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Post by sayne on Jun 23, 2016 11:29:44 GMT -5
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Post by debjorgo on Jun 23, 2016 18:14:54 GMT -5
I'd also take out Oh, Yoko (too cutesy) and Starting Over (I never liked the Doo Wop style) but I think they are better than your choices, sayne. (Isolation is so slow and Grow Old With Me wasn't finished and it sounds like it)I'd also get rid of Happy Christmas (I love it at Christmas time), Working Class Hero (artistic but only good for a few listens), and Mother (probably my favorite of the ones I'm taking out).
I'd add:
What You Got - Love the words in this and it's a great jam Nobody Told Me - Classic Lennon - rrrroll Beautiful Boy - a very pretty song, great lyrics, sung very soulfully Steel and Glass - I love the way it rolls along and keeps pulling you in. I like the earlier version too, where it sounds like he's singing Steal and Laugh and Whatever Gets You Thru the Night - Great words, chilling in retrospect.
I'd add I Don't Want to Face It - if I could get away with it.
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Post by sayne on Jun 23, 2016 19:07:53 GMT -5
I'd also take Oh, Yoko (too cutesy) and Starting Over (I never liked the Doo Wop style) out but I think they are better than your choices, sayne. (Isolation is so slow and Grow Old With Me wasn't finished and it sounds like it)I'd also get rid of Happy Christmas (I love it at Christmas time), Working Class Hero (artistic but only good for a few listens), and Mother (probably my favorite of the ones I'm taking out). I'd add: What You Got - Love the words in this and it's a great jam Nobody Told Me - Class Lennon - rrrroll Beautiful Boy - a very pretty song, great lyrics, sung very soulfully Steel and Glass - I love the way it rolls along and keeps pulling you in. I like the earlier version too, where it sounds like he's singing Steal and Laugh and Whatever Gets You Thru the Night - Great words, chilling in retrospect. I'd add I Don't Want to Face It - if I could get away with it. After seeing yours, I, too, would also take out Happy Xmas, and replace it with Steel and Glass. As for Grow Old With Me, I was seeing it as a song, rather than a recording. You're right. As a recording, it's incomplete, but I love the melody and sentiment. It's a great song when covered. Glen Campbell and Mary Chapin Carpenter have done fine versions.
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Post by debjorgo on Jun 23, 2016 19:58:37 GMT -5
I'd also take Oh, Yoko (too cutesy) and Starting Over (I never liked the Doo Wop style) out but I think they are better than your choices, sayne. (Isolation is so slow and Grow Old With Me wasn't finished and it sounds like it)I'd also get rid of Happy Christmas (I love it at Christmas time), Working Class Hero (artistic but only good for a few listens), and Mother (probably my favorite of the ones I'm taking out). I'd add: What You Got - Love the words in this and it's a great jam Nobody Told Me - Class Lennon - rrrroll Beautiful Boy - a very pretty song, great lyrics, sung very soulfully Steel and Glass - I love the way it rolls along and keeps pulling you in. I like the earlier version too, where it sounds like he's singing Steal and Laugh and Whatever Gets You Thru the Night - Great words, chilling in retrospect. I'd add I Don't Want to Face It - if I could get away with it. After seeing yours, I, too, would also take out Happy Xmas, and replace it with Steel and Glass. As for Grow Old With Me, I was seeing it as a song, rather than a recording. You're right. As a recording, it's incomplete, but I love the melody and sentiment. It's a great song when covered. Glen Campbell and Mary Chapin Carpenter have done fine versions. Grow Old Along With Me is great for what it is, a demo tacked on, John's last song at the end of a posthumous album. As sad as it is touching with what happened. It sort of reconciles the "Bigger than Christ", "imagine no religion" comments with the "God bless our love" line.
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Post by John S. Damm on Jun 24, 2016 14:11:42 GMT -5
I was pleasantly surprised at how well written each song summary was! It was a fine list. I get a kick out of "Imagine" being ignored but I do not feel bound by that.
Here is mine:
1. "Instant Karma(We All Shine On)"(1970) 2. "Imagine"(1971) 3. "Watching The Wheels"(1980) 4. "Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out"(1974) 5. "Mind Games"(1973) 6. "Cold Turkey"(1969) 7. "Isolation"(1970) 8. "New York City"(1972) 9. "Remember"(1970) 10. "Grow Old With Me"(1980).
This Thread/Article instantly refutes the conventional wisdom among many that John had a disappointing solo career. The man was only alive for 11 years post-Beatles(1970-1980) and even then only recorded new, original material for six years of those(1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 & 1980) yet we can churn out several various Top 10 Lennon tracks and they are all amazing!
So many great songs in such a short span, how can that not be considered a successful solo career. Six or seven years and the various great Lennon solo songs out there! I'd say a solid solo career!
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Post by Panther on Jun 25, 2016 2:46:45 GMT -5
My John top-10 (no order):
1. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) 2. Hold On 3. I Found Out 4. Love 5. Look At Me 6. Imagine 7. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) 8. Watching The Wheels 9. Woman 10.Borrowed Time
Amazing songs, all.
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Post by John S. Damm on Jun 25, 2016 16:32:23 GMT -5
My 11 to 20 Top Solo John Lennon
11. Woman 12. Love 13. Scared 14. (Just Like) Starting Over 15. Oh Yoko 16. I Found Out 17. Working Class Here 18. How 19. Oh My Love 20. I Know (I Know).
That solo career by John Lennon has a lot to offer!
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kc
Beatle Freak
Posts: 1,085
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Post by kc on Jun 26, 2016 23:44:03 GMT -5
No surprises on my list. I could easily interchange 1 and 2 and probably others as well.
1 Imagine 2 Instant Karma 3 Oh My Love 4 #9 Dream 5 Mind Games 6 Jealous Guy 7 Gimme Some Truth 8 Happy Xmas (War Is Over) 9 Watching The Wheels 10 Working Class Hero
Yes, John released plenty of good material during his short post-Beatles recording career. Enough for the 4CD Lennon box set from 1990 and its successor from a few years ago (not all up to top 10 list standard, of course).
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Post by vectisfabber on Jun 27, 2016 3:30:07 GMT -5
My top 10, no order:
Oh my love Woman Give Me Some Truth Beautiful Boy Instant Karma! Love How Oh Yoko Grow Old With Me Dear Yoko
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Post by coachbk on Jun 27, 2016 22:10:49 GMT -5
The list is OK, but includes two songs I would never consider: Cold Turkey and Mother. My list: 1. Instant Karma 2. Imagine 3. Beautiful Boy 4. Oh My Love 5. Grow Old With Me 6. #9 Dream 7. Watching The Wheels 8. Gimme Some Truth 9. Working Class Hero 10. Mind Games
I would have a rather long list of honorable mentions (in rough chronological order): Remember, Love, God, Jealous Guy. Oh Yoko, Crippled Inside, Happy X-Mas, New York City, Bring On The Lucie, Woman, Just Like Starting Over, Nobody Told Me
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Post by John S. Damm on Jun 28, 2016 13:58:27 GMT -5
The list is OK, but includes two songs I would never consider: Cold Turkey and Mother. My list: 1. Instant Karma 2. Imagine 3. Beautiful Boy 4. Oh My Love 5. Grow Old With Me 6. #9 Dream 7. Watching The Wheels 8. Gimme Some Truth 9. Working Class Hero 10. Mind Games I would have a rather long list of honorable mentions (in rough chronological order): Remember, Love, God, Jealous Guy. Oh Yoko, Crippled Inside, Happy X-Mas, New York City, Bring On The Lucie, Woman, Just Like Starting Over, Nobody Told Me Hey, where is "How Do You Sleep?"
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lowbasso
A Hard Day's Knight
Posts: 2,776
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Post by lowbasso on Jun 28, 2016 15:45:47 GMT -5
The list is OK, but includes two songs I would never consider: Cold Turkey and Mother. My list: 1. Instant Karma 2. Imagine 3. Beautiful Boy 4. Oh My Love 5. Grow Old With Me 6. #9 Dream 7. Watching The Wheels 8. Gimme Some Truth 9. Working Class Hero 10. Mind Games I would have a rather long list of honorable mentions (in rough chronological order): Remember, Love, God, Jealous Guy. Oh Yoko, Crippled Inside, Happy X-Mas, New York City, Bring On The Lucie, Woman, Just Like Starting Over, Nobody Told Me Hey, where is "How Do You Sleep?" On Paul's new album? He doesn't take credit for that one?
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Post by debjorgo on Jun 28, 2016 17:22:36 GMT -5
Hey, where is "How Do You Sleep?" On Paul's new album? He doesn't take credit for that one? Well, he was the sole inspiration for it.
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Post by coachbk on Jun 28, 2016 19:51:02 GMT -5
The list is OK, but includes two songs I would never consider: Cold Turkey and Mother. My list: 1. Instant Karma 2. Imagine 3. Beautiful Boy 4. Oh My Love 5. Grow Old With Me 6. #9 Dream 7. Watching The Wheels 8. Gimme Some Truth 9. Working Class Hero 10. Mind Games I would have a rather long list of honorable mentions (in rough chronological order): Remember, Love, God, Jealous Guy. Oh Yoko, Crippled Inside, Happy X-Mas, New York City, Bring On The Lucie, Woman, Just Like Starting Over, Nobody Told Me Hey, where is "How Do You Sleep?" I'm saving it for when we have a list of 10 least favorite Beatles solo songs (and I have to decide which gets the coveted #1 spot: How Do You Sleep or Bip Bop?)
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Post by debjorgo on Jun 28, 2016 23:12:15 GMT -5
Hey, where is "How Do You Sleep?" I'm saving it for when we have a list of 10 least favorite Beatles solo songs (and I have to decide which gets the coveted #1 spot: How Do You Sleep or Bip Bop?) I like either song okay. Not anywhere near top ten, but okay. Least favorites, Intuition and Warm and Beautiful.
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Post by John S. Damm on Jun 29, 2016 10:16:33 GMT -5
Hey, where is "How Do You Sleep?" I'm saving it for when we have a list of 10 least favorite Beatles solo songs (and I have to decide which gets the coveted #1 spot: How Do You Sleep or Bip Bop?) LOL, I suspected as much! "How Dou You Sleep is in my Top 45 Solo Lennon even if I disagree with John on some of his sentiments in the song. If only John was still alive I could explain to him The JSD Postulate and why Paul's first four Solo albums(and singles in that era) were amazing and not lame as the Rock Press and snooty Beatles fans were crying back in 1970 through mid 1973. The Conventional Wisdom says Paul didn't get his groove on until late 1973's BOTR but I say that album was where Paul began to lose his grove, and he tried to become Beatle Paul redux. Problem was, there were no more Beatles by late 1973. Paul was better off being that cool, hippy, funky sheep farming, independent Rocker who put out music his own way with McCartney, Ram, Wings Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway. "Beatles who??" was Paul's attitude but with BOTR Paul started chasing the Beatles' rainbow and we know we can never find the end of a rainbow!
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Post by Joe Karlosi on Jun 29, 2016 17:43:43 GMT -5
"How Do You Sleep" is a response to Paul's "Too Many People", and as such it's a brilliant comeback shot. Paul thought he could be sneaky and subtle with digs at John, but Lennon doesn't play coy games like that... he just went and said it straight out, if Paul wanted to take musical shots. Both men forgot about it in the future, they made up... Lennon said something like "If I can't have a fight with my best friend..?", and then later retracted HDYS during the 1975 OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST interview (though I thought he was being kind of wishy-washy there in how he tried to say "It's about me, I'm really attacking myself"). In 1980 he called Paul his "brother".
So it was just a phase the two friends went through. It passed. But a lot of fans can't bear the thought of HDYS at all because they want their Beatles to always hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", even if relationships and friendships are not always realistically like that all of the time.
I think that when John wrote and released HDYS, he was sort of on target at the moment based on Paul's then offbeat start after the break of The Beatles. But in retrospect now, he really was wrong in his predictions and underrating of Paul's abilities.
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Post by John S. Damm on Jun 29, 2016 22:23:45 GMT -5
Least favorites, Intuition and Warm and Beautiful. "Hey, hey, hey, hey, alright!" Intuition start
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lowbasso
A Hard Day's Knight
Posts: 2,776
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Post by lowbasso on Jun 29, 2016 22:38:11 GMT -5
"How Do You Sleep" is a response to Paul's "Too Many People", and as such it's a brilliant comeback shot. Paul thought he could be sneaky and subtle with digs at John, but Lennon doesn't play coy games like that... he just went and said it straight out, if Paul wanted to take musical shots. Both men forgot about it in the future, they made up... Lennon said something like "If I can't have a fight with my best friend..?", and then later retracted HDYS during the 1975 OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST interview (though I thought he was being kind of wishy-washy there in how he tried to say "It's about me, I'm really attacking myself"). In 1980 he called Paul his "brother". So it was just a phase the two friends went through. It passed. But a lot of fans can't bear the thought of HDYS at all because they want their Beatles to always hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", even if relationships and friendships are not always realistically like that all of the time. I think that when John wrote and released HDYS, he was sort of on target at the moment based on Paul's then offbeat start after the break of The Beatles. But in retrospect now, he really was wrong in his predictions and underrating of Paul's abilities. "Kumbaya" - (1% Lennon, 99% McCartney). But George refused to hold hands with Paul when they sang it after "Taxman" was recorded in 1966.
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Post by John S. Damm on Jul 8, 2016 15:03:30 GMT -5
"How Do You Sleep" is a response to Paul's "Too Many People", and as such it's a brilliant comeback shot. Paul thought he could be sneaky and subtle with digs at John, but Lennon doesn't play coy games like that... he just went and said it straight out, if Paul wanted to take musical shots. Both men forgot about it in the future, they made up... Lennon said something like "If I can't have a fight with my best friend..?", and then later retracted HDYS during the 1975 OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST interview (though I thought he was being kind of wishy-washy there in how he tried to say "It's about me, I'm really attacking myself"). In 1980 he called Paul his "brother". So it was just a phase the two friends went through. It passed. But a lot of fans can't bear the thought of HDYS at all because they want their Beatles to always hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", even if relationships and friendships are not always realistically like that all of the time. I think that when John wrote and released HDYS, he was sort of on target at the moment based on Paul's then offbeat start after the break of The Beatles. But in retrospect now, he really was wrong in his predictions and underrating of Paul's abilities. I am amazed at the hatred some fans have towards HDYS! You would think that John had just ripped them a new asshole! It is a good song and was where John was at in that moment.
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Post by coachbk on Jul 15, 2016 14:25:07 GMT -5
"How Do You Sleep" is a response to Paul's "Too Many People", and as such it's a brilliant comeback shot. Paul thought he could be sneaky and subtle with digs at John, but Lennon doesn't play coy games like that... he just went and said it straight out, if Paul wanted to take musical shots. Both men forgot about it in the future, they made up... Lennon said something like "If I can't have a fight with my best friend..?", and then later retracted HDYS during the 1975 OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST interview (though I thought he was being kind of wishy-washy there in how he tried to say "It's about me, I'm really attacking myself"). In 1980 he called Paul his "brother". So it was just a phase the two friends went through. It passed. But a lot of fans can't bear the thought of HDYS at all because they want their Beatles to always hold hands and sing "Kumbaya", even if relationships and friendships are not always realistically like that all of the time. I think that when John wrote and released HDYS, he was sort of on target at the moment based on Paul's then offbeat start after the break of The Beatles. But in retrospect now, he really was wrong in his predictions and underrating of Paul's abilities. I am amazed at the hatred some fans have towards HDYS! You would think that John had just ripped them a new asshole! It is a good song and was where John was at in that moment. And I'll repeat that I think it is completely mediocre musically (save for George's slide guitar) a below average Lennon vocal (a tired, bored sound) and so juvenile lyrically that it would be an embarassment if written by an average teenager. Really I would think it sucks even if it had nothing to do with Paul. And as I've said I gave it another chance on John's 70th birthday and it made me depressed. I had to listen to several other songs (Oh My Love, Beautiful Boy, Grow Old With Me I recall were among them) to get my good mood back. I will never purposefully listen to "How Do You Sleep" again!
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Post by coachbk on Jul 15, 2016 14:25:52 GMT -5
I'm saving it for when we have a list of 10 least favorite Beatles solo songs (and I have to decide which gets the coveted #1 spot: How Do You Sleep or Bip Bop?) I like either song okay. Not anywhere near top ten, but okay. Least favorites, Intuition and Warm and Beautiful. A fun, catchy song from John and a beautiful heartfelt love song from Paul.
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Post by Panther on Jul 15, 2016 20:49:56 GMT -5
'How Do You Sleep' is a great song. I'd probably rate it the fifth-best song on Imagine. Hell, it's better than 'Jealous Guy', which I find mostly boring. Awesome melody, great vocals, and a really 'tough' use of strings, unlike the sugar-coated stuff elsewhere on that record. George's slide is one of the best of his life.
It's also, of course, a totally juvenile lyric, in bad taste. But that's John. To dislike the song on grounds of its lyrical approach is to dislike the essence of John. Part of John's psyche in the early-70s was liberation from the straight-jackets of (1) Aunt Mimi and (2) The Beatles. He was free to express his every emotional whim in song, and he did.
Anyway, just weeks after 'How Do You Sleep' came out, John and Paul were laughing and chatting on the phone, so you guys can still masturbate over the 'Kumbaya' fantasy.
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Post by coachbk on Jul 17, 2016 21:11:00 GMT -5
'How Do You Sleep' is a great song. I'd probably rate it the fifth-best song on Imagine. Hell, it's better than 'Jealous Guy', which I find mostly boring. Awesome melody, great vocals, and a really 'tough' use of strings, unlike the sugar-coated stuff elsewhere on that record. George's slide is one of the best of his life. It's also, of course, a totally juvenile lyric, in bad taste. But that's John. To dislike the song on grounds of its lyrical approach is to dislike the essence of John. Part of John's psyche in the early-70s was liberation from the straight-jackets of (1) Aunt Mimi and (2) The Beatles. He was free to express his every emotional whim in song, and he did. Anyway, just weeks after 'How Do You Sleep' came out, John and Paul were laughing and chatting on the phone, so you guys can still masturbate over the 'Kumbaya' fantasy. Awesome melody??? Gotta be one of the most unmelodic songs in the entire Beatles/solo Beatles catalogue!!!!! Or at least that's how I remember it. I haven't listened to it since 2010 and don't plan to listen to it again. On the positive side I heard "Woman" on the radio today and it both made me a bit teary and brought a smile to my face. It is a song that keeps sounding better to me as I get older myself!
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Post by vectisfabber on Jul 25, 2016 3:54:34 GMT -5
HDYS is another Lennon horizontal melody - the entire first phrase is on the same note.
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