just give me some Truth

To pull back from the Sophomoric Philosphizing abyss a bit, let's get back to ROCK (of a sort). A common argument/discussion amongst overwrought rock nerds is "Who is the best Beatle?" These days my answer is a pretty solid John. (It used to be a precarious Paul or John) How can it not be? He was obviously the coolest. Though a matter of subjective taste (how could it be otherwise), John's Beatles songs are stronger and numerous, his bad Beatles songs are fewer, and really, is there any comparison between the solo careers? You can argue how much McCartney contributed to John's Beatles songs or vice versa, or how the various members skills made the songs happen in the manner that they did, or how John's political and artistic pretensions were overwrought, undercooked and silly, or even that Paul had actually more sophisticated art/music/political taste, or George was dissed the whole time, or that Ringo is the best person (as if that's knowable by you or me) but in the end I think any discussion has to begin and end with John. It's like if you argue about who is the best baseball player of all time (Babe Ruth), it is impossible to have any discussion of it with out including Ruth, which, you know, says something.

All that's to preface a recent my recent personal discovery that not only is John's Plastic Ono Band a good album, but so is his second Imagine. Like a lot of Beatles songs, feelings about the title track, being the first of a few Lennon solo tracks that most have heard, are difficult to disentangle from all the cultural/historical morass that enmeshes it. Get past that and there are some good tunes. I could do without the juvenile Paul-diss of "How do you sleep?" but the closing one-two punch "Oh Yoko", as heard in Rushmore, and my current favorite Lennon jam "How?" is fucking great. The Lennon's confessional style can get to be a bit much and contrived (he's a serious artist!) but most of the time, it hit's right on. And with these two albums Lennon easily trumps any and all of George, Ringo and Paul's solo output. Add up John's guitar work on Ono's album and Ono's pre-kraut, pre-no wave of her Plastic Ono Band & Fly and FUCK these two were smoking in those early 70's. Forget Eno's love of ambient Harmonia, the Ono/Lennon/Voorman/Starr band was picking up on the BEAT big before everyone else was hip to it.

Put me in Lennon's camp.

(Sorry this isn't a post how I rediscovered previously maligned late John or Paul or George and tapped into their unappreciated depth. I know Imagine and POB are the crit faves, but fuck are they good.)