After his marriage to abstract expressionist Yoko Ono, The music Lennon was primarily interested in was a much rawer emotional fare than the hundred-take perfectionism of the later Beatles years. Having already recorded three avant-garde albums with Yoko; Two Virgins, Life with the Lyons and The Wedding Album the Plastic Ono Band was formed as a transient entity comprised of whoever happened to be playing in it at the time. Before the announced Beatles dissolution in 1970 the group had already released two singles; Give Peace a Chance/Remember Love and Cold Turkey/Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow) as well as a live album Live Peace in Toronto.
Typically there was a John led side and a Yoko led side. This concept was developed further with the Plastic Ono Band LP’s. Both released on the 11th of December 1970, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Yoko Ono/Plastic One Band both complicated and simplified the idea. One could get by not hearing any of the Yoko tracks at all, but with equal chance may have ended up with that album instead. The records have nearly identical sleeves, and somewhat similar musical content. The core band at this time included both Ringo and Klaus Voormann from the Beatles Hamburg days but no other stable members. Featured across the albums were free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman and pianist Billy Preston, the literal fifth Beatle on most of the Let it Be album and a couple of Abbey Road tracks.
Plastic Ono Band is one of the rawest albums I’ve ever heard in my life. The album is a very open emotional wreck. At the time John and Yoko were involved in primal scream therapy. The album touches on disillusionment of religion, the death of his mother at the age of seventeen and the abandonment of his father. It’s a drop off of excess baggage, by and large. The album is a case study; individually of a single man and coupled together with the Yoko album of his relationship.
The sound of the album is very sparse. John is hiding behind the reverb over his voice. The drums sound thin in places, the guitar is over distorted in Well, Well, Well and there is a very obvious tape edit in Working Class Hero beginning with the “When they’ve tortured and scared you to twenty odd years” line. By these virtues alone, it is the best Phil Spector production in the world, by virtue of it being nearly complete by the time he was involved.
Yoko’s record begins with Why? which is probably the best track she’s ever led. If this track had happened five years later and come from anyone other than Yoko it would have been credited as a primordial form of punk and considered a classic of the era. It certainly best depicts the turbulent Yoko One sound. The most atmospheric work across the two albums is Greensfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City, a transference of Yoko’s mourning for their miscarried child.
There is a little more studio trickery on the Yoko album, more creative use of reverb and alterations to tape speed on the vocal track. Is it a pleasant listen? Probably not the wording I’d choose, although I do like it a lot. It’s an ugly album, but there is an incredible confidence in its ugliness where no matter how much the John album tries to capture in Well, Well, Well there’s still a certain self consciousness to it. In this context it’s a lot easier to see why they loved each other so much. She just doesn’t care about how people perceive her and one has an immediate impression of exactly who was the more stable partner of the relationship, where Yoko was perhaps the only person who saw John’s inner vulnerablilty.
There are two mixes of John’s album. There was remix done in 2000 which reduced the reverb and distortion, toned down the volume of the drums and well as reinstating a couple of notes at the beginning of Hold On as well as other edits. While the remixing project removed some of the mud from otherwise more spacious Lennon albums (Imagine and Mind Games come to mind) it removes some of the impact this time round. It also includes Power to the People and Do the Oz as bonus tracks. Normally I’m all for bonus tracks, in fact they remain the primary reason for seeking out the Lennon remixes. These make bad bonus tracks. Yes, by virtue of proximity it is technically closer to the release of Plastic One Band than Imagine but there is no way these are tonally intact with the feel of the record. Do you know what would have made fantastic bonus tracks? Cold Turkey and Why. Sure the second one is on the Yoko record, but since that one’s out of print and it features some of John’s best rhythm guitar work I don’t know why that would be a problem, after all Walking on Thin Ice was considered appropriate enough to go on the Double Fantasy reissue. Hell, even a working demo of Oh My Love would have been better. Or any of the incredible demos of God lying around. Long story short; if you don’t care about mix, don’t seek out the 2000 reissue for the bonus tracks.
It’s tough to decide which of the two albums I like the best, they are both masterpieces in their own right, highlighting individualism where Double Fantasy highlights togetherness, but together they both make an interesting bookend to the solo career of John Lennon.
Cold Turkey: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42nATmBUg5A
God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3ic6OOXns
Why?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4EVj76htYs
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