Music Inside

This compilation might have been more aptly titled “The Very Worst of John Lennon.” I have always been a Beatles’ fan, but I never understood those Beatlemaniacs who made demigods of four average musicians who wrote some nice little melodies and who were packaged and promoted by a crafty public realtions man. If it were not for Brian Epstein, the Beatles quite probably would have gotten no farther than playing in dumpy clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg. More precisely, I never got the big fuss over John Lennon. Sure, it’s a shame the way he was murdered. But as both a person and a mucisian, Lennon was far from some moralistic, enlightened wunderkind. He wasn’t even a nice guy by the accounts of his closest “friends.” More to the point, Lennon’s musical output in his post-Beatles’ years was comprised of monotonous tunes (i.e., “Mind Games”), and druggie-influenced vamps like “Instant Karma.” His supposed “masterpiece”——”Imagine”—- is musically dronish and is lyrically little more than self-therapy for a guy who was paranoid and chemically dependent. None of these songs required a Cole Porter or Irving Berlin to write them. They are juvenile and simplistic to the point of being inane and meaningless. Indeed, Lennon’s early Beatles compositions were primarily your typical three chord, twelve bar rock and roll. When he did attempt anything more sophisticated, he almost always came up short. While McCartney wrote dozens of melodious ballads, Lennon wrote mostly loud, abrasive songs littered with an overuse of pronouns and an abundance of grammatically silly word usage. The themes underlying virtually every one of his songs is jealousy, insecurity, and being dumped (remember “I’m A Loser?” “Help,” and “Misery”). He sang off key—screamed really—and he played only a small number of chords, as by his own admission he was not even a fair guitar player. He also was limited to piano playing only in the key of “C,” which is the easiest key in which to play. There were exceptions, like “Norwegian Wood,” but his overall sense of melody and harmony is juvenile compared with that of McCartney (who also had a far more pleasant and wider-ranging singing voice, and who also played a half-dozen instruments very well). And believe me, I harbor no delusions that McCartney was a musical genius. He was simply a far better mucisian and composer than Lennon. Indeed, by the 1970s Lennon’s cruelty toward the handicapped, the obese, and the less fortunate became psychotic. I also don’t remember this allegedly great liberal humanitarian divesting himself of his fortune to help the needy. With his maids, chauffers, numerous $100,000 automobiles, and multimillion dollars’ worth of property around the world, the only appropriate word for describing Lennon is “hypocrite” with a capital “H.”
Rating: 1 / 5

Another cynical attempt by Yoko Ono, the millionaire, to take your money by recycling yet again Lennon’s work. I guess the baby-boomers can afford it, right? Let’s face it, John Lennon’s post-Beatle solo career was an utter failiure. His five year break in the late seventies was a career move, nothing more and nothing less.
Rating: 1 / 5

Just another compilation trying to cash in over the great John Lennon.Sad.
Rating: 1 / 5