Band.[38]
Lennon and Ono produced Plastic Ono Band largely on their own, as Spector was absent for much of the recording sessions. Spector mixed the album for three days towards the end of October.[27] All work on the record was completed by 27 October, when Lennon and Ono flew to New York to publicise primal therapy and collaborate on the experimental films Up Your Legs Forever and Fly.[39]
Artwork
Lennon's album cover is almost identical to Ono's companion piece, the sole difference being that on Ono's cover, she is lying on Lennon's body.[40] The photo was taken at Lennon's Tittenhurst Park estate with a consumer-grade Instamatic camera by actor Dan Richter, who also worked as an assistant for the Lennons at the time. The initial compact disc issue of the album listed the title and artist, while the 2000 remixed version restores the original artwork. In addition, the original LP had no track listing on the back cover, which instead showed a school photo of Lennon in his youth.[26]
The LP included a lyric sheet on one side of its inner sleeve. Despite Capitol Records' concerns over Lennon's profanities in "I Found Out" and "Working Class Hero", the lyrics appeared uncensored in the US album package.[40] In the UK, EMI ensured that each mention of "fucking" in "Working Class Hero" was bowdlerised through the use of asterisks.[41]
Release
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released in both the UK and US on 11 December 1970,[42] the same day as Ono's matching album.[43] Lennon considered issuing "Love" as a single in the US but settled on "Mother".[44] The song was edited down to under four minutes through the removal of the opening funeral bells and an early fadeout.[45] Backed by Ono's track "Why", the single was released there on 28 December.[46] In Japan, the album's title was John no Tamashii (ジョンの魂), which translates as "John's Soul".[citation needed] Several US radio stations banned "Working Class Hero" because of the song's use of the word "fucking".[47]
I think it's realistic and it's true to me that has been developing over the years from "In My Life", "I'm a Loser", "Help!", "Strawberry Fields". They're all personal records ... I didn't really enjoy writing third person songs ... But because of my hangups, and other things, I would only now and then specifically write about me. Now I wrote all about me and that's why I like it. It's me![40]
– Lennon's view on Plastic Ono Band, as offered to Rolling Stone in December 1970
Lennon viewed Plastic Ono Band as his best work up to that point.[40] He called it "Sgt. Lennon", referring to the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[48] His promotion for the album included a lengthy interview with Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, recorded in New York on 8 December and published in two installments under the title Lennon Remembers.[49] As with his new music, Lennon's comments reflected the effects of primal therapy.[41][50] He used the opportunity to discuss his troubled childhood, debunk the Beatles as a myth,[51] and denigrate his former bandmates' solo albums.[52] He also dismissed the effectiveness of the 1960s cultural revolution as a "dream" and committed to political protest as his new artistic direction.[53] Together with the sentiments of "God", the interview ended any hope of the Beatles reuniting and was followed soon after by McCartney filing suit in a London court to dissolve the group as a legal partnership.[54]
The album and Lennon's political stance furthered his credibility among underground radicals,[55] as the New Left welcomed his debunking of the Beatles' image.[56] Its commercial performance nevertheless paled beside Harrison's concurrently released All Things Must Pass and McCartney's self-titled solo album, issued in April.[57]Plastic Ono Band peaked at number 8 in the UK and number 6 in the US, spending eighteen weeks in the top 100.[58] In the Netherlands, it was number 1 for seven weeks.[59]
Lennon was especially aggrieved that his LP was overshadowed by the acclaim afforded All Things Must Pass.[60][61] According to ABKCO executive Allan Steckler, neither Klein nor promotions man Pete Bennett knew how to go about marketing Plastic Ono Band in the US, where it received minimal AM airplay.[57] Starr attributed the muted public response to the album's paucity of "toe-tappers".[62]
Contemporary critical reception
Although John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band received some highly favourable reviews,[57] critical reception to the album was mixed overall.[63] Andy Gray of the NME said it offered truths that would resonate with most listeners but that Lennon was governed by "a great big chip on his shoulder about class consciousness and the unfairness of the world". Gray also wrote: "I have rarely heard so much anguish and suffering put into a track as in the first song, 'Mother'."[64]The Guardian's Geoffrey Cannon wrote that Lennon had taken the self-centredness of McCartney to an obsessive level. He predicted that the songs would have limited interest but added: "Lennon's album makes a deep impression, if more on him than us. He screams and cries, desolation, bitterness, anguish. This is the album of a man of black bile. This is declamation, not music."[65] Writing in The Times, Richard Williams described Plastic Ono Band as "almost unbearably stark" and "not an album I can put on for pleasure".[66][nb 3]
Reviewing for Creem, Dave Marsh found it "totally enthralling to see that Lennon has once again unified, to some degree, his life and his music into a truly whole statement". He deemed Lennon's perspective "elitist" and less adventurous than Ono's on her LP, but nevertheless likened the album to the highly political statements made by jazz artists such as Archie Shepp, Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus in their music.[67] Michael Ross, also of Creem, wrote in the December 1970 issue "This record is John, the man, destroying the dream, the idol, the idols, revitalizing his dirt-poor emotions, feeling that in the midst of change, he is, love is."[68] Don Heckman of The New York Times was unimpressed by Plastic Ono Band, calling it a "group of empty selections"[66] that, like McCartney's album, showed its creator to be overly preoccupied with himself and weakened artistically as a solo performer.[69]Billboard's reviewer described the album as "Self determination music, intensely analytical of self with production values kept down to the minimum", and predicted it would remain the subject of analysis for years like Sgt. Pepper.[70]
John Gabree of High Fidelity deemed the LP "a tremendously exciting listening experience, perhaps the best any Beatle has ever offered". He praised the musicianship, sparse arrangements and Lennon's directness, and said that on the strength of Plastic Ono Band and Harrison's All Things Must Pass, he was not bothered if the Beatles ever reunited as a band.[71]Robert Christgau named John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band the best album of 1970 in his year-end list for The Village Voice,[72] and in a decade-end list, he ranked it 21st best from the 1970s.[73]
Plastic Ono Band is considered by some to be Lennon's best solo album[2] and is certainly one of his most influential works.[63] The record became known as "the Primal Album".[41] Janov incorporated it into his therapy course,[41] although he rued that Lennon had cut off his therapy prematurely and that "We had opened him up, and we didn't have time to put him back together again."[13][85]
Music critic Greil Marcus remarked, "John's singing in the last verse of 'God' may be the finest in all of rock."[58] In a retrospective review for Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau wrote that the album's lyrics are political, existential, and carefully thought out, while Spector's production is elegantly simple so that each instrument resonates. Christgau added: "Left out in the open, without protective harmonies or racket, Lennon's singing takes on an expressive specificity that anyone in search of the century's great vocal performances would be foolish to overlook."[82] Garry Mulholland of Uncut describes it as a "masterpiece" that "remains the most profound and perfectly realised confessional album that rock'n'roll has produced".[84]
Mojo critic John Harris includes Plastic Ono Band among "the trilogy of truly essential post-Beatles solo albums", along with All Things Must Pass and Wings' Band on the Run.[86] In 2008, it was the subject of a documentary film by Matthew Longfellow as part of Eagle Rock's Classic Albums series.[87] Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Lennon and Ono's twin 1970 albums, Thames & Hudson published the book John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band, which includes illustrations by Voormann.[88][nb 4]
In 2000, Q placed John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band at number 62 in its list of the "100 Greatest British Albums Ever".[89] In 1987, the album was ranked fourth on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 best albums of the period 1967–87,[90] and in 2003, it was placed at number 22 in the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[91] 23 in a 2012 revised list,[47][92] and 85 in a 2020 revised list.[93] In 2006, the album was placed by Pitchfork at number 60 of its Top 100 Albums of the 1970s.[94] In 2006, the album was chosen by Time as one of the 100 best albums of all time.[95]
Subsequent releases
After Lennon's death, EMI's Parlophone label reissued Plastic Ono Band, along with seven other Lennon albums, as part of a box set,[96] which was released in the UK on 15 June 1981.[97][nb 5] In 2000, Ono supervised a remixing of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band for its remastered CD reissue, including two bonus tracks: Lennon's 1971 hit "Power to the People", and "Do the Oz", originally released as the B-side to "God Save Us" under the name Elastic Oz Band and later part of the 1998 box set John Lennon Anthology.[citation needed]
In 2003, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued the album in 24-karat Gold CD audio and 180-gram half-speed mastered GAIN 2 Ultra Analog in vinyl reissues. In 2010, a digital remaster of Lennon's entire discography was released, using original mixes and artwork.[98]
A 50th Anniversary reissue of the album was released on 23 April 2021,[99] under the title John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection. The eight-disc box set spreads over six CDs and two Blu-ray HD discs, and features 159 new mixes, including previously unreleased demos, studio outtakes, and isolated track elements, along with 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos mixes.[4]
Track listing
All tracks are written by John Lennon, except where noted
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Notes
↑ In a 2015 interview, however, Starr called John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band "one of the best experiences of being on a record I have ever had". He said that due to their closeness, he and Lennon "were psychic where the atmosphere was going to go".[31]
↑ Melody Maker's Michael Watts wrote: "The album is not going to convert anyone who does not already like Lennon's musical approach. Melodically there is nothing earth-shattering but then, Lennon has never set out to become another Cole Porter."[43]
↑ In an interview to promote the book, Voormann described Lennon's Plastic Ono Band as "the best of all albums I've ever heard", citing its intimacy and lack of studio embellishments.[88]
Imagine is the second solo studio album by English musician John Lennon, released on 9 September 1971 by Apple Records. Co-produced by Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono and Phil Spector, the album's elaborate sound contrasts the basic, small-group arrangements of his first album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970). The opening title track is widely considered to be his signature song.
All Things Must Pass is the third studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison. Released as a triple album in November 1970, it was Harrison's first solo work after the break-up of the Beatles in April that year. It includes the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life", as well as songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track that had been overlooked for inclusion on releases by the Beatles. The album reflects the influence of Harrison's musical activities with artists such as Bob Dylan, the Band, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and Billy Preston during 1968–70, and his growth as an artist beyond his supporting role to former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. All Things Must Pass introduced Harrison's signature slide guitar sound and the spiritual themes present throughout his subsequent solo work. The original vinyl release consisted of two LPs of songs and a third disc of informal jams titled Apple Jam. Several commentators interpret Barry Feinstein's album cover photo, showing Harrison surrounded by four garden gnomes, as a statement on his independence from the Beatles.
Walls and Bridges is the fourth solo studio album by English musician John Lennon. It was issued by Apple Records on 26 September 1974 in the United States and on 4 October in the United Kingdom. Written, recorded and released during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono, the album captured Lennon in the midst of his "Lost Weekend". Walls and Bridges was an American number-one album on both the Billboard and Record World charts and included two hit singles, "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" and "#9 Dream". The first of these was Lennon's first number-one hit in the United States as a solo artist, and his only solo chart-topping single in either the US or Britain during his lifetime.
"How Do You Sleep?" is a song by English rock musician John Lennon from his 1971 album Imagine.
McCartney is the debut solo studio album by the English rock musician Paul McCartney, released on 17 April 1970 by Apple Records. McCartney recorded it in secrecy, mostly using basic home-recording equipment at his house in St John's Wood. Mixing and some recording took place at professional London studios. In its loosely arranged performances, McCartney eschewed the polish of the Beatles' past records in favour of a lo-fi style. Apart from occasional contributions by his wife, Linda, McCartney performed the entire album alone by overdubbing on four-track tape.
The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band and Fluxus-based artist collective formed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968-9 for their collaborative musical and sound art projects, films, conceptual art projects and eventual solo LPs. The creation of The Plastic Ono Band, which began in 1967 with Ono's idea for an art exhibition in Berlin, allowed Lennon to separate his artistic output from that of The Beatles.
"Instant Karma!" is a song by English rock musician John Lennon, released as a single on Apple Records in February 1970. The lyrics focus on a concept in which the consequences of one's actions are immediate rather than borne out over a lifetime. The single was credited to "Lennon/Ono with the Plastic Ono Band", apart from in the US, where the credit was "John Ono Lennon". The song reached the top five in the British and American charts, competing with the Beatles' "Let It Be" in the US, where it became the first solo single by a member of the band to sell a million copies.
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo studio album by Japanese artist and musician Yoko Ono, released on Apple Records in December 1970 alongside her husband's album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album features Ono's vocal improvisations accompanied by the Plastic Ono Band, with the exception of "AOS", on which she is backed by the Ornette Coleman Quartet.
"All Things Must Pass" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison, issued in November 1970 as the title track to his triple album of the same name. Billy Preston released the song originally – as "All Things (Must) Pass" – on his Apple Records album Encouraging Words (1970) after the Beatles had rehearsed the song in January 1969 but did not include it on their Let It Be album. The composition reflects the influence of the Band's sound and communal music-making on Harrison, after he had spent time with the group in Woodstock, New York, in late 1968. In his lyrics, Harrison drew inspiration from Timothy Leary's poem "All Things Pass", a psychedelic adaptation of the Tao Te Ching.
"It Don't Come Easy" is a song by the English rock musician Ringo Starr that was released as a non-album single in April 1971. It was produced by Starr's former Beatles bandmate George Harrison, who also helped write the song, although only Starr is credited. Recording for the track took place in March 1970 at Trident Studios in London, with overdubs added in October. Starr and Harrison performed the song together in August 1971 at Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh shows in New York City, a recording from which was released on the live album of the same name. Starr has continued to perform it in subsequent decades with his All-Starr Band.
The Beatles were an English rock band, active from 1960 until 1970. From 1962 onwards, the band's members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Their break-up is attributed to numerous factors, including: the strain of the Beatlemania phenomenon, the 1967 death of their manager Brian Epstein, bandmates' resentment of McCartney's perceived domineering behaviour, Lennon's heroin use and his relationship with Yoko Ono, Harrison's increasingly prolific songwriting, the floundering of Apple Corps, the Get Back project and managerial disputes.
"I'm the Greatest" is a song written by English musician John Lennon that was released as the opening track of the 1973 album Ringo by Ringo Starr. With Starr, Lennon and George Harrison appearing on the track, it marks the only time that three former Beatles recorded together between the band's break-up in 1970 and Lennon's death in 1980. Lennon wrote the song in December 1970 as a wry comment on his rise to fame, and later tailored the lyrics for Starr to sing. Named after one of Muhammad Ali's catchphrases, the song partly evokes the stage-show concept of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
"Power to the People" is a song written by John Lennon, released as a single in 1971, credited to John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. It was issued on Apple Records and charted at #6 on the British singles chart, at number 10 on the Cashbox Top 100, and at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 The song's first appearance on album was the 1975 compilation Shaved Fish.
"Mother" is a song by English musician John Lennon, first released on his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. An edited version of the song was issued as a single in the United States on Apple Records, on 28 December 1970. The single edit runs 1:41 shorter than the album due to removing the tolling bells that start the song and a quicker fade-out. The B-side features "Why" by Yoko Ono. The song peaked in the United States at number 19 on the Cashbox Top 100 and number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada the song reached number 12.
"Remember" is a song by English rock musician John Lennon from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
"Wah-Wah" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. Harrison wrote the song following his temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969, during the troubled Get Back sessions that resulted in their Let It Be album and film. The lyrics reflect his frustration with the atmosphere in the group at that time – namely, Paul McCartney's over-assertiveness and criticism of his guitar playing, John Lennon's lack of engagement with the project and dismissal of Harrison as a songwriter, and Yoko Ono's constant involvement in the band's activities. Music critics and biographers recognise the song as Harrison's statement of personal and artistic freedom from the Beatles. Its creation contrasted sharply with his rewarding collaborations outside the group in the months before the Get Back project, particularly with Bob Dylan and the Band in upstate New York.
"Well Well Well" is a song by English musician John Lennon from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The eighth and longest track on the album, "Well Well Well" features an aggressive guitar sound, screaming vocals and a pounding backing track.
"Early 1970" is a song by the English rock musician Ringo Starr that was released as the B-side of his April 1971 single "It Don't Come Easy". A rare example of Starr's songwriting at the time, it was inspired by the break-up of the Beatles and documents his relationship with his three former bandmates. The lyrics to the verses comment in turn on Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison as individuals, and the likelihood of each of them making music with Starr again. In the final verse, Starr offers a self-deprecating picture of his musical abilities and expresses the hope that all four will play together in the future. Commentators have variously described "Early 1970" as "a rough draft of a peace treaty" and "a disarming open letter" from Starr to Lennon, McCartney and Harrison.
"I'll Still Love You" is a song written by English rock musician George Harrison and first released in 1976 by his former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr. Produced by Arif Mardin, the track appeared on Starr's debut album for Atlantic Records and Polydor, Ringo's Rotogravure. The composition had a long recording history before then, having been written in 1970 as "Whenever", after which it was copyrighted with the title "When Every Song Is Sung".
Lennon Remembers is a 1971 book by Rolling Stone magazine co-founder and editor Jann Wenner. It consists of a lengthy interview that Wenner carried out with former Beatle John Lennon in December 1970 and which was originally serialised in Rolling Stone in its issues dated 21 January and 4 February 1971. The interview was intended to promote Lennon's primal therapy-inspired album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and reflects the singer's emotions and mindset after undergoing an intense course of the therapy under Arthur Janov. It also serves as a rebuttal to Paul McCartney's public announcement of the Beatles' break-up, in April 1970.
↑ Madinger, Chip; Raile, Scott (2015). Lennonology: Strange Days Indeed – A Scrapbook of Madness. Chesterfield, MO: Open Your Books. p.210. ISBN978-1-63110-175-5.
↑ Cannon, Geoffrey (19 December 1970). "Ringo Stars: Geoffrey Cannon on the Beatles' Solo Albums". The Guardian. Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
↑ Marsh, Dave (March 1971). "John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)/ Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Apple)". Creem. Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).
↑ Ross, Michael (December 1970). "John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band". Creem. Available at Creem Magazine (subscription required).
↑ "John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band". Creem. December 1970. p.40.
↑ Doyle, Tom (November 2010). "John Lennon Signature Box". Mojo. p.114.
↑ Gary Graff & Daniel Durchholz (eds), MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press (Farmington Hills, MI, 1999; ISBN1-57859-061-2), p. 667.
↑ "John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band". NME. 21 October 2000. p.43.
↑ Tyrangiel, Josh and Alan Light (13 November 2006). "The All-TIME 100 Albums". Time. Archived from the original on 1 December 2006. Retrieved 23 August 2008.
↑ "Classifiche". Musica e dischi (in Italian). Retrieved 23 January 2024.Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "John Lennon" in the "Titolo" field and press "cerca".
↑ "norwegiancharts.com – Norwegian harts portal". VG-lista. Retrieved 17 September 2011.NOTE: Reference mistakenly indicates "Some Time in New York City" was placed at number-four on the chart, but it was not recorded as of 1971
Frontani, Michael (2009). "The Solo Years". In Womack, Kenneth (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-68976-2.
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