My Musical Year - 2007

Throughout the year I have written about a number of the CDs that I spent time listening to. I was glancing at a couple of online top-ten lists and realized that I have listened to very few of the albums in these lists. This may be a factor of my advanced age but I really do try to stay up on things. I bought, for example, new albums by Rilo Kiley, A Fine Frenzy, Mae, Norah Jones, and Arcade Fire but I still feel like I've been out of touch with cutting edge music. I try to stay caught up by downloading the songs of the week from iTunes and by reading Paste magazine and listening to the sampler CD but, frankly, I end up deleting most of the stuff I get because I'm not wild about it. And even though I listen to songs by Brenda Carlisle and Amy Winehouse I just don't like it well enough to want to listen to a while lot more. I guess I'm just old.

So, with that disclaimer, here is my list of albums that really grabbed me this year. As in years past, this is not the best of the year, per se, it's the stuff that I spent the most time actually listening to. So this is the stuff that I clearly liked the most.

• Memory Almost Full – Paul McCartney
  The single most listened to album of the year for me, hands down, is Paul McCartney's latest. It seems almost cliché that I would pick a Beatles album but, the fact is, I listened to this album a LOT this year. I just really liked it. See my review here.
  
• The Circling Hour – Iona
  I spent a lot of time listening to Iona this year and The Circling Hour just might be one of their best ever albums. Outstanding music with great lyrics. My review is here.
  
• Instant Karma – various artists
  The John Lennon songbook as interpreted by artists as diverse as U2, Green Day and REM. This one spent a lot of time on my iPod and also in my car. Great songs. My review is here.
  
• The Song Within – Phil Keaggy
  I have loved Phil's playing for years and it is a real treat to have him hit one out of the park this year. This instrumental album is one of my all time favorite Keaggy albums. My review is here.
  
• Neon Bible – Arcade Fire
  Bethany recently wrote about this on her blog and I waited for a long time to write about it because I felt like I didn't understand it very well. Musically it is quite dense and lyrically it confuses me but I really do like it – I'm just not sure why. Here is what Bethany had to say about it, though.
  

There were, of course, other albums that I enjoyed: Tell Me What You Know by Sara Groves, The Silence of Everything Yearned For by Ric Hordinski, both The Trumpet Child and Live from Nowhere, Vol 2 by Over the Rhine, Singularity by Mae, Overdressed by Caedmon's Call (my review is here) and Letters to the Editor, Vol 1 by Andrew Osenga (download it for FREE here) are all honorable mention albums but they just didn't have the staying power in my iPod and player that these other albums did.

So there is my list. I also rediscovered a lot of of music this year like the Andrew Osenga catalog and Iona's music and that was a lot of fun.

Lennon, 27 years later

On this 27^th anniversary of John Lennon's death it's hard to believe that I continue to discover new things in his music but 2007 was a year of rediscovery for me with respect to Lennon's solo music. This was due mostly to the Instant Karma collection which helped me to realize that the songs themselves, not just the performances, were powerful. After hearing those I went back and listened to many of his original recordings to find that, even after all these years, they still sound great. I've written before about Lennon and his influence on my music. As a member of the Beatles he was a driving force behind their work and his writing and singing in that band set the standard for pop music for the next four decades. It certainly would have been interesting to see what would have happened had be not been killed so early – would he, like Paul, have continued to make music consistently throughout his life, expanding into classical music perhaps? I think that's unlikely. I think it is more likely that he would have, like George, led a mostly private life emerging occasionally with new music when it suited him and I think that, while that music would have continued to show remarkable growth, that he would continue being primarily influenced by the most basic of rock influences. John was a rocker and, when push came to shove, old rock and roll was not just one of his primary influences (as it was with Paul,) it was THE influence. I don't think he would have strayed far from that.

Working Class Hero

The release of the Instant Karma collection, which I reviewed here, got me thinking about Lennon's solo music and I continue to enjoy listening to what new artists have done to reinterpret Lennon's songs. With the release this week of Lennon's catalog on iTunes I noticed a best-of collection called Working Class Hero, the Definitive Lennon and, as I looked at it, I found myself thinking that this was a great collection of songs. Now I already have most of the Lennon stuff, having bought both the original boxed set, called Lennon, and the John Lennon's Anthology, which did for Lennon's solo music what The Beatles' Anthology did for the group's music – present out-takes and alternate versions along with a few unreleased gems. As I looked at Working Class Hero I realized that I had every one of the 38 songs on the collection so I made my own version of it using the discs I had and iTunes.

Listening to this collection a couple of times made me realize that this is, perhaps, the best way to listen to Lennon's solo music. First of all, this is a long collection, thirty-eight tracks, so there is a lot of music here. It takes more than two-and-a-half hours to listen to it all. Second, while a few of Lennon's albums are classics, most notably Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, the rest of his releases have quite a bit of stuff on them that is less than stellar. And I can only listen to Plastic Ono Band when I'm in a certain mood because that album is really intense. Plus, Lennon's singles were really good. "Give Peace a Chance," "Instant Karma," and "Happy Xmas" are among his best work and they don't live on any regular albums. That's why I enjoyed Shaved Fish, Lennon's first greatest hits collection, so much in the old album days.

All the expected songs are here. You'll be hard pressed (or at the very least a hard-core fan) to be able to name any significant song that has been left off. And this collection includes the Lennon-only demo of "Real Love" and, as an added bonus, the George Martin orchestrated version of "Grow Old With Me" closes out the album. I'm generally not a "greatest hits" kind of guy, preferring to think that albums are conceived and created as units and therefore ought to be listened to as such, but Working Class Hero is one case where pulling out the best songs works out really well.

Instant Karma - The Campaign to Save Darfur

Instant Karma is not just your usual all-star tribute album. All the net proceeds go to the Amnesty International Fund for Darfur. Others have written about the crisis with much more authority than I. Suffice it to say that things are very bad there and have been for a while. So buying this album will help send some money toward that situation but the situation is complex and it will not be easily remedied. Nonetheless, I'm glad that people are raising awareness about it.

Some of those people are the artists on this wonderful new compilation album, Instant Karma. Yoko allowed these artists to record songs from John Lennon's solo career without paying any royalties so the organization (Make Some Noise) could release an album of other artists covering Lennon's music. Over 50 artists participated – so many that there are alternate versions of the album in the US and the UK , bonus tracks available at some stores and at itunes. I downloaded the bonus version of the album from itunes because it had ELEVEN extra tracks. I actually didn't buy this album right away when it came out because, frankly, most of the artists don't get me real excited but I started sampling tracks and heard more and more that I liked and, when I clicked on the Postal Service version of "Grow Old With Me" I just had to get the album. And I'm really glad I did.

Almost without exception I like every one of the 34(!) tracks on this record. Now, it is no secret that I like the Beatles so I was already a fan of these songs (and I, of course, have the original versions). But most of these artists put a new twist on their versions and made me enjoy them in a new way. U2's version of "Instant Karma" is great, of course but, believe it or not, so is Duran Duran's! (OK, maybe it's not "great" but at least it's pretty good.) Christina Aguilera singing "Mother?" This is an idea that I might have paid money NOT to listen to but, you know what? She does OK. I was really surprised by how much I like Big and Rich's version of "Nobody Told Me" and Regina Spektor haunting take on "Real Love" is wonderful. I'm not a Green Day fan but I like what they did with "Working Class Hero." Jakob Dylan (Bob's son) and Dhani Harrison (George's son) do a fine job on "Gimme Some Truth" with Dhani's slide guitar sounding like a cross between his father and Derek Trucks. The list just goes on and on. The Fab Faux (a high-class Beatles cover band) does "I Don't Wanna Face It" like the Beatles might have done it if Lennon had written it when they were together, complete with a typical McCartney bass line (patterned after "Rain") and delightful guitar double leads (like "And Your Bird Can Sing.") That one's definitely a highlight for me. Truth in advertising: I don't care much for Lenny Kravitz version of "Cold Turkey." But of the other 33 tracks, even bands I had never heard of caught my ear.

This says something about the strength of the original material, much of which comes from the period right at the end of Lennon's life; Double Fantasy, the album that just hit the charts when Lennon was shot in 1980 and the posthumously released Milk and Honey (which Lennon was making when he was shot and is really the twin to Double Fantasy.). Actually, these were both Lennon/Ono albums with John and Yoko alternating songs. So there are only 7 Lennon songs on Double Fantasy but 5 of them are on Instant Karma (more, I believe than from any other Lennon album). There were only 6 Lennon songs on Milk and Honey (including the gorgeous "Grow Old With Me" which Lennon never properly recorded – all we have is a demo) and 4 of them appear on Instant Karma. So it's pretty clear that Lennon was in a really good place musically when he was killed. It's a shame that he wasn't able to make more music. Fortunately, we have his recordings (including the revelatory 4-disc Anthology) and we have this wonderful album of new takes on his old songs. Even if you don't like compilations and tribute albums this one is worth getting.

My review of 'John' by Cynthia Lennon

Hot on the heels of reading Bob Spitz’ excellent and massive biography of the Beatles I dove into Cynthia Lennon’s relatively slim memoir of her life with (and without) John Lennon simply titled John. (I ordered them both from the library and, to my surprise, they arrived within a week of each other – I don’t recommend overdosing on this much Beatle lit all at once.) It’s important to note what this book is not – it is not a history of the Beatles. It is, simply, Cynthia’s story of her life with John. This is the second time she has written this. Her first book (I believe it is called A Twist of Lennon, the title a reference to her then new last name of Twist) was, by her own account, hardly the whole truth. She wrote it for the money because John was so stingy with his first wife and their son Julian but because he was still alive and she needed to stay on his good side she couldn't write the truth. This new book is, according to Cynthia, much more honest.

Whether it is or not, I can’t tell – I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know them can really say. It does however show a woman who was treated poorly by one of the most well known men of the last century. It shows that while John was singing “Give Peace A Chance” he was being downright cruel to his son. Cynthia Lennon is clearly not a fan of Yoko Ono and, while she writes in a style that doesn’t come across as sniping or inflammatory, she shows that Ono had her sights set on John from the start and didn’t care if she wrecked a marriage in the process. She also shows Ono as manipulative and disingenuous.

The book itself is not terribly engrossing. Others have done a better job of telling the story of the Beatles. Cynthia’s unique viewpoint is interesting but only for those who have read the other stuff and want to know more. I found Tony Bramwell’s memoir to be much more enjoyable because I’m more a fan of the music John Lennon wrote than I am of the man himself and Bramwell worked for Brian Epstein. Cynthia was never in the recording studio and was seldom at the concerts – she didn’t see John the Beatle, she saw John the man. Unfortunately, his drug use, mood swings, and sharp tongue made him a difficult man to be around.

Lennon remembered

Over at MSNBC you will find The Beatles - Great Disc Debate - MSNBC.com, an ongoing feature where a critic rates the albums of a particular artist. In this case, the Beatles.

I knew it was the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's death before any media told me about it. I remember the day pretty well. I'm probably like most people in that my listening goes in stages - I listen to a lot of Beatles sometimes and then I don't listen quite so much at other times. I will often focus on a particular artist or style of music for a while and then move on to other things. There has been one group, though, that I have continued to listen to and come back to over and over again since I was old enough to buy records - The Beatles. I remember seeing John on the Ed Sullivan show and thinking that playing the guitar and singing like that was something I wanted to do. And I have ever since. Because his album Double Fantasy had recently come out I had been listening to a lot of solo Lennon in the weeks just before he was shot. I went to the Dakota building in New York the summer afterward just to see the place where he lived and died.

Lennon stood for many things, sometimes inconsistently, throughout his life but I prefer to not think of his activism or his performance art with Yoko - frankly, I merely put up with much of that. It's his music that stays with me and, while he did some fine work as a solo artist, clearly his work with Paul, George and Ringo stands above it all. So it is in that spirit that I will look at the MSNBC top five Beatles album list. It's actually a pretty good list:

1. Revolver
2. Abbey Road
3. Sgt Pepper
4. Rubber Soul
5. A Hard Day's Night

(They also call the original Yellow Submarine "the dud." Even though they have the more recent Yellow Submarine Songtrack pictured they refer to the original album with only four new songs on it. They're right. While the four new songs are OK, the album simply doesn't live up to the standards of their other albums.)

My quibble with this list is that I would probably put A Hard Day's Night at number four and The Beatles (the White Album) at number five. I've made my appreciation of the White Album known on this blog before (both here and here) but it really is an unparalleled collection of wonderful songs.

So my list looks like this:

1. Revolver
2. Abbey Road
3. Sgt Pepper
4. A Hard Day's Night
5. The Beatles (White Album)
   

So, John, your music is missed. I think I probably wouldn't have liked you as a person - a bit too acerbic for me but, man, you wrote some great stuff.

God, Part II

I'm reading Steve Stockman's book Walk On: The Spiritual Journey of U2 and I noticed that he missed the point of the beginning of one of U2s songs - rare for him, I think, because most of his comments are right on target.

The song "God, Part II" is, indeed, about John Lennon and starts out with the lines "I don't believe the devil, I don't believe the book" which Stockman takes as a counterpoint to the litany of things Lennon does not believe in as listed in the song "God" from JL's Plastic Ono Band album. (This is a great album, by the way, just don't listen to it if you're already depressed.) The lines in this case are more about The Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman - a book that was released just before Rattle and Hum was released which said many negative things about Lennon. There was a bit of a controversy with the book's release and this song was Bono's two cents defending Lennon's legacy. The devil in the first line is Goldman

I disagree with Stockman's assessment and, it seems to me that he entirely missed the book connection.