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Author Topic: Double Fantasy  (Read 2943 times)

Mervap

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Double Fantasy
« on: January 18, 2015, 10:34:39 am »

This album was reviewed on the old site by Chris......I figured it belongs here, so:

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"a welcome return to music making for the former beatle, after taking 5 years off to bake bread and raise his young son, sean. the songs he wrote came quickly. and we forgot what a force john's soothing voice could be. he offers several gems with this record. starting over, woman, watching the wheels all recieved regular airplay. and deservedly so. rumors began of possible tour to promote this album. a long, extensive interview with playboy suggested he was glad to be back...happy to be making music again. john was full of life...doing what he was born to do.

the album was also half filled with donations by yoko. who continued her avant garde style of music...brought back to popularity with the success of the new and finely coifed B-52's. listen carefully to the early B-52 music. it is truly impossible to not hear yoko's influence.

the 80's showed much promise with the return of john lennon. what the future would hold would be anybodies guess. then, tragically, on december 8th...that promising future was taken from us. we can mourn the loss of one of our time's greatest songwriters...or we can celebrate what little time we were allowed to spend with him. instead of being disappointed that was all we got...i'm going to choose to be greatful for the gift of lennon's music. for art can be appreciated long after the artist turns off the microphone."

I think what kinda gets lost with "Double Fantasy" and "Milk & Honey" is that the JL that wrote these songs is coming from an entirely different place in his creative life than the JL that wrote "Mother".....while the wounds that gave rise to songs such as "Mother" are still there, he seems to have made his peace with them. Folks who expected the old Lennon would doubtlessly be disappointed....many were. It would be interesting to see what this album's chart action would have been if not for the heinous events of Dec. 8, 1980....how would this phase of JL's career played out?

One critic at the time said that JL's role on "Double Fantasy" was more like "a session guy on his own album, entirely relaxed in his own skin".

The production values are certainly less dense than on any other Lennon solo work. I like the Stripped Down mixes particularly...
 


 
« Last Edit: January 18, 2015, 10:36:25 am by Mervap »
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2 of 3

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2015, 10:43:33 am »

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Folks who expected the old Lennon would doubtlessly be disappointed

Yup....that was me.  :o
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Greg

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2015, 11:55:33 am »

This came out during a period that I was listening to London Calling, The Specials, Talking Heads, and others.  This was a let down for me.  The other factor it had going against it for me was that I had expectations through the roof, so there is no way that album could have lived up to what I was expecting.
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2 of 3

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2015, 12:39:38 pm »

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I had expectations through the roof

No kidding. 5 years of no Lennon and we get Just Like Starting Over? Nice little song and all..but it's an album cut if you ask me. It's also the type of song that Lennon would have ripped Paul for doing a few years earlier. Sure...people change..I get that....but I still have no reason to listen to that album. Not that it's bad...but as you said...my expectations were shattered and I never got over it I guess.
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Keri

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2015, 04:17:55 pm »

John's voice and presence on the album is good, there is joy and freshness in it.

But although there is happiness in it, it seems that it is coming from exactly the same place as Mother, it is music as a diary. I don't hear anything that tells me he was going to grow as an artist. I get the sense that if he'd lived every once in a while he might put out an album that let's us know what he's doing. We've come to love the guy so we'd probably continue to be interested and it's always great to hear his voice. If he was alive now he could do a blog.

There is no transformation through imagination, there is really no diving into the depths of self, it is pretty much all surface and as art I find it inconsequential.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2015, 04:35:57 pm by Keri »
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Mervap

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2015, 08:03:14 am »

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But although there is happiness in it, it seems that it is coming from exactly the same place as Mother, it is music as a diary.

Perhaps I didn't explain what I meant very well. Music as a diary, as you said, was Lennon's shtick throughout most of his career....what I mean is he wasn't creating from the same angry/anxious/angsty place that most of "POB" came from. The entries in this diary are about mostly warmth and thankfulness. There wasn't the kind of tension we'd gotten from Lennon early on and some would say the album suffered from it....

What I liked most about it was that JL hired a producer that shined things up and gave the songs a sonic depth that was lacking for most of his solo years.
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Greg

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2015, 08:54:27 am »

Jack Douglass seemed like a great guy.  Ever read about the nightmare he experienced with Yoko after the record was done?

To Keri's comment:  Yes! His voice was really good on that album.  I have never appreciated that fact enough on that album.

2 of 3:  "It's also the type of song that Lennon would have ripped Paul for doing a few years earlier."  Ouch.  Man that's so so true.
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kylenz

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2015, 09:36:26 am »

2 of 3:  "It's also the type of song that Lennon would have ripped Paul for doing a few years earlier."  Ouch.  Man that's so so true.

Maybe, but they had made things up and maybe more at ease/peace with eachother by that stage. I guess it's an extension of having that comfortable family life that Paul had with Linda, John was finally experiencing with Yoko and Sean - and it begins to rub off on the music.
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Mervap

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2015, 12:09:51 pm »

I might have mentioned this elsewhere, but does anyone know of an interview with Paul done before JL was murdered where he gives an impression of what he thought of "Double Fantasy"? There's got to be one somewhere. I can't imagine he was never asked about it before December.....
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Greg

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Re: Double Fantasy
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2015, 11:10:03 am »

That is a great question.  I have read a lot of stuff but never come across him mentioning that album.  I just read Man On The Run for the second time (Get this book if you can.), and that never mentioned it.  I have never even heard Denny comment on what Paul thought of it. 


Edit: He did pick Beautiful Boy as a Desert Island Disc in '82, but that's to be expected.

« Last Edit: June 24, 2015, 11:15:32 am by Greg »
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