An overlooked effort with the exceptions,of course,of "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" and "Number Nine Dream",the LP's two top ten hits.Some really nice cuts here.I really like "Scared".I once had an original copy with the multi-leveled cover design based around drawings Lennon did as a kid.
Perhaps Dylan has been a better writer,at least lyrically,but in my head,Lennon is rock's greatest single figure,not judging only by the music but by his general rock and roll demeanor and attitude,as well as his using his rock clout to stage a major peace campaign back in the late 60's early 70's.He knew he had the power to have many people, listen,whether they agreed or not.Also,there was something about his change in appearance over the years that further exhibited his true rock and roll think outside the box spirit.The next man of my list of ultimate rock stars?Perhaps Jimi Hendrix or Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as a pair.As far as the comparison between the writing styles of Dylan and Lennon,eh,kin of an apples and oranges thing going on here.Dylan I think was the better overall lyricist,but on the other hand,he lacked John's melody writing skills,not to mention that Dylan hailed from Midwest America while Lennon,of course,came out of a completely different setting I Liverpool,England.Different continents,different perspectives...........
As much as I enjoy the supposed "King's" rock and roll masterpieces,politically,he was apparently dreadfully misguided as to his considerations concernign the Vietnam War.Anyone with any half decent knowledge of the war knows we had NO RIGHT OR TRUE REASON TO BE THERE TO BEGIN WITH.Mr. Presley,who seemed so "cool" and "hip" at one time turned out to be an establishment sell out.As far as his considerations of Lennon,as well as his three Liverpool cohorts,he was clearly jealous of their fame,which obviuosly outshined his own.Some well respected public figures turn out to be phonies.At the moment,it's quite possible Bill Cosby has joined these insidious ranks............
Most certainly,the British invasion wiped the rock and roll slate clean and raised the bar on creativity with Kinks even recording beginings of hard rock/heavy metal.Even the American musical landscape was morphing into something completely different,the big example here,of course,was Dylan.The times they were a-changin'..............
Written, recorded and released over a period of just 10 days, John Lennon‘s “Instant Karma!” was a huge hit, boasted one of rock’s most inventive drum fills — and had sweeping implications for the Beatles.
Lennon felt certain that he had a hit as soon as the song was completed, so much so that (in keeping with its theme) he was determined to rush “Instant Karma!” out to the general public. Lennon would subsequently boast, in only a slight exaggeration, that he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch and we’re putting it out for dinner.”
Fans ate it up. “Instant Karma!,” released with the Plastic Ono Band in the U.K. on Feb. 6, 1970, shot to No. 5; two weeks later, on Feb. 20, 1970, it was issued in the U.S., where it reached No. 3. It was a Top 10 smash in several other countries as well, including Canada where it climbed to No. 2.
The only problem? The Beatles were ostensibly still together. In reality, they had been locked in a series of inner-band battles, to the point where tapes from a year-old return-to-roots project, initially titled Get Back, still hadn’t been released. By the time it was all over, Lennon had handed the session tapes to “Instant Karma!” producer Phil Spector — a decision that would shatter the Beatles forever.
The song’s concept actually grew out of a conversation between Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono, Ono’s former husband Tony Cox and Cox’s wife Melinde Kendall, in which they had discussed the idea of ultimate fates happening in our lifetimes, rather than in the next. Lennon completed the thought on Jan. 27, 1970, with an anthem-like exhortation that mankind join together to thwart these awful outcomes by living more peaceably.
“Everybody was going on about karma, especially in the ’60s,” Lennon told David Sheff, “but it occurred to me that karma is instant, as well as it influences your past life or your future life. There really is a reaction to what you do now. That’s what people ought to be concerned about. Also, I’m fascinated by commercials and promotion as an art form. I enjoy them. So, the idea of instant karma was like the idea of instant coffee: presenting something in a new form. I just liked it.”
Composing “Instant Karma!” had taken less than an hour. Lennon called up Beatles bandmate George Harrison, hoping to quickly put the song to tape that same evening. Harrison then contacted Spector.
“John phoned me up one morning in January and said, ‘I’ve written this tune and I’m going to record it tonight and have it pressed up and out tomorrow — that’s the whole point: ‘Instant Karma,’ you know,'” Harrison later remembered. “So I was in. I said, ‘Okay, I’ll see you in town.’ I was in town with Phil Spector and I said to Phil, ‘Why don’t you come to the session?’ There were just four people: John played piano, I played acoustic guitar, there was Klaus Voormann on bass and Alan White on drums. We recorded the song and brought it out that week, mixed — instantly — by Phil Spector.”
Billy Preston, who took part in the shelved sessions that would become Let It Be, appeared on organ. For White, a member of Lennon’s recent ad hoc solo concert debut with the Plastic Ono Band in Toronto, it all came together in the blink of an eye. “I was just waking up in the morning when I got a call from [longtime Beatles assistant] Mal Evans,” White recalled in a 2014 interview. “He said John had just written this song and he wanted to record it today and release it next week.”
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