By Artist John Lennon Wonsaponatime
Wonsaponatime
Thursday, 09 April 2009 09:17 | 
Author: The Grouch | 
Recorded September 1970 - Late 1980
Released November 2, 1998
Wonsaponatime failed to reach the US charts but peaked at #76 in the UK.
Well Kids, the other day I was listening to some music that I hadn't heard for a while and John Lennon's post-Mortem album Wonsaponatime jumped out at me. Generally speaking I am not what you would call a Beatles fan. I find Paul McCartney annoying and I really dislike all that Sitar crap George Harrison did. Ringo I kind of like because I've never heard him claim to be a "musician" or a "percussionist". In every interview I've ever heard or read Ringo comes out and says " I got lucky. I was good enough - not really good." Rock on Ringo. That simplicity has soul. Then there is John Lennon. Personally, I dig a lot of what John did. (Even that stupid Hippie give peace a chance crap didn't totally stink - well it stank at about the 90% level. I blame that on the mescaline he was eating at the time.)
The thing about Lennon was that:
1. The man was intelligent. Hey he got the news folks to come around and visit him in bed with Yoko. That took some thinking.
2. If you read about Lennon before the Peace and Love nonsense, you'll see that he was basically a bad ass Proto Punk. Anger makes good music.
3. His music after the Beatles was really interesting. The Plastic Ono band comes to mind.
As a side note I had no idea what Yoko Ono was doing when she was making those god awful high pitched shrieking sounds until I went to Japan. One night I attended a Bunraku performance at the National Theater in Tokyo. The thing I noticed (aside from how well the puppeteers could make the puppets move while seamlessly blending into the background) was that a lot of the singing resembled Yoko Ono screaming on her albums. The Bunraku guys were better than Yoko.
The Tracks:
1. I'm losing you - killer groove with the guys from Cheap Trick playing the music. I dig it a lot. Lennon's gnarly voice combined with Rick Nielsen's heavy guitar and Bun E. pounding away make for a great song.
2. Working Class Hero - Ok it starts out with Lennon saying "OK I'll try" I get the feeling that Yoko was bitching at him - complaining that he hadn't had a hit in years. Well maybe not, but this demo is a great song. The anger and rage that fueled the pre-Hippy Lennon is out there for all to see. I dig this song! I even liked the Green Day cover at the music awards on TV - although they did bleep out the F word ;-)
3. GOD - GOD is a concept yeah yeah yeah. OK I get the idea. John Lennon doesn't believe in squat. Not GOD, not Buddha, not Beatles, not Elvis or Bob Dylan. He just believes in himself and Yoko. Its an good song.
4. How Do You Sleep? - I like this song a lot. I dig the guitar and the drums. The bass plays a funky run while Lennon sardonically asks How do you sleep at night? While he mocks everything that is (was) hip - So SGT. Pepper took you by surprise - How do you sleep at night - tell me - You live with straights who tell you you was king. The only thing you done was Yesterday. Is this directed at Sir Paul? I like to think so. Aside from the cutting lyrics, the guitar is absolutely wicked. I mean that in the best possible way.
5. Imagine Take 1 - I have nothing to say. I like John Lennon's music in spite of this song. What a load of crap. Yeah Yeah Yeah share the land Yeah Yeah Yeah. SKIP
6. Baby Please Don't Go - a blues based groove with some nice guitar work. I dig the drummer and bass player too. In fact the bass is nothing short of Funky. Then there is the screaming Sax that blows as if Magic Dick (the Harp guy from the Geils band) was sitting in. All in all this is a rocking song. Lennon's voice sounds good. This song is cool in part because you can tell how much fun the band was having as they laid it down.
7. Oh My Love - nice piano. SKIP
8. God Save OZ - What a perky tune this is. Lennon is at his ironic best here. Let's fight for people's rights - Let's fight for Mickey Mouse - Let's fight for Freedom. Musically this song goes in a big loop with lots of short piano runs providing a honky tonk groove while Lennon drones about saving us from everything that symbolizes the middle class. God its easy to be a revolutionary when you have a few million in the bank.
9. I Found Out - Killer blues - this isn't any mop top Beatles hold you hand crap. John Lennon seems to be saying " Its all a scam man, EVERYTHING!" Religion, the Government, the Beatles - its all a scam and he figured it out. I wonder what George thought of this? When I listen to this song Johnny Rotten comes to mind. "Did you ever have the feeling you've been cheated?" I like this song.
10. Woman is the Nigger of the World - OK before anyone has a Political Correctness fit - LISTEN to the SONG! The point is that all through history women have had the raw end of the deal. I refuse to edit the name of the track to say Woman is the N-Word of the World. Aside from the lyrical content, there is also some really nice guitar work here. I wonder who played lead on this track. I don't think Lennon could play guitar as well as the leads I hear on this song.
11. Be-Bop-A-Lula - Killer old school rock-a-Billie jam. You got to dig it. I think this is one of the songs EVERYONE played in their first band. Right after Johnny B. Goode in the set list.
12. Rip it up / Ready Teddy - basically a continuation of Be-Bop-A-Lula with different words. The drummer does some cool stuff. Its good.
13. What you got - one minute and fifteen seconds of John Lennon strumming a guitar while mumbling something. Yawn
14. Nobody Loves You (When you are down and out) - mellow song with melodic guitar line. This is actually a very pretty and very sad song.
15. I Don't Want to Face It - very pop song with a twinge of grung thrown in. I like this song. The guitar is good and the band rocks - Lennon's vocals sound a bit cheesy, but the really nice guitar solo compensates for the falsetto chorus. All in all the song rocks actually. The distortion on the guitar is pretty cool - you got love that two string lick that bleeds into noise before you hear Lennon say something about his pick's disintegration.
16. Real Love - YAWN! SKIP. Sounds like Imagine . Well what I mean is that there is a piano and Lennon is singing something that the Hippies would no doubt consider deep and moving. I can't understand the words.
17. Only You - Basic rock-a-Billie thing. Nice bass. Not a bad song, but I'm sure he didn't spend more than 15 minutes working this one out. I have the definite impression that Yoko needed some cash so she scraped together all the stuff she found under the bed and in the back of the closet then released it all as this album. Even if that is lame, what does it say about me? I BOUGHT the album. Glad to help you out Yoko.
18. Grow Old With Me - yet another touching love song. Its nice.
19. Sean's "In The Sky" - This is not a song at all. Its bits of recorded conversation between the John, Yoko and Sean as a small child. (Gee I feel like part of the family - right.)
20. Serve Yourself - Absolutely killer track! This is the John Lennon I like. Hard edged, pissed off and drunk as a skunk. I like the way he rips all the major religions and then says It's up to you - there is no answer in the sky. His drunken rant about kids wanting cars and TV dinners is pretty wild. You tell me you found Jesus. Well Christ that's great and He's the only one. You say you just found Buddha sitting on his ass in the sun. You say you found Mohammed kneeling on a bloody carpet facing East. You say you found Krishna with a bald head dancing in the street. You got to Serve Yourself.
All in all there are some VERY good tracks on this album. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10 and 20 are well worth the money. Fantastic really. The others range from OK to absolute crap.
Still I give this album 4 out of 5 scowls because the good tracks are so incredibly good they make up for the lame tracks (like Sean as a child - I mean really! Who cares?)
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Last Updated (Thursday, 09 April 2009 09:20)