John Lennon Cold Turkey/ Don't Worry, Kyoko (Apple, A 8967, 1969 - Australia)
John Lennon Mother/ Why (Apple, 1827, 1970 - USA)
John Lennon Instant Karma/ Who Has Seen The Wind? (Apple, APPLES 1003, 1970 - USA)
John Lennon Instant Karma/ Who Has Seen The Wind? (Parlophone, APPLES 1003, 1970 - New Zealand)
John Lennon Instant Karma/ Who Has Seen The Wind? (Apple, APPLE 9084, 1970 - Australia)
Okay - time for another deep breath. The next series of posts will focus on my hero - John Ono Lennon.
It'll get a tad messy at times because I have multiple versions of these singles - the differences centre mainly on the country of origin. The Apple and Parlophone labels will also differentiate them at times.
The first batch gets underway with the legendary Give Peace A Chance and takes in two years work from 1969 to 1970 and, therefore, overlaps with Beatle John.
Give Peace works...somehow. All those name checks and yet it became an anthem. It also helps that it's a catchy damn toon.
Mother is a bizarre single's choice. This one was released in America at some point. It's not one of my favourite Lennon songs, I grant you, but who thought this could trouble the single's chart?
Cold Turkey and Instant Karma are great singles though. They highlight JOL's talent for brutally self examining his pain and a pop hook. respectively. That grinding metallic guitar sound is amazing on Cold Turkey and the drum pattern on Karma sells the song.
Hidden gems: The B sides are all Yoko Ono songs - an idea that lasted until 1973 and the so called 'lost weekend' (with a couple of exceptions). I need to state at the outset that I'm a Yoko fan. So these are definitely gems.
Why (no question mark) is an amazing sonic adventure, helped by John's brutal guitar and Ringo's driving drums.
Remember Love and Who Has Seen The Wind? are at the opposite end of the noise continuum. Soft guitar and lovely vocals from Yoko replace Why and Kyoko's screams.
As for Don't Worry, Kyoko - John famously declared it the best rock'n'roll song ever written - while I applaud his enthusiasm, he was biased. But Why? Now I might go along with that!
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