1970 was an enormous turning point in North American youth culture and rock ‘n roll. That year marked the transition from the “flower power” era to the “me” decade. The counterculture struggle for love and peace was giving way to disillusionment and self-introspection, which was reflected in the music of artists such as James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, who greatly contributed to the more personal and introspective direction the singer-songwriter genre took in the seventies.

The seventies singer-songwriter genre would be incomplete without mentioning John Lennon. 1970 was a pivotal turning point in his life and music as well. Lennon’s former band, the Beatles, together with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, were one of the rock ‘n roll casualties that year. Many feel that the iconic band’s breakup was truly when the transition from the sixties to the seventies began. In addition the Beatles’ split, Lennon also successfully overcame depression and heroin addiction through a controversial psychiatric technique known as Primal therapy, in which a person confronts their neurosis by re-experiencing a repressed childhood trauma that is the source of the neurosis. Through this exorcism of inner demons, Lennon produced what many consider to be his finest solo album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

In their continuing exploration of the behind-the-scenes tales of the creation of some of the best pop albums ever made, the Classic Albums series presents a thorough and haunting look at the making of this landmark album, through archival footage and new interviews with almost everyone involved. 

In 1970, John Lennon was no longer a kid in his twenties with the Beatles. He was now a man of thirty with a new outlook on life and openly confronted heady issues such as abandonment, loss and isolation in his songwriting and laying his soul bare, thus resulting in a new musical direction that was only hinted at in the Beatles. Lennon had grown tired with the grandiose progressive pop productions that the Beatles albums had become, and for this album decided to take a very minimalist approach. The band Lennon used was a three-piece, consisting of himself on vocals, lead & rhythm guitars and piano, longtime friend Klaus Voorman on bass and former Beatle and friend Ringo Starr on drums. (Fortunately, Lennon’s wife Yoko Ono has almost no contributions to the album. She would unleash her “unique” brand of singing on the companion piece album, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band.) Legendary producer Phil Spector is credited with the production, however, it is revealed in the interviews on the program that he was hardly present and JL/POB was largely self-produced.

In addition to the trio, the music and production were also quite barebones. The songs were basic, straightforward rock ‘n roll and were recorded live to tape in just one or two takes, with little overdubbing and mixing.

The standout tracks on the album that perfectly capture what Lennon confronted in therapy and his new musical direction are Mother, Working Class Hero and God. In Mother Lennon sings of his mother’s death and father’s abandonment with a vocal that utilizes the guttural screaming that is used in Primal therapy. Working Class Hero is a scathing attack on the alienation and isolation of the British class system. The song encountered controversy, as it was the first to use the word “fuck”. In God, Lennon vehemently expresses his contempt for religious belief singing that God is “a concept by which we measure our pain.” He then proceeds to voice his disbelief in various religious, pop and political figures and idols: the Beatles, magic, I Ching, the Bible, tarot, Hitler, Jesus, Kennedy, Buddha, mantra, the Bhagavad-Gita, yoga, kings, Elvis and Zimmerman (Bob Dylan). The song also featured the album’s only guest appearance, with Billy Preston playing piano, as he had on some tracks on the Beatles’ Let it Be album.

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band received high praise upon its release for its simplicity and stark honesty. The album was also a commercial success making the Top Ten in both the US and UK. Lennon would continue to release albums throughout the decade and up to his tragic death in 1980. Those albums would achieve greater success than JL/POB, but they never repeated its frankness or its simplistic composition and production values.

This classic album perfectly captures, not only the transition and evolution of an artist, but also of eras, decades, musical genres and attitudes. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band casts off the optimism of the “flower power” sixties and foreshadows the disillusionment and dark self-introspection of the “me” decade seventies, and is still quite relevant and potent today.

 Review By Thomas Marchese