“Yoko Ono broke up the Straight Dope Message Board…”
I’m kinda late to the party, but consider this:
- The year prior to May, 1968:
[ul]
[li]Included the highs of Sgt. Pepper and further great music from Magical Mystery Tour. John’s songs included Stawberry Fields, Lucy In The Sky, A Day In The Life, I Am The Walrus, All You Need Is Love.[/li][li]The short but productive February 1968 recording session that laid down Lady Madonna and two great John songs: Across The Universe and Hey Bulldog[/li][li]The trip to India, which despite it’s ugly end, was generally a good time for the Beatles and was intensely productive for song writing. John composed almost all of his content for the White Album in India. Johns’ songs carry the White Album, at least IMO.[/li][li]The negatives were the death of Brian Epstein, and the embarrassing release of the MMT television film. But the Beatles generally handled these without too much acrimony. John was tripping on LSD and Marijuana, but these tended to make him docile and bland at times.[/li][/ul] - The year after May, 1968:
[ul]
[li]The horrible White Album sessions in which, in turn, George Martin walked out, George Harrison walked out, Ringo Starr walked out and Geoff Emerick quit.[/li][li]The tense Let It Be sessions[/li][li]John only produced three songs on his own: I Dig A Pony, Don’t Let Me Down, The Ballad Of John and Yoko[/li][li]John was now on heroin[/li][/ul]
So, what happened in May 1968? John and Yoko got together when Cynthia was on holiday in Greec and consummated their new life.
“In my mind and in my car, we can’t rewind we’ve gone too far”
Boy, K364, that is one serious case of goalpost-moving. I note in particular that “The year prior to May, 1968” gets credit for material written earlier than May 1967 (and even released earlier than that period, in the case of “Strawberry Fields Forever”), but the post-Yoko year doesn’t get credit for the White Album material because most of it was sketched out in Rishikesh (where John was already under Yoko’s spell anyway; note the reference to her in “Julia”) even if not completed until later. And “on his own” apparently means “with the Beatles but not with Yoko”–even “Give Peace a Chance” doesn’t count? And you may not like the experimental stuff he did with Yoko, but ignoring two whole albums (plus “Revolution 9”) in order to paint John as unproductive is cheating.
Biffy - you can set the goalposts as pre-yoko and post-yoko if you want*. And my point still stands: a creative John is now wasted and is impossible to work with.
And I am ignoring Two Virgins, and Life With The Lions.
Julia was presented at the Kinfauns demos at the end of May 1968, which suggests it was written in India, but could be very recent at the time. I acknowledge that the lyrics are referring to both Julia and Yoko.
- Abbey Road was not a triumph for John. Come Together, the best John song was made what it is in the studio by Paul’s contributions. Because and I Want You are fine songs though.
Actually, I’d say that particular track was one of the Beatles’ last great team efforts. Every one of them contributes something special, turning John’s barely-there melody into total magic: Paul’s spooky-funky bass part, Ringo’s brilliant “backwards” drumming, George’s shiver-inducing solo.
It’s true that John’s heart wasn’t really in it on the Abbey Road sessions, but as others have suggested, I think Yoko was more a symptom than a cause there. When John’s heart was in it, he still had the fire and could produce an “Instant Karma” or a Plastic Ono Band.
Here, tucked into this list, is something that I’d say was much more significant to the fate of the band than John’s relationship with Yoko.
[quote=“K364, post:122, topic:639446”]
[li]The trip to India, which despite it’s ugly end, was generally a good time for the Beatles and was intensely productive for song writing. John composed almost all of his content for the White Album in India. Johns’ songs carry the White Album, at least IMO.[/li][/QUOTE]
Some of which songs which were written for (and even included) Yoko.
Too bad John Lennon couldn’t say the same.
Where do you get the ‘musician’ from?
John may have been at his most creative with Paul, and his happiest with Yoko, but he had the most fun in his life with Nilsson.
I won’t disagree with the gist of the post - I saw the pointless hate for Yoko early on and came to understand the many reasons the Beatles moved on.
But I’ve never seen a single thing that convinced me ‘Yoko Ono’ would be a name known outside a very small coterie of admirers if she hadn’t been Mrs. Lennon. I won’t say “talentless,” but her talents are very… specialized.