The John Lennon classic he thought had a “Tex-Mex sound” ahead of its time
“In music, there is The Beatles and then there is everything else.” These are the words of The Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, and it’s a sentiment that is mirrored by many people throughout the music industry. They hold the (reasonably correct) opinion that The Beatles weren’t just a good band; they were a band that completely changed how people looked at music.
The Beatles skyrocketed to fame at a young age, and throughout their journey as a band, they developed their own styles of music and found new creative approaches that meant different things to them. Essentially, the band that was originally made famous changed rapidly over a decade. This caused friction within the band, and the discourse eventually reached a point where the Fab Four had to call it a day.
When the band broke up, they were left to explore whatever creative ventures they saw fit; this meant branching out and doing various solo work. John Lennon got the chance to write some of his most honest music to date, which was a big deal for him, as a lot of what he wrote with The Beatles felt disingenuous and done with the intention of writing a hit rather than resonating with people on a deep level.
He laid his soul bare in his solo work, speaking about capitalism, heartbreak, and upbringing. When he made the album Plastic Ono Band, he wrote the song ‘Mother’, a raw tune that he knew would likely disturb many of his long-time listeners.
“Many, many people will not like ‘Mother’; it hurts them,” he said, “The first thing that happens to you when you get the album is you can’t take it. Everybody reacted exactly the same. They think, ‘Fuck!’ That’s how everybody is. And the second time, they start saying, ‘Oh, well, there’s a little…’ So I can’t lay ‘Mother’ on them. It confirms the suspicions that something nasty’s going on with that John Lennon and his broad again.”
Of course, while Lennon enjoyed laying his soul bare on songs like ‘Mother’, he remained a fan of the classic-sounding rock music he built his career around, too. Subsequently, not every song that he ever wrote pulled on the heartstrings; a lot of them were throwaway tracks that fans could enjoy without having to read too much.
One of these can be heard on his 1973 album Mind Games. ‘Tight A$’ is the second track on the album and the perfect reflection of the upbeat, fun music that stayed close to Lennon’s heart after he left The Beatles. “Just a throwaway track,” he said when discussing it, “I felt like doing that kind of song. It’s a Tex-Mex sound, which actually you could play now, and it would be au courant, but I don’t think many people were doing it then.”
