A Record a Week: John Lennon - Rock 'n' Roll

SIDE 1.
BE-BOP-A-LULA
STAND BY ME
MEDLEY:
-READY TEDDY
-RIP IT UP
YOU CAN'T CATCH ME
AIN'T THAT A SHAME
DO YOU WANT TO DANCE
 SWEET LITTLE SIXTEEN

SIDE 2.
SLIPPIN' AND SLIDIN'
PEGGY SUE
MEDLEY:
-BRING IT ON HOME TO ME
-SEND ME SOME LOVIN'
BONY MORONIE
YA YA
JUST BECAUSE

The more I find out about John Lennon, the less interested I am in reading about him. He wasn't a good person and I don't want him to ruin the Beatles for me. I can't take away the fact that he was a large part of the Beatles, but I'm not a super fan of his solo career (to be fair, not really of any of the Beatles' save for a few McCartney songs). His singing is not terrific and I get the feeling he took himself far too seriously. As for Yoko Ono, I'm not even getting into that. She's like the Andy Warhol of music. They had briefly split at the time this record came out, so I guess she wasn't making decisions for him or whatever it was she did.

But I digress. On this album, Lennon plays the Rock standards of the 50s and 60s, including three songs from a catalogue he had agreed to release songs from as part of a lawsuit with a producer.  He also does a few medleys, including the B-Side medley where he plays Bring it on Home to me, a song my family plays, and he does it no justice (nor do we, probably...although my Uncle Jim can really nail it on the piano). I guess I should say I am most familiar with the Animals version of the song and he could be more similar to the original Sam Cooke version. Either way, it didn't really interest me and that was a common theme throughout my listening. Maybe I don't 'get it' with the John Lennon obsession, but I'm pretty alright with that at this point.