John Lennon Remembered: We All Shine On - Page 2

So it was sad to see, after his first two stellar solo albums, Lennon’s recording career hit a rough patch in the aftermath of the mediocre Sometime in New York City (“It ain’t fair/ John Sinclair…”). Sadder, too, to see his personal life take a tumble with a trial separation from Yoko and subsequent drink-besotted lost weekend after lost weekend with Harry Nilsson, during which John became something other than a former Beatle or a musical artist “in his own write.” He was now relegated to being, after one particularly raucous night, “some asshole with a Kotex on his head.”

When the opportunity came to reconcile with Yoko, John took to it with an all-or-nothing vengeance as he commenced with his five-year domestic-dad duties and a hiatus from public life, safely ensconced in the Dakota “watching shadows on the wall” if he so desired. And he made his exit with dignity and class--no formal or hyperbolic announcements, no interminable farewell tours. Just slipped away quietly during a time when five years between records seemed like an unbearable forever.

There seemed to be a little bit of an out-of-sight out-of-mind quality to the lowered profile for many people, me included, as we were all busy making other plans and buying Paul, George, and Ringo albums. If we thought of John it was not so much in terms of the next presumably spotty solo album to come, but more related to when and if all four of the Beatles would reunite. After all, there was some truth to the familiar contention that, even though John and Paul essentially wrote individually, there was a needed checks-and-balances within the Beatles as a group, a system to the synergy. Glass-half-full Paul: “It’s getting better all the time.” Imagine-no-glass John: “It can’t get much worse.”

But maybe, after all, it was getting better for John, and he was willingly going with the flow, or at least stopped trying to always go against the grain. It seemed that way as 1980 came around and suddenly we had a catchy new Lennon single, “Starting Over” and an accessible, if safe LP, Double Fantasy. It was certainly better for fans who finally had John back with, refreshingly again, no “big comeback” fanfare. Here he was, sobered up, level-headed and happy. And for those who expected more from his first album in too long a time, he made sure we knew that Double Fantasy served a transitioning purpose--to greet us and assure us that he was glad to be back, and by the way, “weren’t the seventies a drag?”--before he moved on with an all-out rocker the next time around.

Article Author: Gordon Hauptfleisch

Gordon Hauptfleisch is a Blogcritics Books Editor, freelance writer, and book reviewer for the San Diego Union Tribune. For many years he worked in and managed bookstores and record stores. Email him and he'll stop talking in the third-person.
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