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You have to put things into historical context to make sense of them. How we see the legacy of John Lennon in 2021 is not necessarily how he saw his work in the

You have to put things into historical context to make sense of them. How we see the legacy of John Lennon in 2021 is not necessarily how he saw his work in the 70s. Do a search for Beatles songs that John didn't like and you'll find a long list of fan favorites that he couldn't stand. When he was done with the Beatles he tried to do more avant guarde work with Yoko Ono. To him that was the future. But the result was commercial and critical failure. His Plastic Ono Band album did OK but Yoko's received universal disdain. A few records later and a few more failed attempts to get people to like Yoko's music and John Lennon essentially retired. He didn't want to make albums by himself. Now, keep in mind that "retired" is relative. The Beatles released 21 albums in 10 years. Not recording an album in a couple of years was an eternity for John. The linked article talks about how John thought that Rock Lobster by the B52s was similar to Yoko's Why. He thought that society had finally caught up and was ready for the music that he wanted to make with Yoko Ono. The result was Double Fantasy which received bad initial reviews. Sales of the album skyrocketed but only after John was murdered. And to this day when people listen to the album they listen to John's more conventional songs but skip Yoko's more "kooky" music. That's the crux of my comment. John assumed that people didn't like their "kooky" music not because it was bad but because people weren't ready for it in 1970. And he thought that people would be ready for it in 1980. And he was wrong. People didn't mind "kooky" music as evidenced by the success of bands like the B52s. They just didn't like his. No one remembers John Lennon for the "kooky" music that he made with Yoko Ono. They remember John Lennon for Come Together and Imagine.

wolverine876 5y ago
Maybe Lennon just liked the music with Yoko, possibly had opinions about it (arguably sophisticated ones, being a brilliant, immensely successful professional musician and songwriter), and didn't care if it was popular. We can't read Lennon's mind; any comments on someone else's thinking are BS without direct evidence from the person themself. Many people see little relationship between the popularity of music and its 'quality', whatever that means, including me. The more sophisticated my understanding becomes in anything, the more I diverge from the public norm: in any domain, the public is unsophisticated because most people are unsophisticated - i.e., that includes me; you can't be sophisticated in more than a few things. We might expect Lennon had much different taste than others. I'd sure love to learn to see it from Lennon's perspective.

wolverine876 5y ago

Maybe Lennon just liked the music with Yoko, possibly had opinions about it (arguably sophisticated ones, being a brilliant, immensely successful professional musician and songwriter), and didn't care if it was popular. We can't read Lennon's mind; any comments on someone else's thinking are BS without direct evidence from the person themself. Many people see little relationship between the popularity of music and its 'quality', whatever that means, including me. The more sophisticated my understanding becomes in anything, the more I diverge from the public norm: in any domain, the public is unsophisticated because most people are unsophisticated - i.e., that includes me; you can't be sophisticated in more than a few things. We might expect Lennon had much different taste than others. I'd sure love to learn to see it from Lennon's perspective.