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Author Topic: Walls and Bridges  (Read 2101 times)

Keri

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Walls and Bridges
« on: January 17, 2015, 11:00:48 pm »
I currently have none of John's solo albums on CD, but every so often I wonder about getting this one again.

He was away from Yoko and that was both good and bad. Good because it freed up his writing and he could write pieces like #9 Dream and Old Dirt Road that were less diaristic than the works he did while Yoko was watching. Bad because he went to pieces, drank too much and was deeply unhappy.

So there is creativity here, gloominess, a lack of focus although it contains a pretty energetic single with "Whatever gets You through the Night"

it's an intriguing album, anyone here a fan of it?
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2 of 3

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Re: Walls and Bridges
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2015, 11:30:02 pm »
Yeah, Bless you is lovely. What You Got is a great little rocker. I'd just wish Lennon would have stopped with the double tracking of his vocals(all the time). I have a feeling if he were still with us, he'd be a big fan of Autotuning the crap out of his vocals. Not for pitch correction or anything...but for layering. He had such a great voice.
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Mervap

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Re: Walls and Bridges
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2015, 10:26:18 am »
I've never been a big fan of this album, but it's more the fault of the time and techniques used to create it. The mid-seventies were mostly a wasteland (with some exceptions) of albums that, to me, just sound thin, with no real sonic depth.....such is the case here. Some fine songs on it, though not up to JL's former standard.
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If love is blind, how will it ever find a way?

Keri

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Re: Walls and Bridges
« Reply #3 on: March 27, 2016, 04:12:00 am »
I have finally got around to ordering this album. I think this is the Lennon album for me. It's messy but its imaginative, I love number nine dream and old dirt road, they've got some space musically and lyrically, they allow for interpretation which doesn't happen much with Lennon solo. Also Whatever Gets you through the Night was a pretty hot single.

I'm pleased I'm finally getting a lennon album on CD, maybe i should get Imagine too.
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kylenz

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Re: Walls and Bridges
« Reply #4 on: March 27, 2016, 05:28:16 am »
It's a good choice for a Lennon album. It's patchy of course, but there are some delicious lesser-known Lennon songs on it that are worth the price of purchase alone, aside from the big hit singles on it.

The opener 'Going Down On Love' is one of those. And the opener on Side 2, 'Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird of Paradox)' is another. There's a great underrated rocker in 'What You Got'. And 'Steel and Glass' carries a lot of emotional weight, much like Working Class Hero does on Plastic Ono Band.

Old Dirt Road is a good one too, reminds me of George's solo stuff.
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