Lennon's Next Album (1971)

 Lennon's Next Album

By Michael Watts

Melody Maker

July 31, 1971

    "Commercial without compromise." That's how John Lennon summarizes his second solo album, Imagine, out on Apple in September. Lennon, who was in Britain last week as part of a major promotional campaign to push Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit, first published in 1964, but now out in a new edition, told the MM that the record is less of a personalized diary than the last one. 

    "It's better than the last one. It's not personal like that, but the technique and recording is a bit better," he said. "I mean, the last one was a good recording and well produced, but I think I've learned a bit more. I'm a lot lighter now. I'm not in the therapy. When I made it, I was feeling just happy, fairly happy, quite in love, and having a nice time."

     The album was produced by Lennon, Ono, and Phil Spector at Lennon's Ascot home, where he has an eight-track studio, and also features George Harrison, Nikki Hopkins, Klaus Vormann, Alan White, Jim Keltner, King Curtis, and Bobby Keyes. 

The tracks on side one: "Imagine," "Crippled Inside," "Jealous Guy," "It's So Hard", and "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier, Mama. I Don't Want to Die." Side two:  "Give Me Some Truth", "Oh My Love". How Can You Sleep?" "How" and "Oh Yoko". 

    Three of the tracks have a definite political orientation: "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier," "Give Me Some Truth" and "Imagine", although that's a nice ballad. "Crippled Inside" also carries some kind of message, according to Lennon. One of the lines goes, "One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside." He describes it as a "double bass and a C and W and very gay."

     His first solo album took 10 days to make. This one was cut in nine. He spent a week laying down the tracks at Ascot, and then put violins on four tracks during a two-day session in New York. These tracks, incidentally, were made in quadraphonic sound, although due to the scarcity of quad equipment, only a few albums will be put out using this technique; probably for friends. 

    The album is an example of Lennon's close affinity to the New York avant-garde. He was introduced some time ago by Yoko to members of the New York-based Fluxus, a group of artists founded by George Maciunas. When he took the tapes to New York, therefore, for the overdubbing, he utilized the electronic gadgetry of one of the members, Joe Jones, who has created a Tone-Deaf Music Company. This consists basically of a collection of musical instruments and electronic inventions, which play themselves rather on the lines of what Roger Spear or Bruce Lacy have created. Lennon used a number of toy violins made by Jones for the string overdubs. 

    "You just plug them in, and they all play. We got about 40 of these in the studio, and we recorded Yoko with them, and it's just fantastic. We used each set of instruments on eight tracks, and then recorded her voice with each individual set of instruments. We can jumble all those up, and then we did a sort of live show where me and Joe Jones were on the control box playing them. It's just a far-out scene."

     Imagine, in fact, will be credited to John and the Plastic Ono Band with the Flux Fiddlers, while Yoko's new album Fly, which is being released at the same time, will be the Plastic Ono Band with the Joe Jones Tone Deaf Music Company. 

    September is going to be a busy month for the Lennons. They are hoping that a film incorporating shots of the recording sessions, the impromptu Zappa concert in New York, and the book signing event at Selfridges a fortnight ago will be shown on TV here. 

    The Edinburgh Festival will be opening too with a Lennon film, Apotheos, which was shown at Cannes. This is a 20-minute movie consisting of the slow ascent into the clouds of a gas balloon, made in England last winter. It features, as its soundtrack, the receding noises of the English countryside as the balloon rises. "Then you see a whole white vision for miles, and the dogs barking in the distance. It's beautiful," says Lennon.

    His highest hopes, cinematically speaking, however, are reserved for a film called Erection, which is made up of still photographs taken over a period of nine months of a hotel being going up opposite the BEA terminal in  London's  Comwell Road. Said Lennon, "It's fantastic. I've just seen the rushes. It's gonna be the most famous film I ever do. I think it's gonna be one of them. That'll show them."