John Lennon's Mind Games

Then again, I have listened to this album in its entirity a total of one time, so I could be way off here.

Worth reading May Pang's and Fred Seaman's books if you're interested in Lennon.

one problem i always had with later solo lennon, which is surprising considering his rep - he's so damn drippy and sentimental!

'73 is kind of a gray area for me with Lennon - post-radicalism and pre-lost weekend. Don't know if it is for others, but if so I wonder if that affects the tendency to judge this album as being "close to perfunctory." I just heard a tape of Lennon guest-DJing on the radio in L.A. in '74 and he had so much spirit and enthusiasm - I think that's affecting why I'm thinking now that he was really working on making a good album with Mind Games (and, yes, was maybe fairly inspired).

Double Fantasy is simply a better album, Tim, from my point of view.

anyway I agree it is not exceptional, compared with what came before, or with Walls & Bridges, which I feel is very underrated.

The song parodies hippie drivel yet its author is conflicted enough to realize that there might be truth in that drivel.

The subject of "surrender" is, I think, also of a spiritual nature and I don't see how it has anything to do with any kind of "equivocation."

It bemuses me to see the praise for Double Fantasy, which still sounds like the slight MOR it was universally reviewed as on release to me.

Double Fantasy (and Milk and Honey) are quite poor.

I'm sure Lennon would have come round to this view - he was a harsh critic of his own music.

Walls and Bridges is a more interesting album than either Mind Games or Double Fantasy.

That's just false.

That's just false."

Maybe its just my poor memory but the the reviews of DF in 1980 were pretty slamming, as much from sheer disappointment as anything. Big things were expected of JL, and it was, and I use the word again, universally agreed, that he didn't deliver. It was (and is) MOR. Well, written but rather vapidly recorded.

Now, if you want the REAL Lennon goods from 1980, listen to the original 12" of Walking on Thin Ice, as cutting edge as anything at it time, and a record that slotted right into the NY No Wave sound.

Or the Cheap Trick / Lennon take of I'm Losing You...with the balls still intact. Real nasty vocal too, reminiscent of the live take of Money on Anthology 1.

For once, OTM.

Does anyone have any interviews in which he specfically praises Wire and Joy Division? I assumed this was urban legend (he did, however, cite The B-52's ["It sounds just like Yoko's music!"] and Lene Lovich).

btw I didn't know #9 dream was underrated? I've always liked it - it's definitely aimed at George, right?

I'm in a minority, but Watching the Wheels, always struck me as superior Lennon filler rather than a good song. I agree with Albert Goldman that I'm Losing You is the last good song he wrote.

Dunno, there seem to be plenty of clues here and there that he was less than happy with the Double Fantasy sound, and perhaps would've liked a rawer sound..whether thats true or not, I guess we will never know.

By 1980, art rock was arguably at its critical height: Bowie was releasing Scary Monsters, Talking Heads with Remain In Light etc etc. It was very much in the air. But instead, Lennon put out an album that was almost the antithesis of all that.

And he had been doing for quite some time. Before his late 70s "housewife years", he released "Mind Games", "Walls And Bridges" and a contractual obligation album of old rock'n'roll covers, none of which were exactly avant garde. And, judging from the "Double Fantasy" album, his wife - which was the one who turned him into all that crazy stuff in the first place - was getting increasingly softer too.

Reminded again how much I like this album!

Listening to the clips of the 2010 remaster on iTunes - sounds OK but I wonder if it's clipping in spots (end of clip on "Only People")? Never heard the remixed version (the 2002 CD). New version is the original mix.

Anyone read Tim Riley's new bio? It's fantastic -- as magisterial and insightful as Tell Me Why.

"Aisumasen" sounds distorted, too...

this thread was pretty interesting until Geir showed up

This album's pretty awesome.

The Andy Peebles interviews and His Last Official Interview are all back on YouTube.

still waiting for the reissue of Live Peace In Toronto

I haven't seen this before. John & Yoko on the David Frost show in August 1968 discussing the You Are Here show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wVkgz9qCTZg#!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVkgz9qCTZg&feature=youtu.be

new mix too pretty
https://open.spotify.com/track/4LgPHW98WGoir4NVH4ewLF?si=HfxNvlC5T4myVDXPCo8l2w

https://storeuk.johnlennon.com/products/mind-games-the-ultimate-mixes-super-deluxe-box-set

a $1,700 deluxe edition housed in a reproduction of a 1968 Yoko art piece?

satisfying assembly video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDkE8U_adTE

but aah lol

lol i had to roll my eyes when it revealed it's just two CDs and two LPs ...

this is the only solo john i revisit with any regularity. love this record

kind of hilarious that the most elaborate box is for one of his least necessary and loved albums.

Keep on playing those

Some kind of druid dude liftin' the veil.

soul powah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4hHbFJIO_o

I just listened to Mind Games for the first time yesterday, a vinyl copy that I picked up for $5.

$5 seems about right. The box seems more appropriate for a big Lennon over-all box, not for such a middling album.

I’m listening to (and enjoying) Tim’s recommended tracks and finding Yoko’s blended background vocals with the other singers on tracks like “You Are Here” to be wildly in keeping with Paul and Linda’s backgrounds that same decade.

Finding these tunes are more enjoyable when not stalked by the specter (Spector?) of the title track.

The only one of the new mixes on Apple yet is Aisumasen. Not sure what I think - the vocals are much more the centerpiece. Long been looking for a good sounding version of this.

There are three mixes of it now!

Aisumasen (I’m Sorry) (Tim’s mix sorry not sorry)

for such a middling album

take it back!

https://store.johnlennon.com/collections/apparel/products/the-great-seal-of-nutopia-t-shirt

I checked on Discogs and I don't think there's any version of the 2002 mix that's not at collector prices.

That shirt rules but look at this dumb marketing of mindfulness shit

https://store.johnlennon.com/products/mind-games-meditation-stones

Why would you need stones to meditate?

Some kind of category error for "stones" there, maybe it focuses the mind on the illusion of materiality.
https://store.johnlennon.com/cdn/shop/files/PRODUCT_JLEN24_ECOMM_MINDGAMES_STONES-2.png

John Lennon’s rogue-like trading card Games

I always loved the songwriting on this album, but disliked the arrangements and production. But the "Elemental Mix" from the big box (CD2), which strips the arrangements down to almost nothing, and keeps the focus on John's vocals, is gorgeous. I'd say it's exactly what I always hoped this album could be, but no, it's *cooler* than what I imagined. I'll keep around the original version of the title track for the organ riff (which, it turns out, you can excise from the song and still have an awesome song), but otherwise, this is all I'll need henceforth thanks very much.

It's funny how much it sounds like a more tropical/happy-go-lucky version of Roger Waters' solo work. I remember reading somewhere about Roger's love for Isolation from Plastic Ono Band, and then listening to Isolation with that in mind, and thinking, "Sure enough. The Wall and The Final Cut and Amused to Death, they're all right here." Getting that feeling again big-time with this Elemental Mix.

New favorite Lennon album.

Had the same problem, will need to listen to that.

Stripped down elemental makes it much more like Plastic Ono Band, albeit with a somewhat different vibe.

Never noticed all the reggae guitar in the release mix, is it even there at all, just buried?

What's the difference between Elemental and Elements?

elements removes most of the singing as well as everything else removed from the elemental mix, so it is more of a collection of chillout instrumentals

tear down this wall of sound!!

enjoyable listen indeed, and yeah had never noticed those guitars

it does sound more like (well what it is) the final product stripped stripped of a lot of channels that however noisy were pretty integral to how these versions of the songs worked, i don't really think one day at a time and fredapeople work this way

would probably prefer demo versions