Everybody seems to think I'm lazy (the Beatles) (LP 1020)

John Lennon Plastic Ono Band   Imagine (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1971) ****  

Genre: Beatle pop/rock, Apple Records

Places I remember: George Courts (K Rd); JB Hi Fi (CD); HMV (Oxford Street) - special edition

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Jealous Guy

Gear costume: Imagine 

Active compensatory factors: For a self-confessed lazy sod (I'm Only Sleeping, Watching The Wheels) he was certainly a busy musician. He didn't slow down at all when The Beatles wound up activities after they's passed the audition on the rooftop's final live performance.

Instead things kept going at a frenetic pace. Every year from 1968 onwards: solo albums; Yoko 'sister' albums; cameos; production for others; peace activities; agitation activities; art shows; films...it just boggles the mind how much this lazy sod was capable of doing up until the house-hubbie years starting in 1975.

Imagine (the song) is where I first sat up and took notice of solo Lennon. As a Fab, he'd mesmerized and captured my whole imagination on The Ed Sullivan Show (my eyes just kept going back to him!),  but the weird Lennon/Ono album phase and first true solo album in 197o had passed me by.

Then I bought Solid Gold Hits Vol 2. The one with Imagine on it. That did it. I had to have the album!

I played it so much in 1971/1972 that I wore out the grooves a tad.

The album has all the best and all the worst of John Lennon on display - he was, like many of us, a contradiction, an enigma, But, unlike many of us, he was also a true genius.

So, we get the sublime (the title track's love for mankind) and the petty (How Do I sleep's laceration of Macca). We get the tender (How?, Oh My Love) and the brutal (I Don't Want To Be A Soldier). We get the self-obsessed examination (Jealous Guy) and the deep consideration for others (Oh Yoko). We get the depressed and unsubtle (It's So Hard) and the wide eyed and hopeful (Imagine). We get the playful (Crippled Inside), and we get the plain and serious (Gimme Some Truth).

He was complicated, and that's why I love him and his work so much. That's why so many gravitated to him.

The musicians are brilliant too; something not often acknowledged was his ability to spot talent and keep loyal friends onboard (he discovered Paul McCartney after all). So, say hello to Klaus Voormann, Alan White, George Harrison, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins. All appear again and again on his solo albums.

Sidebar: Given the use of the genius word, you may be wondering about the 4 stars. I have to deduct a star for the last two songs on side 1. I've just never liked them much and they seem to jar.

Where do they all belong? The political New York double album is up next.