I was too young when John Lennon died for the death to have even hit my radar.
I was just old enough to start being aware of pop culture when Julian Lennon’s debut album came out. At the time, I was aware through media coverage that he had a famous musician father who had died. I may or may not have known that his father was one of The Beatles, I may or may not have known who The Beatles were. Still, “Too Late For Goodbyes” was definitely on my radar. At that age, I always watched the entertainment news shows- “Entertainment Tonight” and such- so, that’s how I knew that the guy singing the song on the radio had a famous musician dad.
Although Julian was only 21 years old at the time, in my mind he was an adult- and there were only three categories: kids, grown-ups, and grandparents. Now with the grandparents there was always as good a chance as not that they would be dead. Since this guy was an adult, his dad would have been in the next category up so it really didn’t mean anything to me that his dad was dead. After all, if he wasn’t dead he would have been old and likely to die any day.
I got to know The Beatles as I grew up, already being familiar with Julian. By the time came that I had come to understand John Lennon’s murder, enough years had passed that I thought of it as being “a long time ago”- Note: as a very young person, anything that happened before I started paying attention to things was “a long time ago”.
Over the past few years however, as I creep closer to the age John was at his death, I realize just how young John was when he was killed. Compound his youth with the unexpected horrific violent death, and I realized what a tremendous blow this must have been to music fans at the time.
So, four years after the sudden and horrifying death of one of the patron saints of Rock n Roll- taken decades before his time, this man’s son puts out his debut album.
What was anticipation like at the time? Were fans praying for a second coming? Was there hope that at least some of the pain of the loss would be eased? Or did it mean no more to music fans than the debut of Dylan’s son with The Wallflowers?
I’m also interested in what the reception of the album was at the time- specifically among John Lennon fans (allmusic.com can give me a general historical perspective on it, I’m more interested in how it was experienced by emotional fans). Still, I am more interested in knowing what the anticipation was like.
I vaguely recall a few songs on the radio. The album went platinum primarily because of curiosity. Was Julian as good as his dad?
I never bought it myself. He’s still releasing music, but never had his dads success.
Somebody must have seen talent in Julian to get studios like this working on his album. Some of the worlds best studio musicians work there crafting music for the stars.
I recall no anticipation. And I was heavily into the music scene then. I can recall the first time I heard ‘Valotte’. I was at Yesterday and Today Records in Rockville, MD…
“Sitting on pebble by the river…”
Me: “Huh? They dug up more John Lennon stuff?”
Ted from Tommy Keene’s band: “No, get this.”
Shows me the record cover.
Me: “Oh, the poor guy.”
Ted: “Yeah.”
So I didn’t know it was coming and thought it was another posthumous Lennon LP.
In the UK he had a hit single with “Too Late for Goodbyes”, and probably an album at about the same time. I don’t remember there being any hype or particular significance around it, beyond “hey, he looks/sounds quite like his dad”. Anyway, then he had that song “Saltwater” some years later, and that’s about all there is to say.
(No snarkiness implied or intended, that’s simply how I remember it from a UK perspective.)
I remember it getting a fair amount of publicity and airplay, various articles in music magazines like Rolling Stone and Musician. It probably got more hype than Jakob Dylan’s band did, although they got some. I don’t remember it as excessive hype but certainly a lot more than if it was Julian Lemon doing the album.
I don’t see anything on his wiki page but wasn’t there some kind of negative publicity over a photo? I think some absolute idiot thought it would be funny to point a toy gun at Julian and it got captured on film. Something like that. I don’t Julian had anything to do with that about the father who left him out of his will but unfortunately sometimes dirt sticks on innocent victims. But the main thing is that Julian is probably only moderately talented.
Bringing Down the Horse, The Wallflowers’ second album, sold more than four million copies and produced four singles that are still popular on rock radio today. That kind of success is more or less unknown to Julian Lennon (although I liked Sean Lennon’s Friendly Fire well enough).
I was in the target audience at the time and paid a lot of attention to what was happening in music, but I don’t recall any significant anticipation preceding its release. As I recall, my earliest memories of the matter were hearing “Too Late for Goodbyes” on the radio, often back-announced by DJs saying, “No, that’s not a new John Lennon song. It’s his son Julian.” The way they played up the possible confusion suggests they knew very few people were aware of Julian as a musician, if at all.
I thought he (or more likely, the producers who put him up to it) was trying too hard to cash in on his dad’s sound with Valotte. I actually liked his later stuff when he changed his style a bit. “Now You’re In Heaven” is still one of my favorite overlooked 80s songs.
Second albums are not debuts. The first sold poorly, didn’t go gold assuming the discography on the Wallflowers wiki is right. Second album was a monster.
Jim’s Son was comparing the pre-release hype and anticipation of Julian Lennon vs the pre-release hype and anticipation of Jakob Dylan’s band. I don’t believe a comparison of their successes was intended.
So far it seems Jim’s Son’s recollection of “various articles in music magazines like Rolling Stone and Musician” is as much as there was as far as anticipation goes. Surprising to me. I’d have thought with John’s death so fresh in everyone’s memory that there’d have been more interest.
Of course, once Julian’s music was out there people had the opportunity to judge it for what it was. Prior to hearing it, however, I was guessing there would have been much more of a want to hear it.
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I thought he (or more likely, the producers who put him up to it) was trying too hard to cash in on his dad’s sound with Valotte.
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Strangely, that thought had never occurred to me. Hmmm, I wonder how much of that there was.
I was in college when John Lennon was murdered. When Julian’s album came out, there were many who suspected he was trying to capitalize on the publicity/notoriety about his father’s death to give his album’s sales a boost.
After I heard a few cuts, I bought the album and found it quite listenable. I still listen to it occasionally.
I think that there was quite a bit of interest in it’s being released. Back then, Beatlemania was in another of its flowerings, John was still a powerhouse of an icon, and, IIRC, MTV wouldn’t shut up about it. The music was tolerable, the kid looked and sounded somewhat like dad…I would compare it to another Kardashian sister (at least at the cute level) being discovered last year, and the public’s interest in her new show.
For the buzz factor, of course, not for talent!
I was in High School when John was killed. I remember “Too Late for Goodbyes” getting heavy rotation including the MTV video. I don’t remember any anticipation before the album came out.
Exactly this. (I’m assuming 34 was inside the target audience range.) It was interesting and kind of happy/sad to see little Julian grown up – John dead several years, and life goes on…; but except for his voice sounding so much like his father’s, I found the album unremarkable.
I was 12 and living in the UK when the album came out. “Too late for goodbyes” was a well promoted and hyped single; there was no MTV over there but the video was played often (likely on Top of the Pops, The Tube, and maybe The Chart Show). I seem to remember that Julian was not really keen on playing up his famous dad connection, but he didn’t really have to - he looked and sounded a lot like his dad. I’m sure that played into the album’s success.
I suspect he rejected that, because he disappeared, and I remember later reading a red top exposé about how crap a dad John was. From what I’ve pieced together since, it seems to be fairly true. John seemed to more or less forget about Cynthia and Julian while heaping lavish attention on Yoko and Sean. I seem to also remember some tension between the sons about it, but I think they patched it up.
Yup, no anticipation; if there was any pre-knowledge that Julian Lennon was going to put out an album it was only amongst a more insider crowd, I suspect. If that.
There was just the usual launch publicity of a regular big studio backed album, with one additional talking point ie that he was John’s son.
…and some of us, when we heard Julian, were surprised by how much he sounded like his dad AND immediately had dreams of a Beatles reunion with Julian sitting in*.
*(hmmm, what’s George’s kid Dhani doing? Maybe him, Julian, Sean, Paul and Ringo…).
Keep in mind, we were still smarting not only from John’s death, but the Beatles’ breakup, too.
He had a lot of MTV airplay, and everyone said “he sounds just like his father” or “I thought it was John Lennon singing”. That’s about it. The 80s was a soulless decade. There was much discussion and mourning after the shooting though, and everyone knows where they were when they found out.