I was just listening to the white album and was wondering where the hell John got his lyrics from, especially lyrics like these .....
The man in the crowd with the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy
Working overtime
A soap impression of his wife which he ate
And donated to the National Trust
Taken from "Happiness Is A Warm Gun"
And then you get this sort of thing......
Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe
Taken from "Across The Universe"
I have only chosen these two songs as they seem to come from different ends of the John Lennon spectrum, there are many many more from these two parts of his psyche
Now I know a lot of his songs were autobiographical towards the middle to end of the Beatles and on in to his solo career
But how do you conjure up such lyrics that create an instant picture within the mind of the listener, I mean you can see the guys boots covered in mirrors and hear the endless chatter of the wind inside that letterbox.
But to be able to convey those thoughts into beautifull poetical lyrics the way John did.???
Was it a God given gift or do we all have inside us somewhere ?
Be excellent to each other & party on dudes!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=686668
The quality and clarity of the lyrics is some times Dependant on what is going on around you at the time but it is also Dependant on the quality and quantity of the drugs :lol:
In John's case I think he just had a very open and curious and some times sinister mind but had a hard time finding the right words for what he was thinking so he made up phrases.
But I do think that alot of it was that he was a genius, at least IMO...
My point exactly with what you said musenfreund. He was a musical, and philisophical, genius... :)
Stairway to Freebird!
Reading the news is one thing -- using the news as inspiration for such magnificent imagery is quite another, very poetic thing. Lennon was gifted. He used to say that he dreamt very vividly. There's a kind of openness to the imagination that's found among great poets and artists. Lennon had that openness, I think. He often wrote that he felt his best songs came to him as a gift from the universe. He just channeled them. "Across the Universe" was a song he felt came to him that way.
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
Reading the news is one thing -- using the news as inspiration for such magnificent imagery is quite another, very poetic thing. Lennon was gifted. He used to say that he dreamt very vividly. There's a kind of openness to the imagination that's found among great poets and artists. Lennon had that openness, I think. He often wrote that he felt his best songs came to him as a gift from the universe. He just channeled them. "Across the Universe" was a song he felt came to him that way.
I agree 100%. You just said it much more articulately then I
My favorite Lennon lyric is "Working Class Hero", but almost anything he did was great IMHO--the dog
I think John was just a very complex persona.
Don't forget his early life although comfortable and well loved by his Aunt and other members of his family, he was probably very lonely. I say this because he never really knew his father and his mother lived elsewhere and only visited on odd occaisions. Then to top it all she was killed by a car in front of him.
He probably made up a fairytale world in his head as a comfort zone to retreat into. Its well documented that he loved Alice in wonderland and zany comedy such as the Goons later in his teens.
I think he gave out the hard abrasive image again as a protection against further hurt. But underneath I am sure he was a gentle guy. You only had to watch him in those early Beatlemania interviews. There was a great guy, a good mate to the others and really a big softy under all that.
Its probably his past that triggered all the amazing imagery and wonderful outpouring of lyrics. Where else could the Walrus have come from! And My mummy's dead!! (Heart rending to listen to but so beautifully written you felt his pain) He was a great observer of others too.
Personally I'd have loved to have met him, Don't get me wrong he was no angel at times either but who out there of any of us are!
Does this help Rodders? I could go on forever.
Chris
The guitar is all right John but you'll never make a living out of it! (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi)
Woah, I accidentally edited my post instead of posting a new one... :oops:
Stairway to Freebird!
Lennon was a genius....no doubt about that....but my favourite lyrics of his are "Norwegian Wood" "In My Life" and of course "Working Class Hero".....my favourite song from the white album, though, was "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"....
The music press in the UK, and in particular the New Musical Express, were really harsh when it came to Lennon's solo LP's....I have still never worked out why, for me all his solo albums were fab.....that's why I bought them....
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
I dont think there will ever be an LP to compare with John's "Imagine", there isn't a bad track on it (probably coz Yoko doesn't sing on it).
But I think one of his best works was "Sometime in New York". It catches Lennon at his angriest I think, with songs like "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "John Sinclair" (which by the way is a great acoustic slide piece Vic). The song "New York City" is out and out rock and "The Luck Of The Irish", folk . So its all on that one album, yeah I know Yoko sings on it but its not quite as bad as on the second disc with the song (if you can call it that) "Dont Worry Kyoko"
The whole thing was produced while he was trying to get his green card and I dont think it helped him one bit, although he did get one in the end.
Heres a thought, how about we have a little competition here and see who can come up with the best Lennon-esque type lyrics, say just one verse or a chorus, we could scan the newspapers the way john did, make something out of it and post, shall we say one week from today
Be excellent to each other & party on dudes!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=686668
I also like Sometime in NYC a lot. It's a good example of Lennon's belief that art needed to be confessional -- that it needed to reflect what was going on in the artist's life and reflect the artist's experiences, emotions, beliefs, etc. In a way, that all started with the song "Help!". Of course, he did still write some songs that he regarded as pure craftsmanship. It's just that he always thought less of those songs. For example, he could never figure out why "Whatever gets you thru the night" was his first solo song to hit number one. He thought (and rightly so) that it should have been "Imagine". I suspect, though, that his best solo album might well be John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band. The immediacy and rawness of those songs is almost frightening -- they offer such an intimate look at Lennon's pain.
And I think he garnered bad press for many of his solo lps simply because he had the nerve to write stuff that was so un-Beatley. They wanted Beatle John and he refused to be Beatle John.
Another Lennon album that is unjustly disparaged and has some great rockers is Mind Games. It's always been on of my favorites too.
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
Lets face it they are all good if not works of genius but nothing rocks like "Live Peace In Toronto". Raw rock and roll from a band that rehersed on the plane journey to the gig.
Be excellent to each other & party on dudes!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=686668
Lets face it they are all good if not works of genius but nothing rocks like "Live Peace In Toronto". Raw rock and roll from a band that rehersed on the plane journey to the gig.
Agreed. Absolutely feral rock. Do you have the DVD? If you don't, you should get it. It's great being able to see the Plastics play.
Well we all shine on--like the moon and the stars and the sun.
-- John Lennon
Quickly off the cuff, no thinking about it, some of my favourite Lennon songs:
No Reply
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Girl
I'm Only Sleeping
A Day In The Life
Julia
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Don't Let Me Down
Imagine
The guitar is all right John but you'll never make a living out of it! (John Lennon's Aunt Mimi)
"=Musenfreund wrote Do you have the DVD? If you don't, you should get it.
Hell, I didn't even know it was on DVD
Be excellent to each other & party on dudes!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=686668
