Imagine there's no "Imagine," it's easy if you try...

I'm listening to John Lennon's "Primal Scream" album, officially called Plastic Ono Band.  It's very limited but that was basically the point.  It was the first time he had to create a full album without Paul's help and the whole point was to get away from the incredibly-complicated "Beatles" style.  Ringo plays drums, Klaus Voorman plays bass, Phil Spector and Billy Preston play piano on one song each, everything else is John.

I was skeptical what I'd think of it, having not listened in many years.  I started off doubtful, some of his singing on the opening track "Mother" isn't as good as he should be and the song itself didn't didn't seem as full as it should have been, three verses, then screaming.

That's about as bad as it got, at least so far.  I've just started "Remember" which sounds as full as it's possible to be given the simple piano, drums and bass.  It might sound better with a full band but that's not required.  "Isolation" sounded great with the same limitations, almost epic.  It's not a bad thing to limit the possible creative outlets, especially given what he'd been doing for the last several years.

One thing he was able to bring with him was the variety.  Despite the simplicity, every song sounds different from the previous one.  "Mother" is screaming, followed by "Hold On" which is much softer but not remotely a ballad.  "Working Class People" is about the only song going outward like a bloke at a bar ranting after several pints and it's just Lennon on a guitar.  "Love" is a ballad ["a ballad is love"?] with Spector on piano.  "Remember" was a straight rock song opening Side B that ended with humorous fireworks, "remember the fifth of November."  "Well Well Well" just sounds weird, the vocals and guitar have the same melody line for line, the band is closer to noise for its own sake, as is John's yelling at the end.  It's the longest song on the album and probably its worst song but it's not remotely bad.

Music and albums are mostly successful in ways closer to emotion than intellect and that includes how they're designed.  All these different sounds, one after the other, create a different effect than anything else would have.  Essentially they're different moods and the thought goes into how they work next to each other.  John and Paul spent around two days putting "The White Album" in order, that would be just listening to song after song over and over in different order.  'Song A works better if it comes after Song B but then how do we follow Song C?'  That is on full effect here and it's fabulous.

"God" is obviously a finale and sounds like it, Side B's equivalent of "Working Class People," building up to the line "I don't believe in Beatles."  It could have had a dozen musicians and a full orchestra and the effect would be the same, this one only adds Billy Preston.  That's very effective.  Then there's the nursery-line epilogue, and that's the end.

Well that was fun.  I've never been enough of a Beatles fan to hear many of their solo albums but this was always my favorite of the ones I have heard and I'm glad to have taken the chance to listen to it again.  It's about as mature as one can get and still be rock'n'roll.  John's mostly following his own self-absorption but that's a legitimate method of creation and even there he's still smart enough to include other aspects, both "Working Class People" and "God" which climaxes with "Yoko and me."  Probably wasn't worth the last twelve years of his life, but at least in that line, even I have to smile at the very sweet line which he sings perfectly.

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of this album's release.  Next February 7, John will have been dead for as long as he was alive.