10 songs John Lennon should have never released
It’s hard to really argue with any of the music The Beatles put out in their prime. The sheer number of classics they pumped out in just under a decade is still inconceivable for any other pop act, and never once did they sacrifice experimentation for a good single. Although John Lennon helped bring a more eclectic side to their usual pop tunes, some moments were sprinkled throughout his solo career where things went slightly off the rails.
Granted, it’s easy to grade Lennon on somewhat of a curve. Since he never got to see his twilight years, many of his records have a sort of golden sheen behind them, especially since many stand on equal footing with his Beatles hits. Every now and again, though, a few duds tend to stick out like a sore thumb when they are placed next to classics like ‘Imagine’.
And before we start, this is not only going to be songs he took part in with Yoko Ono. While their joint records are certainly an acquired taste and do have their fair share of problems, Lennon wasn’t perfect on his own, either, and there are just as many moments when a song didn’t come together as well as it could have when he was the one behind the board.
Still, does that mean that all of the quality material is null and void as a result? Hardly. All of Lennon’s best work revolved around him trying to be the best artist he could be, and even if one song wasn’t suited to everyone else’s personal taste, it was still a decent look at the bigger picture of what made him tick.
10 songs John Lennon shouldn’t have released:
10. ‘Cookin’ In the Kitchen of Love’ – Ringo’s Rotogravure
OK, so maybe this one is cheating just a little bit. The entire basis behind Ringo Star as a solo artist was him getting by with a little help from his friends, so what’s the harm in Lennon writing a cheeky song about one of his favourite drummers? While the basis was not to give Starr anything too good, ‘Cookin’ In the Kitchen of Love’ is the kind of tune that should have never made it past the first draft.
Despite a decent guitar line, the lyrics are some of the goofiest that Lennon ever wrote, making Starr sing about the pleasures of being at home with the same kind of lameness you’d expect from a Captain and Tenille song. It may have been his raw feelings since becoming a house husband and embracing his next role in life, but the more the songs play out, the more it feels like Starr is having a hard time making the whole thing work.
By the end, even the cool guitar riff overstays its welcome, just like the lick in ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’, but most probably knew enough to turn the track off after a few minutes. It’s nice to know that Lennon was still looking out for his old bandmate, but this could have at least gone through a few drafts before being dumped into the pile of Ringo songs.
9. ‘Ya Ya’ – Walls and Bridges
Lennon was never afraid to have a bit of fun on record when he wanted. Looking through his discography, he usually had those odd moments when he would go off on a tangent or say something shocking to break up the same old melodies being played repeatedly. They were all still at least entertaining, but ‘Ya Ya’ just sounded like he was fiddling about in the studio with nothing else to do.
Looking back on Walls and Bridges, the record was already bound to be a heavy listen. Lennon had been separated from Ono for a long time, and it was about time that he took a hard look at his own insecurities and saw what he could change about his own life. After going through the different layers of his struggles, though, putting on a goofy cover version of a rock and roll standard feels like him actively trying to nullify everything he had said before, even if you ignore the charm of having his son, Julian, playing the drums.
And given the fact that ‘Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)’ comes before it, the tune just feels like it’s taking up space and actively negating the strong ending that the penultimate track promised. Considering there’s a better version of the tune on Rock ‘n’ Roll, there’s no real reason to come back to this borderline piss-take version of the tune. But speaking of that covers album…
8. ‘Just Because’ – Rock ‘n’ Roll
Everything about Rock ‘n’ Roll seemed to make too much sense for Lennon by the mid-1970s. He still owed that debt to the Chuck Berry estate for his lifting of ‘Come Together’, so breaking up his rough period with him knocking out a bunch of tunes from his youth pretty much should record itself, right? In theory, yes, but while most of the album still had Lennon’s charm, even he admitted that ‘Just Because’ was far from his finest hour.
Coming right at the end of the record, the song itself is actually not too bad, bringing the album to a close with a slow dance number that you’d find in a high school dance scene in a film like Grease. The rest of the group is in fine form as well, but it’s just a shame that Lennon was never able to get a handle on the song until the day that he was due to record it.
Whereas he knew ‘Peggy Sue’ and ‘Slippin’ and Slidin’ like the back of his hand, ‘Just Because’ feels like him doing glorified karaoke of old-time rock and roll tunes behind his fellow musicians, especially when he starts ad-libbing towards the end about saying farewell to the recording studio. Given the fact that he would retire from music for a period following this album, ‘Just Because’ only seems to be eerily prophetic of where Lennon’s future was going.
7. ‘Beef Jerky’ – Walls and Bridges
Lennon never really claimed to be the greatest musician in the world. If you look at the raw technical ability of every one of The Beatles, Lennon was the one who was always insecure about his own playing, usually only doing what he could with what little lead knowledge he had. He was always much better at writing tunes than grandstanding, but ‘Beef Jerky’ was the one time where he seemed to be a little bit out of his element.
Because, really, there’s no reason to fill up a John Lennon album with an instrumental track. There had been some instrumental cuts across his fellow Beatles’ solo albums, but Lennon seems to be the least knowledgeable on the art form, only having a handful of riffs to go around and no real hook outside of the crowd of people at the very end hollering the title in the background.
While there’s something close to a funk song somewhere in here, it’s clear that we’re listening to the rough sketch of what could have been a great tune that Lennon decided to abandon. Still, it’s more interesting to hear him try something new and fail than to work with an idea that was doomed from the start. You might want to keep that in mind as we move forward.
6. ‘John Sinclair’ – Some Time in New York City
For someone as ingrained in the political sphere as Lennon was, Some Time in New York City had a lot of potential going for it. While it would still be a joint album with Yoko Ono, hearing him approach every song like it was an article from a newspaper is a good way of capturing the times while also saying his piece about the political strife going on in America at the time. But it’s most important that those feelings come from a genuine place, and ‘John Sinclair’ feels like a made-to-order John Lennon if there ever was one.
Even though the counterculture icon was a more than worthy candidate to write a song about, his namesake track is far from Lennon’s finest dissection of the political process. Given the fact that Sinclair was serving sentences for selling marijuana to off-duty cops, Lennon’s heart was in the right place, but the strange production choices all but muddle the point he was trying to make half the time.
Listening back to the song’s breakdown, hearing him drone on about how Sinclair has got to be set free is so trance-like that you’d swear that whatever software you’re listening to it on is skipping. Lennon has certainly done far better in terms of political tunes, but in terms of raw execution and at the risk of being pummelled by purists, Yoko did a better job writing the tune ‘Angela’ for Angela Davis than Lennon did with his topic.
5. ‘I’m Losing You’ – Double Fantasy
One of the hallmarks of Lennon’s material on Double Fantasy was about seeking forgiveness. He had been a house husband for so long, but now that he was free to say what was on his mind as a new man, he was also looking to make amends for the rocky period that he had with Yoko in the mid-1970s. While ‘Woman’ did a great job at putting Yoko up on a pedestal, ‘I’m Losing You’ may have worked a lot better if it didn’t sound too much like a dirge.
It’s not hard to see what Lennon was going for here, though. Looking at the guitar lick, he does have a firm handle on this bluesy kind of rocker, but when hearing him play at such a slow tempo, the record seems stuck in first gear and has no desire to move out of it any time soon. Despite Wings having a decent rocker like this in ‘Letting Go’, this was a case of Lennon trying for that same type of swagger and never quite reaching it.
It’s also somewhat disappointing knowing that Cheap Trick was right at his disposal, and the version with them on it was scrapped. The power pop icons were the exact guys who could give a tune like this a kick in the ass, but all we got was the bluesy rendition that feels more suited to a blues bar than your average Beatles rocker.
4. ‘Nutopian International Anthem’ – Mind Games
Lennon was never safe from being called more than a little bit pretentious throughout his career. From working on his various art projects to talking about the importance of every one of his records, Lennon would have even admitted that he could be guilty of crawling up his own ass if someone had asked him today. And looking at his entire discography, ‘Nutopian International Anthem’ is still one of the least necessary things that he has ever pressed on vinyl.
That is if he even bothered to put anything down. Because if you know the history of the Lennons, Nutopia was supposed to be this independent metaphorical country they created, even going so far as to fill out the paperwork for it. Since it was meant to be thought up in the listener’s mind, we all get about three seconds of pure static before moving on to the next track on Mind Games.
When the rest of the album is, you know, being an album, it’s great, but ‘Nutopian International Anthem’ is the one point where people legitimately make sure whether or not their headphones are broken as they listen to it. It’s one thing to make a challenging piece of art for the masses, but if someone is really trying to decipher the vast intricacies of this song, I promise that they spent more time dissecting it than Lennon did making it.
3. ‘I Don’t Want to Face It’ – Milk and Honey
When Milk and Honey first came out, there was already a bit of hesitation listening to it. A lot of what Lennon was working for all went up in smoke when he was killed, so what we were left with was only scraps of the music he had been working on throughout the years. Even though that gave birth to a bunch of great material, ‘I Don’t Want To Face It’ may have deserved to be gone over one more time or kept on the shelf entirely.
Since this was meant to continue the song dialogue between John and Yoko, ‘I Don’t Want To Face It’ does at least capture the feeling of being overwhelmed with responsibilities pretty well. What gets in the way here is Lennon’s vocal performance. He could be a fantastic singer whenever the time called for it, but since this is a demo, he’s still trying out stuff with his voice, and it was clear that he hadn’t really practised his falsetto all that much when going for some of the high notes.
But that doesn’t mean that the record is necessarily bad from back to front. The guitar work is pretty interesting and the lyrics are a good picture of Lennon’s domestic life, but this is about songs that shouldn’t have been released, and in terms of getting the right vocal, this could have benefited from staying in the vaults or maybe letting The Beatles fill it out a bit more for the Anthology project.
2. Well (Baby Please Don’t Go) – Some Time in New York City
John Lennon was never afraid to take a swing on something weird if it suited whatever he wanted to say. Outside of the massive political undertakings on Some Time In New York City, hearing him take a stab at a jam session with Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were also one of the most profoundly odd pairings to come out of the 1970s at the time. Out of everything on the double album’s live disc, ‘Well (Baby Please Don’t Go)’ should test well the most, but since this is a collaboration album, that means a lot more Yoko than most people wanted.
Because listening to the rest of the group, the bluesy rocker is actually a decent live number from Lennon and Elephant’s Memory. Considering his live album from 1972 in New York came out a year before, this kind of tune would have fit right in during that set, but listening to Yoko scream her brains out on the other side of the stage all but drowns out any of the interesting notes going on in the mix.
What’s even worse is that the band are on fire on the rest of the track, including a great vocal from Lennon and everyone else cutting loose, but it’s all in service to a tune that has Yoko doing some kind of unhinged visceral chant in the middle of things. This is the ethos of Some Time in New York City, though, but it’s a lot more disappointing expecting a bluesy romp and getting a song full of noise.
1. Every experimental album – John Lennon and Yoko Ono
By the end of the 1960s, John Lennon had been fed up with being a Beatle for half his life. He had seen some of the greatest heights anyone had ever seen, but it was all in service to an image of the Fab Four that wasn’t him anymore. He needed to shed his artistic skin in some way, and while it’s a respectable move to go into the avant-garde world, it’s also understandable if any Beatles fan never wants to hear his experimental albums with Yoko Ono ever again.
While Yoko does deserve her fair share of accolades for what she brought to the art-rock movement during her time in the spotlight, her and Lennon mix like oil and water artistically on their first joint albums together. From Two Virgins encapsulating the most piercing sounds ever made by a Beatle to the first half of Life With the Lions being nothing but discordant noise behind Yoko screaming, it just gets to be way too monotonous even for an avant-garde record.
But any commercial success wasn’t what Lennon was going for when making this record. It was about having fun with sounds outside of the pop format, and while it’s respectable that he found his way out of The Beatles’ shadow to some extent, there’s one line that he crossed more than a few times on these projects: just because you’re having fun doesn’t mean the audience is too.
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