183. John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)






















Track Listing

1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. I Found Out
4. Working Class Hero
5. Isolation
6. Remember
7. Love
8. Well Well Well
9. Look At Me
10. God
11. My Mummy's Dead
12. Power To The People
13. Do The Oz


Review

Wanna talk about being whiny? Talk to Liverpudlians. Some time ago Boris Johnsson the Conservative MP had to give a public apology for saying that people from Liverpool were whiny, this is Exhibit A for the defense. Oh poor Lennon, who had problems with his mommy and then his mommy died and who is an atheist and why does he have to bother us with his self-referential "poor me" shit?

Still, it is hard to fault the music itself. John was a genius regardless of his lyrics here and musically this is something completely different and innovative. If you disregard his primal scream inspired tracks like Mother and Well Well Well, all the stuff here is pretty much superb and you are often left with a mixed feeling of "What an asshole, but the muzak is purdy!"

Still, it is musically good enough to be a great album and a really great album at that. If you can take the lyrics you are a better person than me. I will explain something of my rating system, all albums which get 9 or 10 out of 10 end up in my iPod, this album will get an 8, meaning iIrecognise it as great, but I don't want to listen to it again because it annoys me. So there! Buy it from Amazon UK or US.

Track Highlights

1. Working Class Hero
2. Remember
3. Love
4. Isolation

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

"Working Class Hero" is a song from John Lennon's first post-Beatles solo album, 1970's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Regarded as one of Lennon's most caustic and overtly political songs, it explores themes of alienation and social status from childhood to adulthood. It was controversial in that it was one of the first popular songs to include the word "fucking" (twice). The album's notes replaced the word with asterisks, and footnotes claimed that the obsecenity was ommitted from the printed lyrics at the request of EMI.

The irony of this song is that Lennon grew up in Woolton, which is one of the most affluent and middle-class areas of Liverpool. Many of the lyrics though derive from his time during Primal Therapy and stem from his acceptance of life as opposed to the continual fight against it that society expects.

Working Class Hero: