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John Lennon: Double Fantasy

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Geffen Records
Released: 1980.11.17
Time:
 54:10
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Jack Douglas
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.johnlennon.com
Appears with: The Beatles
Purchase date: 2014
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] (Just Like) Starting Over (Lennon) - 3:56
[2] Kiss Kiss Kiss (Ono) - 2:41
[3] Cleanup Time (Lennon) - 2:58
[4] Give Me Something (Ono) - 1:35
[5] I'm Losing You (Lennon) - 3:57
[6] I'm Moving On (Ono) - 2:20
[7] Beautiful Boy [Darling Boy] (Lennon) - 4:02
[8] Watching the Wheels (Lennon) - 3:35
[9] Yes, I'm Your Angel (Ono) - 3:08
[10] Woman (Lennon) - 3:32
[11] Beautiful Boys (Ono) - 2:55
[12] Dear Yoko (Lennon) - 2:34
[13] Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him (Ono) - 4:02
[14] Hard Times Are Over (Ono) - 3:20

          2000 reissue bonus tracks:
[15] Help Me to Help Myself (Lennon) - 2:37
[16] Walking on Thin Ice (Ono) - 6:00
[17] Central Park Stroll (Dialogue) - 0:17

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


John Lennon - Lead, Harmony & Background Vocals, Rhythm & Acoustic Guitars, Piano & Keyboards, Arranger, Producer
Yoko Ono - Lead & Background Vocals, Arranger, Producer
Earl Slick - Lead Guitar
Hugh Mccracken - Lead Guitar
Tony Levin - Bass
George Small - Keyboards
Andy Newmark - Drums
Arthur Jenkins - Percussion
Ed Walsh - Oberheim Synthesizer
Robert Greenidge - Steel Drum on [7]
Matthew Cunningham - Hammer Dulcimer on [8]
Randy Stein - English Concertina
Howard Johnson - Horns
Grant Hungerford - Horns
John Parran - Horns
Seldon Powell - Horns
George "Young" Opalisky - Horns
Roger Rosenberg - Horns
David Tofani - Horns
Ronald Tooley - Horns
Tony Davillo - Horn Arrangements, Musical Associate
Michelle Simpson - Background Vocals
Cassandra Wooten - Background Vocals
Cheryl Mason Jacks - Background Vocals
Eric Troyer - Background Vocals
Benny Cummings Singers - Background Vocals
The Kings Temple Choir - Background Vocals

Jack Douglas - Arranger, Producer
Toshihiro Hamaya - Production Assistant
Frederic Seaman - Production Assistant
Julie Last - Assistant Engineer
George Marino - Original Mastering & Remastering
Lee Decarlo - Engineer
Jon Smith - Assistant Engineer
Anthony Davilio - Musical Associate
James A. Ball - Assistant Engineer
Bob Gruen - Photography
Kishin Shinoyama - Cover Photo & Photography
Karla Merrifield - Reissue Art Coordinator
Nishi F Saimaru - Photography
David Spindel - Photography
Lilo Raymond - Photography
Christopher Whorf - Artwork
Bruce Replogle - Publicist

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1980 LP Geffen Records GHS 2001
1980 MC Geffen Records W5 2001
2000 CD Capitol Records 528 7392

Recorded between 7 August 1980 - 22 September 1980 at The Hit Factory, New York.



It is, of course, impossible to separate the album from what happened immediately after it was released. In late November 1980, John Lennon made his musical return after five years of self-imposed retirement with Double Fantasy, a full-fledged collaboration with his wife, Yoko Ono; on December 8th of that year, he was murdered on his way home from a recording studio. Rather than being his comeback, Double Fantasy became Lennon's sweet, gentle farewell.

But it would have been a rock & roll event regardless. After a self-indulgent, eighteen-month "lost weekend," a separation from Ono and a few disappointing albums, Lennon had retreated into a life of domesticity in late 1975, devoting himself to being a househusband and a father to his son Sean.

In the spring of 1980, Lennon and Sean sailed to Bermuda for a brief vacation; there Lennon became intrigued by New Wave musicians like the Pretenders, Lene Lovich and Madness. And when he heard the B-52's song "Rock Lobster," he was spurred to action. "It sounds just like Ono's music," he told Rolling Stone, "so I said to myself, 'It's time to get out the old axe and wake the wife up!'"

Lennon would write a song, call Ono in New York and sing it to her; she would answer with a new tune she had written. They wrote more than two dozen songs in three weeks, then recorded two albums' worth of material at the Hit Factory, in New York City. He went into the studio, Lennon later said, "not to prove anything but just to enjoy it."

The result was structured as a dialogue — one song by Lennon, then one by Ono — dealing with their trials, their separation and, above all, their love. Despite the tensions brought to the surface in songs like Lennon's "I'm Losing You" and Ono's "I'm Moving On," most of the album deals with the contentment Lennon enjoyed once he had left the music business behind. "No longer riding on the merry-go-round," he sings in the marvelous, contemplative "Watching the Wheels," "I just had to let it go."

Initial critical reaction was not unanimously favorable. Some early reviewers attacked Double Fantasy for its cozy domesticity, and several other prominent pans were written but withdrawn from publication after Lennon's death. But in the end the album proved to be durable not just as — in the words of Rolling Stone contributor Stephen Holden — "an exemplary portrait of a perfect heterosexual union" but as a lovely picture of the happiness two artists had found in each other. "I cannot be a punk in Hamburg and Liverpool anymore," said Lennon three days before his murder. "I'm older now. I see the world through different eyes. I still believe in love, peace and understanding, as Elvis Costello said, and what's so funny about love, peace and understanding?"

29 of 100 Best Albums of the Eighties
RollingStone.com



Upon its release, Double Fantasy by no means attracted universal acclaim. Within weeks of that initial scepticism, however, a work that had at first seemed irredeemably self-absorbed was transformed into poignant by John Lennon’s murder at the hands of a gun-wielding ex-fan.

We will never know whether a critical rehabilitation would have naturally occurred when people got over their initial shock: first, at the fact that half of Lennon’s comeback album after a five-year absence was composed of cuts by wife Yoko Ono, and secondly at John’s evident lack of interest in living up to his previous image of scornful rock‘n’roll revolutionary. However, it has to be said that much of the world has an erroneous impression of this album's contents. It is a far, far tougher record than is understood by those who have only heard (Just Like) Starting Over, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), Watching the Wheels and Woman. The heavy airplay said cuts (all Lennon songs) received created an impression among those who did not possess the album of a soporific, gushing work on which John let his domestic bliss overwhelm his usual descriptive and analytical gifts. This impression will have put many off purchasing the album – and prevented them from apprehending that it contains some biting music not even hinted at in those songs. Ditto for its nuanced examination of marriage.

Completely unexpectedly, Yoko’s songs are just as good as her husband’s, an example being Kiss Kiss Kiss, in which avant-garde drop-outs and spoken-word Japanese overdubs go hand in hand with piercing guitar work. She consistently sings beautifully, banishing forever memories of her infamous caterwauling on the Live Peace in Toronto album. Not that John is slack: his Cleanup Time is powerful rock which incongruously celebrates his househusband status, and while Dear Yoko sees him giving thanks to his wife simply for existing, such sentimentality doesn't preclude a delightful strutting old-time rock‘n’roll backdrop.

Meanwhile, on three pulsating tracks sequenced together – Give Me Something (Yoko), I'm Losing You (John) and I'm Moving On (Yoko) – the couple seem to be engaging in a dialogue about the sometimes perilous terrain of marriage. In a perfect symbol of the way that the two have become one, the closing Hard Times Are Over is a Yoko track that, in its vulnerability and surrender to love, would make you swear it was a John song.

Sean Egan, 2010 - BBC Review



The most distinctive thing about Double Fantasy, the last album John Lennon released during his lifetime, is the very thing that keeps it from being a graceful return to form from the singer/songwriter, returning to active duty after five years of self-imposed exile. As legend has it, Lennon spent those years in domestic bliss, being a husband, raising a baby, and, of course, baking bread. Double Fantasy was designed as a window into that bliss and, to that extent, he decided to make it a joint album with Yoko Ono, to illustrate how complete their union was. For her part, Ono decided to take a stab at pop and while these are relatively tuneful for her, they nevertheless disrupt the feel and flow of Lennon's material, which has a consistent tone and theme. He's surprisingly sentimental, not just when he's expressing love for his wife ("Dear Yoko," "Woman") and child ("Beautiful Boy [Darling Boy]"), but when he's coming to terms with his quiet years ("Watching the Wheels," "Cleanup Time") and his return to creative life. These are really nice tunes, and what's special about them is their niceness - it's a sweet acceptance of middle age, which, of course, makes his assassination all the sadder. For that alone, Double Fantasy is noteworthy, yet it's hard not to think that it's a bit of a missed opportunity - primarily because its themes would be stronger without the Ono songs, but also because the production is just a little bit too slick and constrained, sounding very much of its time. Ultimately, these complaints fall by the wayside because Lennon's best songs here cement the last part of his legend, capturing him at peace and in love. According to some reports, that perception was a bit of a fantasy, but sometimes the fantasy means more than the reality, and that's certainly the case here.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine - All Music Guide



Strange as it seems now, the last album John Lennon released in his lifetime was intended as a comeback, or rather as a parting wave at retirement: "Watching the Wheels" and "Beautiful Boy" celebrate the joys he found outside the star system, and "(Just Like) Starting Over" is a slightly awkward rocker about rejoining the domestic world that's also sort of about rejoining the pop world. The studio-pro arrangements are a little too slick, but Lennon rarely sounded happier. Ono, whose songs alternate with his in a series of thematic diptychs, was taking a stab at channeling her artier impulses into pop and is generally less successful--her voice works in a context of art-weirdness, but not as well in conventional tunes. This 2000 remastered reissue is fleshed out with a demo of "Help Me to Help Myself" and Ono's solo version of "Walking on Thin Ice," which was recorded on the same day her husband was shot to death.

Douglas Wolk - Amazon.com



Double Fantasy is a 1980 album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It is the seventh and final studio album released by Lennon in his lifetime. Though initially poorly received, the album is notable for its association with Lennon's murder three weeks after its release, whereupon it became a worldwide commercial success, and went on to win the 1981 Album of the Year at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards.

Initial critical reaction to the album was largely negative. However, three weeks after the album's release, Lennon was murdered and many of the poor reviews were withdrawn from publication, including those by Stephen Holden of The New York Times, Tom Carson of Rolling Stone, and Geoffrey Stokes of The Village Voice. The negative reviews focused on the album's idealisation of Lennon and Ono's marriage. Stokes found the concept and theme to be "basically misogynist", and Kit Rachlis of the Boston Phoenix admitted to being "annoyed" by Lennon and Ono's assumption "that lots of people care deeply" about them.

Double Fantasy finished 37th in The Village Voice '​s 1980 Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 7th on his own list of the year's best albums. Although he was put off by its simplistic lyrics and music upon first listen, Christgau said that the music works a "minor miracle" with "rich, precise" song form and a "command of readymades" to put "the anonymous usages of studio rock to striking artistic purpose." He felt that the use of alternating Ono's improved vocals with Lennon's "makes the union come alive" better than his outspoken, straightforward lyrics, and concluded that the album is not great, but "memorable and gratifying" as rare, "connubial rock and roll".

In 1982, Douglas, Lennon and Ono won the 1981 Album of the Year for Double Fantasy at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards. In 1989 the album was ranked number 29 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album that Lennon had signed for his murderer only hours before his death was put on sale at a price of $525,000 (equivalent to $673,060 today).

Wikipedia.org
 

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