— David Hepworth
It was at some point in my first year in Korea that I first took in a Noraebang, a Korean singing room. While the friends I was with quickly chose favourite songs, I took my time leafing through several of the large binders they had. I had no interest in the usuals ("Sweet Caroline", "Take Me Home Country Roads") and wanted to choose something clever. At some point I happened upon "Jealous Guy" and was impressed that they had a John Lennon song other than "Imagine". These catalogs listed a karaoke serial number and song title but also the artist. "Snowbird" (yes, I checked) had Anne Murray, "Baby I Love Your Way" had Peter Frampton: the given singers or groups were those most associated with the songs listed. But "Jealous Guy" had Roxy Music down as the artist. Roxy Music???
Now, don't get me wrong, I love me some Roxy, something I have written previously in this space. I often listen to "Virginia Plain" and think that it's the greatest single ever made. The first four albums are absolutely brilliant as is most of the fifth — though for some reason I've never warmed to "Both Ends Burning". They then went on hiatus and were never the same after they returned but they never looked foolish either. I'm not as convinced by Avalon as others are but it's still fine for what it is. I never need to listen to their later stuff but I wouldn't look down upon anyone who wished to do so.
As many probably remember (I don't mind you; I was just three-and-a-half), the shocking murder of John Lennon at the end of 1980 resulted in a flooding of the market. Long term, this meant a gradual re-evaluation of The Beatles to the point where now the grandchildren of their original fans will tell you that they are their favourite group. But in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, it was Lennon's solo material that "benefited". "(Just Like) Starting Over" had actually been heading down the chart at the time of his death but it swiftly rebounded all the way back to the top, giving him a rare solo number one. In North America, it was the singles from the Double Fantasy album that took the lion's share of the chart space but in Britain "Imagine" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" were both reissued. Then, "Woman", Double Fantasy's second single, came out and Lennon remained at the top. If the British had turned their backs on him over the previous decade since The Beatles' split, they were doing everything they could to make it up to him now.
This glut of Lennon product perhaps explains why tributes weren't over-abundant at first. George Harrison's loving "All Those Years Ago" wouldn't get dropped until the spring, by which point the grief had subsided. It gave the Quiet One a Top 20 hit but an earlier release arguably would've done far better. (Tom Ewing's not-entirely-positive memories of thia time suggest that there was even a bit of a backlash, at least from some corners of the music consumer community) Paul McCartney sang backing vocals on "All Those Years Ago" and wouldn't release his own salute to his old friend, "Here Today" on the Tug of War album, for another year. This left a gap and it was filled by a passable cover of "Jealous Guy" by Roxy Music.
Originally written by Lennon during The Beatles' meditation retreat in Rishikesh, India with the Maharishi in 1968, it was initially known as "Child of Nature". Living in an ashram did him a world of good and it sparked a prolific songwriting period after years of being lost in a sea of drugs. With too many songs already in the can and a similar but slightly superior McCartney number ("Mother Nature's Son") in contention, it was withdrawn from consideration for the so-called White Album. (He would revisit it a few months later during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions; heroin, Yoko Ono's miscarriage and legal troubles all conspired to curtail Lennon's songwriting in 1969, a time when many other older compositions — "Across the Universe", "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", "Polythene Pam", "Mean Mr. Mustard", even the subpar "What's the New Mary Jane?" — were dusted off for potential releases) The melody stayed with him and it would eventually be re-written as "Jealous Guy", one of the high spots on his Imagine album from 1971.
Even at a time when relatively few 45s would end up being taken off albums (at their creative peak, Roxy Music typically had just one), it's surprising that "Jealous Guy" was never a single in Lennon's lifetime. Phil Spector created as many bloated, overproduced numbers as he did masterpieces but there's no arguing with the gorgeous echo he conjured up to accompany Lennon's piano introduction. While the lyrics on "Child of Nature" (or "On the Road to Marrakesh", as it would also be known) never really worked, these are thoughtful and confessional, a clear result of the much more open words on the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album from 1970.
Roxy's cover opens with something that sounds like an effects pedal, a tool The Beatles used a lot of in 1965. There's no attempt to ape Spector's production and they mainly go for making it sound as much like a Roxy Music song as possible. Considering how poor their recent covers of both The Byrds' "Eight Miles High" and Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" were, they don't make such a bad job of it this time 'round, even if it still comes nowhere close to the original. On the one hand, Ferry's vocal delivery is a little too nonchalant but I suppose that it's a better option than getting too melodramatic. As David Hepworth says, the whistling goes on and on and, in general, there's prolonged fadeout — a trick Roxy Music would repeat a year later for "More Than This" — which unnecessarily pushes the recording close to the five minute mark.
As tributes go, the decision to do "Jealous Guy" is curious to say the least. They had "Imagine", "In My Life", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Instant Karma" to choose from but they went with something from Lennon's dark heart. Not one of his songs of scorn like "Sexy Sadie", "How Do You Sleep" or "Steel and Glass" but one in which he atones for his own misdemeanours. Lennon is now seen as a bit of a problematic figure. His penchant for violence meant that many of the women in his life suffered under his fists. While some may wish to have him "cancelled", others would rather avoid having to address this thorny issue. But one person who did address it was Lennon himself. He struggled with his demons and used the medium of his songs to deal with them. He went to his grave having still not resolved all of them but at least he made the effort. When people say that we shouldn't judge similarly problematic types like Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson, it's because they "aren't here to defend themselves". The same goes for Lennon though he left a record of apologetics rather than silence. He may not be able to defend himself but at least we can try to understand.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Duran Duran: "Planet Earth"
"This isn't just dull," Hepworth complains, "it's an old kind of dull". Given how hugely successful Duran Duran would soon become (they're up for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the first time this year), you have to wonder if Heps was proud that he failed to see anything in them from the get go. The likes of The Human League and Spandau Ballet took their time having hits but the Duranies managed to hit the ground running, no matter what grouchy music reviewers thought. The New Romantics were as much old school glam rock devotees as they were punks and it's the spirit of '72 that gives "Planet Earth" its energy and charm. The "old kind of dull" is now all that skeletal post-punk and new wave that wouldn't go away; this is indeed a retread but one done with enough oomph that it hardly matters. Duran Duran would go on to do much better — as well as a whole lot worse — and this was a fine start to one of the better singles bands of their era.
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