\u201cMother, you had me, but I never had you\u201d is the first line of the first track off of John Lennon\u2019s groundbreaking first post-Beatles record. The lyric would set the tone for what was arguably Lennon\u2019s most potent and powerful artistic statement: 1970\u2019s Plastic Ono Band<\/i>. An album loaded to the brim with personal and expressive content, this was the record Lennon had been longing to make for over a decade. Having felt artistically constrained by the Beatles, Lennon used this release as the vehicle to deliver some of the most meaningful and personal music of his career. It was back to basics for Plastic Ono Band<\/i>: just vocal, guitar, piano, bass and drums \u2013 no more Beatles studio wizardry, no more spending months and months to record songs. Lennon wanted this record to be as naked, sparse and spacious as possible; the only thing that mattered was the message.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Eagle Rock Entertainment\u2019s latest installment in the Classic Albums<\/i> series of documentaries takes a closer look at this extraordinary work of art by one of the most gifted and brilliant writers of the last century. Featuring interviews with drummer Ringo Starr and bassist Klaus Voorman, who provided the meticulously controlled rhythm section for the album, this frustratingly short documentary provides only a decent introduction to the making of Plastic Ono Band<\/i>. Of course, Yoko Ono offers her perspective on the album too, which just like everything else she has to say is only interesting because she knew Lennon so intimately, not because she made any worthwhile contributions to this Lennon record or any other (she\u2019s credited in the sleeve notes as having provided \u201cwind\u201d for the album, listed before Ringo, Klaus, Billy Preston and Phil Spector — how embarrassing.) <\/p>\n
It would have been nice to listen to Spector\u2019s take on the record, but you know, he\u2019s having some trouble with the law and all. Also featured is John and Yoko\u2019s therapist Dr. Arthur Janov, who was overseeing the couple\u2019s \u201cprimal therapy\u201d in The main feature covers \u201cMother,\u201d \u201cHold On,\u201d \u201cI Found Out,\u201d\u201cWorking Class Hero,\u201d \u201cIsolation,\u201d \u201cLove,\u201d and \u201cGod,\u201d leaving \u201cRemember\u201d and \u201cWell Well Well\u201d for the bonus features. The disc omits \u201cLook At Me,\u201d \u201cMy Mummy\u2019s Dead,\u201d \u201cPower To The People,\u201d and \u201cDo The Oz.\u201d Here\u2019s the deal with this Classic Albums<\/i> series of short films: they\u2019re interesting, yes, and because they\u2019re all authorized, these short films almost always include commentary from people who really<\/i> know what they\u2019re talking about because they were there. In general, they sound pretty good and they\u2019re fairly well put together with respect to archival footage and photos. <\/p>\n In fact, the best feature of this particular installment is the live footage of Lennon in both the main film and the extras; that stuff is fascinating. But \u2013 considering the subjects of these films are supposed to be the greatest albums of all time \u2013 the Classic Albums<\/i> series of documentaries are confusingly brief. I\u2019ve experienced this with every single film released in the series. Just as they\u2019re getting to the meat of the record, the film ends. Why not include the other four tracks off of Plastic Ono Band<\/i>?\u00a0 <\/p>\n The front cover of the DVD for this edition states that it\u2019s \u201cthe definitive authorized story of the album.\u201d Authorized? Yes. Definitive? Absolutely not. Buy it for a small glimpse into the making of the record; just don\u2019t expect an exhaustive examination of one of the best albums ever made. Plastic Ono Band<\/i> is more than just a classic album: it\u2019s a perfect<\/i> album and it deserves more. John Lennon deserves more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":29326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7187],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-40880","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-john-lennon","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40880"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}