— Pete Silverton
Prior to the events of December 8, 1980, John Lennon had never had a solo number one in his homeland. He hadn't even had a lot of big hits with just "Give Peace a Chance", "Instant Karma", "Power to the People", "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and a belated release of "Imagine" his sole Top 10 entries. Even some of his finest singles — "Mind Games", "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", "#9 Dream", "Jealous Guy" when it finally emerged as a 45 in the mid-eighties — badly underperformed. Then, millions were stunned when he was assassinated outside his apartment in New York and they expressed their grief by buying up his records en masse. "(Just Like) Starting Over", a reissue of "Imagine" and "Woman" all succeeded each other as Britain's favourite single and another re-release of "Happy Xmas" nearly gave him a quartet of chart toppers. As if all of this wasn't enough, Roxy Music's cover of "Jealous Guy" would go on to a fortnight at number one soon after "Woman" faded.
People couldn't get enough of John Lennon — until they did. With all due respect to "Starting Over", "Imagine" and "Woman", it was his stronger material that ended up being ignored. The first possible casualty was Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice", an outstanding disco-new wave recording that Lennon famously worked on just prior to his assassination. It entered the Top 40 just as "Jealous Guy" was nearing the summit and both "Imagine" and "Woman" were fading away. Now, you can argue that a single by a mad avant-garde banshee was lucky just to sniff the pop charts but it is easily her most commercial work and a sign that Lennon hadn't left the underground behind completely. Did goodwill towards her husband's memory push it at as high as it got or did the coming backlash hurt its chances? Hard to say but "Thin Ice" deserved better.
I'll acknowledge the ambiguity surrounding Ono's single but there's no doubt that people had grown tired of mourning by the spring of 1981 — and Lennon's recordings were about to pay the price. After overachieving with Double Fantasy's first two singles both going to number one, the album's third release saw a comedown. "Watching the Wheels" proved to be popular enough to make the Top 10 in the US, Canada and Switzerland but the British weren't having it. An autobiographical account of Lennon's lethargy (in the tradition of "I'm Only Sleeping", "Good Morning Good Morning" and "I'm So Tired"; as I've written previously, he may have indeed been lazy but not so much that he didn't feel the need to write a whole host of songs on the subject), it's as soft rock as "Woman" (the use of backing vocalists in both anticipates Stock Aitken Waterman) but with much more of a lyrical edge. While many of his compositions of the time are poignant in light of his horrific murder, it's strong enough on its own. But people weren't touched by it and it only got to number thirty.
But at least it did something on the charts which is more than can be said for the re-release of "Stand by Me". Not a big hit when it initially came out in 1975, it was chosen as yet another attempt to milk the tragedy. This time, it would be with an oldie, something that wasn't guaranteed catch on (while "Imagine" finally gave him the number one that it always should've been, a reissue of "Give Peace a Chance" was just a minor hit earlier in the year). Still, the public weren't interested in hearing Lennon with some bite so why not continue to plunder his sentimental side?
Due to legal issues surrounding a line in Beatles' hit "Come Together", Lennon had been strong-armed into recording an album of old rock 'n' roll hits. While this clashed with his countercultural image, it was something he nevertheless embraced. Ian MacDonald described Lennon's feelings towards the Chuck Berry hit "Rock and Roll Music", which was covered on the Beatles for Sale album and is an absolute banger, as "virtual holy writ" and for sure he tended to sing standards as if they meant everything to him. Beatles' covers are something of a mixed bag (Paul's are mostly good, George and Ringo's generally aren't up to much) but John's are some of their best. "Twist and Shout", "Baby It's You", "Money (That's What I Want)", "Please Mister Postman", "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", "Rock and Roll Music", "Bad Boy": Lennon screamed and emoted his way through so many great songs that he didn't write but might as well have. Even "Mr Moonlight", a lot of people's least favourite Fab Four track (they've obviously never heard Ringo's pitiful — and possibly drunken — take on "Matchbox"), is aided by John's throat ripping plea in the intro.
So, an album of oldies had some promise ten years after The Beatles had given up doing covers. The Rock 'n' Roll album isn't brilliant from start to finish but it has its moments. Tellingly, however, there's a reason you seldom ever hear twelve of its thirteen cuts. As one would expect, Lennon's singing is first rate, his vocals the finest he'd recorded since The White Album. Musically, it's never more than competent. You'd be hard pressed to find cover that tops its original source material. With one exception.
"Stand by Me" stands out on the Rock 'n' Roll album for its quality and the sense that it's a song that meant a lot more to Lennon in 1974 than it did when it first came out. Covers like "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and "Bony Maronie" are charming and affectionate, throwbacks to his youth; this says as much about his state of mind at the time than the likes of "Help", "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "God" did when they came out. Notably, it is one of just two cuts on the album that isn't from the fifties. (Sam Cooke's "Bring It on Home to Me", which was used in a mediocre medley with Little Richard's "Send Me Some Lovin', is the other) Separated from Ono and in the midst of his Lost Weekend, the lyrics likely hit home and Lennon gives it a stirring reading as a result.
The sole Lennon cover that ever crops up on compilations, "Stand by Me" could've appeared on either of the good-not-great Mind Games or Walls & Bridges albums and it still would've been a highlight. Yet it only just made grazed the Top 30 of the UK charts in 1975 and it fared much worse six years later — even though it appears not to have been a major release. In truth, there wasn't much reason for it being reissued beyond simply keeping the product coming. The public had expressed their sorrow in the aftermath of his murder but now it was time to move on. Further posthumous releases maintained the downward trend with the exception of brand new single "Nobody Told Me" from 1984's Milk & Honey. Ben E. King's original (which is slightly inferior to Lennon's) would later go to number one in Britain on the strength of a Levi's ad campaign proving that the song still had legs. And it still does to this day. Again, Lennon may not have written it but he might as well have.
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Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Kraftwerk: "Pocket Calculator"
Seriously, this was a single? The Computer World album is nowhere near as great as some will have you believe (it doesn't touch either Autobahn or Trans-Europe Express) but it had better material to draw from this, in Pete Silverton's words, "silly song". It seems strange they didn't go into the realm of video games but perhaps choosing to spurn Atari in favour of Little Professor calculators must've been a joke for the German quartet. (If that is indeed the case then the gag is lost on me) Honestly, what can be said about something so throwaway being done by a massively talented group who must have had better things to do. Proof that (a) they were right to get into cycling and (b) this most influential of groups .
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