So because I’ve been slack I need to make up time by doing some albums and spiritual successors. Double Fantasy was the recorded after a five year hiatus from recording during which time he re-established his relationship with Yoko and played house-husband to actually do a good job raising a kid after snubbing his first son in the 60’s. It was also the first album recorded with Yoko since 1972’s Some Time in New York City and the avant-garde albums in the late 60’s, all of which were critically slammed, although I like Some Time in New York City and some of the ideas in the experimental work.
Double Fantasy however was a huge success, although sales could be attributed to Lennon’s murder only a few weeks after release. Lennon seems completely rejuvenated after his long break. Even on Walls and Bridges, recorded in the middle of his ‘long weekend’ he sounds kind of depressed even though his was living out the bachelorhood he never had as a young man. Yoko had found some pop sensibility and was no longer alienating normal people.
John and Yoko trade tracks evenly throughout the album. (Just Like) Starting Over is followed by Yoko’s Kiss Kiss Kiss, in turn followed by John’s Cleanup Time and so on, collaborating together on Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him. The album is somewhat telling of fractures in the relationship, particularly in I’m Losing You/I’m Moving On, in the first half of the album. For what most of us would call soul mates they seemed to be going through a bit of a rough patch. The second half is far more positive. Given what happened only a few weeks after release some of these tracks are kind of difficult listening, particularly Dear Yoko and Beautiful Boy.
A couple of years later the formula was replicated for Milk & Honey, the first posthumous Lennon album. The album was built out of unfinished demos interspersed with Yoko tracks to retain the same feel as Double Fantasy. The album isn’t as strong to me; I can see why John left most of these off Double Fantasy. The Yoko tracks are actually pretty bad here, sounding way more dated than the older tracks do, and the latest CD is audibly clipped as well. There are a couple of really bright spots, I’m Stepping Out began as the opening verse for Real Love, reworked into a Beatles track for Anthology 2 in 1996 and is probably the best track on the record. Nobody Told Me is another really good track although there are a couple of empty bars between verses where I’m assuming something was intended to go but wasn’t worked out on the demo. As a finished master this just sounds really odd.
The other disc worth mentioning is Double Fantasy Stripped Down released last year which is a drastic remix of the album made to sound more ‘live in the studio’ than the original does. Generally Yoko’s tracks suffer without the production to fuel the eccentricity and some of John’s tracks clearly have some breaks designed around the thick production. It’s tough to listen to (Just Like) Starting Over without my brain putting in all the bits it expects to hear anyway. Best remix is the acoustic Woman, but since this release also includes the original mix it is probably the version I recommend, sonic niggles aside.
(Just Like) Starting Over
Dear Yoko
Woman (Stripped Down)
I'm Stepping Out
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