John Lennon - Acoustic

I picked up John Lennon’s ‘Acoustic’ disc today. It is quite an interesting bunch of songs. The bulk of which can be best described as ‘demos’. In fact, that is what the disc should be called. So, you get some inspired insight into the master of songwriting, (like Watching the Wheels with just John on acoustic). Also, you get a whole bunch of raw and sometimes terrible leftovers and throw aways.

I bought it because I just recently heard ‘watching the wheels’ from this disc off a friend’s bootleg collection from the internet… downloaded years ago. It alone is worth the price of admission, but little else is, in my opinion.

Before we go further, let's just listen to this (there is no video, just audio.  amazing audio)

Just the lyrics of the song are incredible.  As I kid, I knew every word from the radio.  Didn't think about the meta implications.  John just took the 70s off from music.  It wasn't pretty.  He left his wife, moved in with a girlfriend, and became a raging alcoholic asshole.  He came back in 1980.... contrite, smarter, older, and ready to be John Lennon again.  The world wants to know what he has been doing.  "john, the biggest rock star in the world.  You can't tell me you have just being doing dick all for last decade."  um... yeah I can.  Here is a song about how great it is to do dick all of nothing for a decade or so.  Just watching the wheels, mate.

There is a strange ditty which is new to me, called ‘Luck of the Irish’. Check out this chorus “if you had the luck of the Irish, you’d be sorry and wish you were dead. If you had the luck of the Irish, you’d wish you were English instead’. Seems brutal, eh? Somehow though, it becomes a song celebrating the Irish and wishing them their own land to keep from the British.
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You get to hear the origins of the great ‘God’ – “I don’t believe in Elvis, I don’t believe in Beatles” etc. The title of one of the demos ‘Working Class Hero’ really seems to genuinely sum up Lennon’s feelings. He seems to have distaste for the music industry and hold up as a model simple people trying to live a good life in spite of injustice on every side. There is also a beautiful rendition of Lennon live by himself performing 'Imagine' on the... you guessed it... acoustic. It is a vocally emotive performance, as good as the studio version for passion.
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There is one really super cool thing on this disc that I have never seen in the history of published music. Inside the liner notes are the lyrics and the guitar chords for the song! It is so cool, you can play along with these songs as you hear them the first time. Well, maybe the second. Though much of the album seems like a throwaway or Yoko cashing in… if you are a serious Lennon fan, or even a fan of songwriting, this would be a good buy. For a few magical gems that carry the whole disc, I rate the actual retail purchase price you should have to pay at: full market value ($13.49 at Amazon, currently)

Update Jan 2015 - this disc is out of print.  Not sure why.  You can get it, but you will have to find it used.

Other update, total apologies for all the stupid spam comments below. I delete them, but they pop right back up... so I hardly bother anymore blocking them.