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[Harrythebannister]

I've often felt that John's solo career 1968 - 1980 was largely wasted!
The early stuff with Yoko was unlistenable, the political stuff was largely crap and then he wasted five years baking bread!
I can't help thinking there were several more good rock albums in the man instead of all this self indulgent stuff!
O.K! he didn't know he only had a limited time on this planet but he could have done so much more....surely!

[DeRick]

Three of John's albums i love are "Imagine", "Mind Games" and "Walls & Bridges". POB was way too angry & "therapudic" STINYC-waaaaay too political and i like DF and M&H, but it just depresses and sometimes desturbs me that its his last recordings...You're listening to a man who's about to be executed, and the poor guy dont know it. Great stuff but it just bothers me on an unexplainable level.
But based on those 3 albums mentioned above, he dun perty good.

[chris]

interesting thoughts, harry. as far as a fan's standpoint...you just might be right. but john just might argue that baking bread for his family while tending to his son was just as valuable to him as making music (clearly, i am only speculating)

john always seemed to me to be the kind of guy who did what he wanted, when he wanted to. i, personally, didn't get into his political stuff. but it was obviously something he felt he should do. to each his own.

and you can argue, rick, that listening to john's last two albums could be depressing, because of hindsight, we know what was to follow. however, i am just greatful for the music that he did give us. i won't allow myself to be depressed about what could have been. eventually, paul will (for whatever reason) stop creating music. what if...god forbid...memory was paul's last album? would it be celebrated as a triumph...or will it only remind you of what could have been?

life is too short to say what if...i'd say be happy with what you have. what could have been is just a fairytale.

[mervap]

It's funny you should have such a reaction to "Double" & "Milk" DeRick...I have the same sort of reaction to the end medley on "Abbey Road". From about the end of "Polythene Pam" through "The End", I had a visual one day (you may all laugh at this, but wait until I'm done! ). I'm standing near a waterfall, a BIG one...then I see the lads in a boat and they're heading right toward it...I yell, "Oh LOOKOUT!" (yeah, then on through the bathroom window...ha, ha) I can see how this is gonna end, and maybe they don't, and sometimes I feel as if I just hit the pause button, the end won't come. It was such a feeling of loss (you may laugh now).
Of course they weren't dying, at least not individually, and there was much great music to follow...but that is the true waste about John...Here was this guy with immense talent, just hitting early middle age, having found a peace outside of rock-n-roll, now coming back to tell us what he'd learned about life...at least his. It's all speculation, of course, but JL had always told us things about himself in his music and probably would have continued to do so, I hope.

[james1985]

as the man himself said, "it is what it is". and it's great stuff, ok?

[EddieV]

It was wasted, but only half of it (Yokos share)

[Mini]

Imagine and POB both made Rolling Stone's list of Top 500 albums and Double Fantasy made the Top 100 albums of the 80's.

Mind Games and Walls and Bridges were both hit albums. So 2 or arguably 3 classic recordings out of 6 (whilst he was alive) and a couple of decent one's isn't a waste.

Listening to the 38 tracks on Lennon Anthology, I can't see how his solo career was a waste. Maybe the 5 year break is what you're referring to but that's the way John wanted it.

I can't see your point ?

[dpantz]

I think you are right. John was a brilliant artist, and released some really amazing albums (he could have released even more powerful albums than what he did) but his solo career was full of long breaks and uneven material. He didn't seem to be that productive or overly creative in that span of time.

Lennon did not find peace in his personal life until about 1978. The early to mid 1970's was full of heavy partying drinking, marital problems, confusion, and political escapades that forced him to be very uncomfortable. It wasn't until after Sean was born that he finally started to get back into the groove again, and although Double Fantasy is full of wonderful John Lennon songs, he seems sad still, althought at peace, right at the end of his life.

[jgkojak]

Had he lived we perhaps would not be saying that. The 80s, in fact, would have likely been kinder to Lennon (same as Harrison) and I'd guess he'd have had a Got My Mind Set On You late career #1 at some point.

The problem is that Lennon just started stretching a little on Walls and Bridges- POB and Imagine were great but musically (same as Paul and George's stuff at the time) logical extensions of their Beatle work.

The Milk and Honey tracks too are interesting (as is unreleased stuff like Real Love)- if he ever got past the half-Yoko charade (which was really just a cop-out to be held accountable for a solid all John album) he would have likely made some good music.

[dpantz]

I think the reason why Harrison and Lennon's early solo work are so dynamic is because the majority of songs were tracks that were written prior to the Beatles break-up and still great leftover tracks by all means, and there was a certain ambition and pressure to get those songs recorded. But by the next few releases, they had to rely on the new musicians in their bands as well as the producers to get involved with the songs and arrangements to make them.

I think that Paul and George utilized their careers to the fullest potential, but like Lennon, George found some time to himself away from the industry. Not that the songs are a total waste of time, but there should have been more tours, singles, appearances, etc. But as we all know our Paul is quite the workaholic and also George and John didn't long for the fame as much as he after the Beatles split...they'd already had enough of the craziness that comes with fame.