By Steve Marinucci
Published Dec. 12, 1980
San Jose Mercury News
Special section commemorating the life of John Lennon
What was to become the most the most influential song writing team of the decade starting out writing together gradually. They wrote about 80 percent together, Paul McCartney said, and the other 20 percent were things each would write on his own. But, even in its early stages, The Beatles performed their music in a way more complicated than it sounded.
On that first "Ed Sullivan Show" appearance in 1964, George Harrison provided a lead guitar influenced heavily by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins and others, at the same time adding technical touches of his own.
Paul McCartney provided a solid bottom beat on the bass, in addition to a screaming voice that rivaled his idol, Little Richard. Ringo Starr bashed a low key, but very underrated drum beat that was compact, economical.
And John Lennon added the backbone of his rhythm guitar and vocals that could either be aggressive or tender. Together, though, it added up to a new sound, which, when coupled with their personalities and looks, took the country by storm.
And it was easy to tell what each of the songwriting duo added to the songs. Paul McCartney provided the softer phrasings, while Lennon's were more raucous. Each would hold down the other's tendency to excess, in effect balancing each other out.
And it worked. For example, "All My Loving," "When I'm 64" and "Let It Be" were basically McCartney tunes and "I'll Be Back," "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" were basically Lennon compositions.
Some early Beatles songs with examples of heavy Lennon influence are "You Can't Do That," with its stern lyrical and musical admonishment, and "Help!," which Lennon said later was a real plea.
An example of the way the duo worked was with "We Can Work It Out" with the chorus written by McCartney and the "middle bit" as Lennon called it ("Life is very shorL") written hy himself.
The McCartney-Lennon partnership continued to work fairly smoothly through the first few albums, and despite a trend by other groups to bow to the pressures of commercialism, the Beatles kept their music challenging to listeners. When "Rubber Soul" was released, many fans began to protest that The Beatles had changed and the music was going over the fans' heads. The only change, however, was that the group's music had become more serious. The innocence of "I Want To ~ Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There," written as a team, progressed to the introspection of "I'm A Loser," which in turn progressed to the heavily Dylan-influenced Lennon song, "You've Got To Hide ~ Your Love Away" to the moody "Norwegian Wood," which Lennan later described as a sang written about an affair "without letting me wife know."
The complexity of the group's music became even more apparent as the influence of drugs unabashedly ~ showed up on "Revolver." Though they later admitted marijuana had influenced their work earlier an "Rubber Soul," the use of psychedelic sounds on "She Said, She Said" and "Tomorrow Never Knows" left no doubt. For some fans, this was the band's drop-off point, while others joined up to take their place. The group zenithed on "Sgt. Pepper"s Lonely Heart's Club Band." Critics and reviewers praised it and damned it, but it has withstood the test of time to become what many believe is the greatest rock album ever made.
Lennon had reached his height as a songwriter, as witnessed by "A Day In the Life," basically a Lennon composition to which McCartney added a few verses in the middle. The climax to the song featured the longest fade-out on record, accomplished, according to producer George Martin, by the orchestra hitting their instruments as hard as they could, then having the engineer push up the faders as the sound died down until even the air conditioning could be heard.
Shortly thereafter, came "Strawberry Fields Forever" then "I Am the Walrus" which became the Lennon trademark, even though in a later song he called Paul the Walrus. Lennon's use of phrasing and imagery, lightly used in "Life" was fully realized here with graphic phrases like "yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye."
Things being what they were, the Lennon-McCartney partnership had lost the spirit of teamwork that had characterized the pair's earlier work. Each member pushed harder for each of their songs to be recorded. By the time "The White Album" was released, critics and fans realized that the album's cuts were each member performing "with his backing group," as it was termed. LennDn's contributions here ranged frDm a sarcastic put-down of the Maharishi ("Sexy Sadie") to a song written for his mother ("Julia") to the most outrightly political statement the Beatles had made to date ("Revolution"), a song Lennon considered so important that twa separate versions were released, a slaw version an the album and a rock-and-roll version on the flip side of the "Hey Jude" single.
It was around this time that Lennon met avant-garde artist Yoko Ono and began a love affair that would split his marriage to Cynthia Lennon and, some say, split The Beatles. Whatever, Yoko was a heavy influence on
his music to came. .
The Beatles' swan sang, "Abbey Road," featured their most intriguing wark. Lennon's contributions included a song to Yoko, "I Want You (She'; So Heavy)," the opening cut later revealed to be a Chuck Berry cop ("Come Together") and a song which was just "Moonlight Sonata" played backwards ("Because").
Then, the freedom from The Beatles which John had wished for as early as 1966 realized itself when Paul McCartney announced his split from the group. Now John could record alone, but it was not that easy.
While still a Beatle, he'd released "Give Peace A Chance" and "Cold Turkey" with the Plastic Ono Band. He'd also experimented with Yoko in some best-forgotten avant-garde artistic endeavors: the controversial "Two Virgins" with its cover 'Of Lennon and Ono naked; an unlistenable record of various noises and effects; "Life With the Lions," more of the same; and "The Wedding Album," one side of which featured John and Yoko alternately calling out each other's names in various degrees of emotion.
An improvement came on "Live Peace in Toronto," which featured a revitalized Lennon doing Beatles tunes and old rock songs. Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band were on one side and Yoko "doing her thing all over you," as Lennon put it, was on the other. It is needless to say which side got the most play.
His first real solo album, "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," is still as powerful today as when first released in December 1970. Heavily influenced by primal therapy and helped by echoey production by the legendary Phil Spector, Lennon transmitted his internal pain into an extremely personal piece of vinyl and held nothing back. The result has been called by some the best Beatles solo ever.
The fallaw-up, "Imagine," lacked the pain, but was still favorably received. The title song was Lennon philosophy and was a very successful single. Another cut that garnered much attention was "How Do You Sleep?" in which a bitter Lennon directed sarcastic barbs at Paul McCartney.
The next album, "Sometime In New York City" was dismissed by listeners and critics for being too naive and overly indulgent in its political leanings. A live album included with it compensated a little, but not much. It has been his least popular solo effort. "Mind Games" garnered some favorable acclaim when first released, part of which was due to the fact that Lennon omitted any overtly political statements as an "Sometime." But time has rendered it ta a state of limbo, though the title track received much airplay.
The next album, "Walls and Bridges" came at a depressing point in his life. He and Yoko had split, a split later healed, but one which depressed John terribly. His music again reflected his pain and, though it wasn't as well focused as his first solo, it was received fairly decently and sold nicely.
Shortly thereafter, Lennon appeared on stage with Elton John in New York's Madison Square Garden, fulfilling a promise Lennon had made. Lennon sang "I Saw Her Standing There" and the performance was released on the back of Elton's "Philadelphia Freedom" single.
"Shaved Fish," a pleasant compilatian of singles, including "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," "Instant Karma" and "Give Peace a Chance," was Lennon's last release far five years until "Double Fantasy" was released in November 1980.
"Double Fantasy" was initially dismissed by some as being "too much Yoko" though the Lennon songs were acknowledged as good. A single released from the album, a '50s-style rocker titled "Starting Over," described both Lennon's revitalized career and his relationship with Yoko. The album, though, will almost certainly be re-evaluated in light of Lennon's death.
Steve Marinucci has extensively followed The Beatles and their musical and cultural progress ever since seeing them on their first Ed Sullivan appearance.
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