Sentimental journey (Ringo Starr) (LP 3907 - 3914)

Ringo Starr  Sentimental Journey (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1970) **  

Ringo Starr  Beaucoups of Blues (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1970) ***

Ringo Starr  Ringo (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1973) ****  

Ringo Starr  Goodnight Vienna (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1974) ***

Ringo Starr  Blast From Your Past (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1975) ****  

Ringo Starr  Ringo's Rotogravure (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1976) ***

Ringo Starr  Ringo the 4th (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1977) ***

Ringo Starr  Bad Boy (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1978) **

Genre: Apple Records, pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, DJ Records, Marbecks Records. 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Photograph (Ringo)

Gear costume: Goodnight Vienna

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The focus on Ringo brings to conclusion the rundowns on the four solo Beatle careers. It's probably fitting that Ringo completes the picture because that's what he did for The Beatles, and his canon is the weakest of the four, even though he has put out a huge body of work. I have most of his albums, most of his singles/E.P.s and most of his books. I struggle to be a completist with his post Apple Records product, as gentle readers will pick up on as we proceed.

This first post will concentrate on the seventies' studio albums, which started in 1970 with two albums!

Sentimental Journey is his debut solo album - a trip through Ringo's childhood memory of standards that his parent's generation loved. He recruits some big names to do the arrangements: George Martin; Richard Perry, Maurice Gibb; Paul McCartney; Quincy Jones were some. All are sung by Ringo with his usual gusto and enthusiasm.

Ultimately though, this is a curiosity and as far away from rock'n'roll as he could get - which was probably the idea. The same went for his second album of 1970 - the country sounds of Beaucoup of Blues.

That one is a lot more fun and a natural fit for Ringo, given his love of country music and the crafty use of it as a vehicle while in The Beatles. He sounds more authentic on these songs and $15 Draw is a terrific song. 

He kind of wrote off these two albums and regarded his next one (Ringo) as the start of his solo career but he shouldn't. The standards album has become huge for a number of other artists (I think Rod Stewart has done 389 albums in that style now) and country music only became bigger and bigger during the seventies and beyond. That easy going, more laid-back genre suits him.

Ringo is notable for many reasons. All of The Beatles make an appearance and contribute songs, there are loads of superstar guests, and it hit a commercial peak for Bongo Starr. Each track has a freshness still in 2025!

John Lennon's I'm the Greatest was the lead off song on Ringo and he repeats that feat with the title track on Ringo's follow up album - Goodnight Vienna. Many of the same stellar guests appear and the musicianship is the equal to that of Ringo. The songs weren't as consistently as great though and while it's an enjoyable Ringo album it didn't replicate the commercial success of Ringo.

His Apple Records career ended with 1975's Blast from Your Past. It was a nifty compilation that included his successful singles It Don't Come Easy and Back Off Boogaloo as well as a B side (Early 1970) and the best from Beaucoup of Blues, Ringo, Goodnight Vienna.

All four Beatles turned up for Ringo's first album on Polydor - Ringo's Rotogravure (again, as with Ringo, all four weren't ever in the same room). This started out with the first two tracks as a much grittier rock'n'roll album but then quickly went back into safe Ringo style pop rock.

Again, there is a plethora of superstar guests. This time those being Eric Clapton, Harry Nilsson, Peter Frampton, Dr John and Melissa Manchester as well as the Fabs. The same formula that worked for Ringo and Goodnight Vienna is employed again, and again it is a fun Ringo style album.

Ringo the 4th followed a year later - he was certainly living up to the demands of his contract. It was a weird title, and a weird cover - Ringo holding a sword, with a girl perched on his shoulders. What was he and (girlfriend of the time) Nancy thinking? Plenty of material for Freudian analysis was the end result.

Gone were the guest superstars and the Fabs for this album. Instead, Ringo goes for a soul-pop sound with hints of disco. It did include some good songs like Gave it All Up which is one of my favourites, and Out on the Streets. 

The rest of the album, played by session musicians of wide repute is good too - certainly no worse or better than his previous two. Unfortunately, it did not stop the commercial slide begun with Ringo's Rotogravure.

Things would get worse before they got better with Bad Boy. It's basically a withdrawal from dance/ soul-pop into just anemic old school shuffle rock. If you thought anyone could sing Motown material (because it's that good - especially Holland/ Dozier/ Holland) - Ringo's version of Where Did Our Love Go will show that anyone can't. Sadly, the whole album sounds uninspired.  

Side bar: neither Bad Boy nor Ringo the 4th appear on Spotify.

Where do they all belong? A sad way to sign off from the seventies. His next album wouldn't appear until 1981.

Why (Yoko Ono) (LP 3412 - 3416)

Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band  Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band (CD/ vinyl, Apple Records/ Secretly Canadian Records, 1970) *****  

Yoko Ono  Fly (CD/ vinyl, Apple Records/ Secretly Canadian Records, 1971) ****  

Yoko Ono  Approximately Infinite Universe (CD/ vinyl, Apple Records/ Secretly Canadian Records, 1973) **** 

Yoko Ono  Feeling The Space (CD/ vinyl, Apple Records/ Secretly Canadian Records, 1973) **  

Yoko Ono  A Story (CD, Ryko, recorded 1974. released 1997) **   

Genre: Apple Records, Avant garde, experimental rock, rock 

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records, Real Groovy Records, Marbecks Records.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Why (Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band)

Gear costume: Looking Over From My Hotel Window (Approximately Infinite Universe); Mindtrain (Fly) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I've divided the Yoko collection into two parts. First part (this one) - the albums when John was alive, and second - the post John years.

I love each of these albums from the seventies. Yoko and John's albums were recorded with similar personnel and released at the same time, so they are often yin yang of a creative whole.

I lost all of these albums (on Apple Records) during a traumatic house move, so I bought new re-released copies with a lovely Grapefruit replacing the iconic Apple. All of the lavish packaging remains the same.

Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band is the sister album to John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band (the covers are similar with their positions reversed under that tree). Both were done as a response to their primal scream experiment. Both, for me, are their best albums because of the raw, naked delivery. Both have Ringo on drums and Klaus Voormann on bass (both take a suitably minimal approach).

Whereas John's album uses lyrics and has aspects of primal scream in his delivery, Yoko is all in, and John is all in on primal guitar. It's an extraordinary album with each track distinctive and effective. 

Why, the lead off song, is breathtaking. John's guitar is a howl of emotion and a mimic to Yoko's screaming WHY over and over. Her finest moment on record for me. I've played this song to countless people over the years, and no one gets it as I do. It's beautiful and frightening at the same time.

Fly is a double, recorded around the same time as Imagine. It's a transitional album - featuring some rock singing (Midsummer New York is brilliant), some traditional ballad styles (Mrs. Lennon is terrific) and Yoko's primal vocal gymnastics (Fly, the 'song', can be hard going, even for me). Mindtrain is an extraordinary 16+ minute track featuring John's mind-bending guitar again, and vocals by Yoko.

Approximately Infinite Universe, another double album, moves much more to a traditional pop/rock sound. It was recorded post Sometime In New York with Elephants Memory. They play with a lot more subtlety on Yoko's album.

It's sprawling and the quality varies over the four sides, but she gets credit for the high points. 

Her final album for Apple Records was Feeling The Space (concurrent with Mind Games). It's a stridently feminist album and worth your time, but it's not one of my favourites. John contributes but only on a few tracks.

A Story was recorded in 1974 without John (during the so-called 'lost weekend'), who was also at work - on Walls And Bridges. The style is again traditional pop/rock with Yoko trying a variety of styles similar to Feeling The Space. It went unreleased until after John's murder and is an interesting footnote.

Where do they all belong? The post John albums are next. Deep breath, because there are a lot of them!

Rock and roll springtime take 1 (Paul McCartney) (LP 3140 - 3150)

Paul McCartney  McCartney (CD and Vinyl, Apple Records, 1970) ***  

Paul & Linda McCartney   Ram (CD and Vinyl, Apple Records, 1971) *****  

Wings   Wildlife (CD and Vinyl, Apple Records, 1971) ***  

Paul McCartney & Wings   Red Rose Speedway (CD and Vinyl, Apple Records, 1973) ****  

Paul McCartney & Wings   Red Rose Speedway: Reconstructed (Double Vinyl, Capitol Records, 2018) *** 

Paul McCartney & Wings   Band On The Run (CD and Vinyl, Capitol Records, 2018) *****  

Paul McCartney & Wings   One Hand Clapping (Vinyl, UMC Records, 2024) ****    

Wings   Venus And Mars (CD, MPL Comms, 1975) ***

Wings   Wings At The Speed Of Sound (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1976) **    

Wings   London Town (Vinyl, Parlophone Records, 1978) **  

Wings   Back To The Egg (Vinyl, Parlophone Records, 1979) *** 

Genre: Apple records, pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records, DJ Records, Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Little Lamb Dragonfly (Red Rose Speedway)

Gear costume: Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five (One Hand Clapping). And about 20 others - he's amazing and churns out gear songs like a tap!

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: Clearly as a Beatles obsessive I also have to have every album each member released, so I'm going to have to split the McCartney albums up into decades (plus odds/sods and live albums) because this would be a monster post otherwise. Even so they are each going to be pretty expansive posts because he's been really prolific throughout his solo career!

The seventies Macca began with an album that just gets better as the years go by. The relatively homemade McCartney showed off his precocious talent. Everything he touches isn't always solid gold, but it damn near is!

This first solo album (with only some vocal contributions from Linda) has a lot of charm, and melodies to burn. I like the half-finished doodles as well as the well-formed, completed songs like Maybe I'm Amazed and Every Night. 

Yes, it's lo-fi and almost amateurish in approach but it was meant to be. Anyway, the world caught up with Macca and eventually appreciated this first album for what it was - an anti-Beatle album. By that I mean he attempts to distance himself from the other three and George Martin with an album recorded away from Abbey Road (even if it was a couple of streets away).

Second album and he's hitting top gear with the more polished, well-rounded Ram. This has always been one of my favourite albums - starting with Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey but including the snipes at John (Too Many People, Dear Boy). 

Other favourites are the Fab tunes like The Back Seat Of My Car, Monkberry Moon Delight. Five-star classic all the way!

Wildlife is credited to the newly created Wings. The cover is great, Tomorrow is great, but there are too many wobbly moments on it. Linda would eventually develop into a good backing vocalist, but she was never an assured solo voice. 

Dear Friend is interesting as another song directed at John but the album as a whole is dodgy.

I have a soft spot for Red Rose Speedway in its original format (the other version listed above is a 2018 release as a double album - apparently truer to Macca's original vision for the album).

First the original - it includes my favourite McCartney solo song of all time - Little Lamb Dragonfly. There are also a couple of other songs here that I love - One More Kiss and My Love (of course). I also don't have a problem with the suite of songs ending side 2.

The 2018 reconstructed double album version included Linda's Seaside Woman and I Would Only Smile and Denny Laine's Japanese Tears, various singles with their respective B-sides, early and rough mixes of several songs as well as previously unreleased studio and live recordings. It's as messy and incoherent as all that sounds. Fun to have though.

Band On The Run is a classic album. The story of how Denny, Linda, and Paul (especially) pulled this one out of the fire is well known. In adversity, genius emerged. The hits are well justified - the title track, Mrs Vandebilt, Bluebird, Let Me Roll It and especially Jet.

The Lennonism of Let Me Roll It has been mentioned before in despatches but I've also noticed how the song No Words sounds a lot like a George song - vocally and instrumentally. Eerie. 

One Hand Clapping was released last year, but it documents a short-lived iteration of Wings from the mid-seventies. Having just returned from Nashville and the superb Junior's Farm single, they are captured live in the Abbey Road studio in 1974. 

Geoff Britton is superb on drums and Jimmy McCulloch is in his element. They proved to be short-lived as Wings members but they added a lot of muscle to the band at the time.

They run through a staggering amount of songs on One Hand Clapping and as I listen, I'm just in awe of McCartney's seemingly unlimited ability to write catchy songs during this period. Wings were cool maan.

Venus And Mars is a good Wings album, but not a great one (unlike Band On The Run), because the material is inconsistent with real ups and downs. Downs are You Gave Me The Answer, Treat Her Gently, Crossroads theme.

But the ups are really up - Listen To What The Man Said, Letting Go, and even Magneto And Titanium Man is a lot of fun.

The return to the use of the Wings name is significant, as Macca tries to be generous with bandmates material. These emerge as good rock songs and fit the rock show remit. Sadly though, Macca is Macca! He's next level (with only John above him), and this isn't a democracy - let's not kid ourselves.

Wings At The Speed Of Sound was a second attempt at Wings as democratic band with everyone getting at least one lead vocal. Linda is still not a solo vocalist, Denny and new drummer Joe English (both of whom who can sing) seem a bad fit for the slight material somehow.

I refused to buy this album when it was released and only picked it up years later because I had to. I really don't like it. A lot of it makes me cringe (and, shock horror, I include Paul's songs in that statement). Of course, it was a commercial monster - which just goes to show.

The better songs would toughen up in a live setting (I'll get to Wings Over America later on) but here they are mild, soft rock versions. Beware My Love is the best song on the album, but it's markedly better done live.

Although the democratic experiments were over, London Town was not a return to form. Mull of Kintyre was the non-album giant hit but would have been completely incongruous on London Town.

Yikes - how the mighty were falling. It seemed to all get too cozy - I mean recording on a luxury yacht in The Virgin Islands? Pleeze. If soft yacht rock and laid-back Paulie is your thing then this is an album for you. 

That said, there were some positive signs: I've Had Enough has potential and gives a glimpse of what he's capable of when he's not coasting on silly love songs like Warm And Beautiful. His co-write/duet with Denny on Deliver Your Children is interesting as well, although the lyrics on this and elsewhere are terrible. 

Overall though, I'm more inclined to go with Back To The Egg. At least there are some rock songs on his last album of the seventies. Evidence: Getting Closer; Spin It On; even the ensemble Rockestra Theme.

Sadly though, the rest of the album is pretty forgettable. By the end of the seventies it appears he'd run out of steam, and all of the band changes in Wings had taken their toll as well.

Where do they all belong? In summary - a great couple of years at the start of the seventies but then diminishing returns at the end of the decade. Would the eighties see a return to greatness? Tune in for the next post for the answer.

Silent Night (Phil Spector) (LP 1074)

Various  Phil Spector's Christmas Album (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1972) ****  

Genre: Pop, Apple Records

Places I remember: NZ pressing from The Music Box (Hastings), US pressing from a swap with Noel Forth

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love

Gear costume: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town - The Crystals

Active compensatory factors: Something of a Christmas classic, this is another weird one for Apple to put out as it was a retitled reissue of Phillies Records album A Christmas Gift For You from 1963.

Phil's size tens are all over these tracks and the final one has him doing a weird voice over. It's hard not to factor in the strangeness of Phil Spector while listening, but Darlene Love et al manage to do that each time via their sheer force of nature-ness.

I've used 'weird' a few times in this post, but it's an apposite adjective to use on this Christmas celebration.

Where do they all belong? That completes the Apple Records corner of my collection for both CDs and vinyl.

One day (at a time) (John Lennon) (LP 1073)

John Lennon  Mind Games (Vinyl and CD copies, Apple Records, 1973) *****  

Genre: Beatle pop, Apple Records

Places I remember: My first copy - a NZ pressing, came from DJ Records in Otahuhu, others have come from Chaldon Books and Records (UK pressings), JB Hi Fi and Real Groovy.
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Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Meat City

Gear costume: Tight A$

Active compensatory factors: I remember buying this (and Ringo) so clearly - sitting in the car in Otahuhu and poring over the album notes and images. I loved it before even getting it home.

I wasn't disappointed when I placed it on my Garrard SP25 Mk 3 turntable. In fact I loved it more than my other Lennon albums to that point (and I really loved each one). I'm not sure why - maybe the love songs, maybe the messages to Yoko, maybe the hard edge to Meat City (that single with Move Over Ms L on the B side is awesomeness personified).

At the time, I didn't know the details of his personal life and the breakup with Yoko. All seemed well on the strength of these love songs to her (Move Over Ms L excepted), plus the music papers (Sounds) concentrated on music back in the day and not celebrity gossip.

I know it's not regarded highly these days, but back in 1973 there was no other album that I loved more. Of all his albums this is the one where I seek out different pressings, even budget versions. In my world, there is something magical about Mind Games.

Where do they all belong? Walls And Bridges and Rock 'n' Roll up next.

Games people play (Joe South) (LP 1021 - 1022)

Alexandro Jodorowsky/ John Barham  Original Motion Picture Score El Topo (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1971) ***  

Various  Original Soundtrack Recording Come Together (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1971) **  

Genre: Soundtracks; Apple Records

Places I remember: Both of these came from swapping stuff with Noel Forth.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: La Primera Flor...

Gear costume: Love is Blue - The Dells

Active compensatory factors: John Lennon's interest in the El Topo film lead to this weird oddity appearing on the Apple Records label. 

The film itself is a violent, surreal anti-western that will either expand your consciousness or test your patience (sometimes both at the same time).

The music is interesting and stands alone as a series of instrumental compositions.

Come Together is a ménage à trois road movie, also from 1971. The soundtrack is a mish mash of dialogue from the movie, hits by The Dells and Joe South and instrumental interludes. 

Someone at Apple thought this was a good idea at the time. It wasn't.

Where do they all belong? Just a various collection from Phil Spector to come in the Apple Records collection - the great Christmas album.

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.

Sweet music (Lon and Derrek Van Eaton) (LP 992)

Lon and Derrek Van Eaton  Brother (Vinyl, Apple Records - UK pressing, 1972) *** 

Genre: Apple Records, pop/rock

Places I remember: Marbeck's Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Help Us All

Gear costume: Without The Lord

Active compensatory factors: George Harrison heard a demo recording by the brothers and liked it enough to make the American brothers one of the last signings for Apple Records. 

I suspect he liked being reminded of the soulful gospel vibe being generated by Delaney and Bonnie. And again - a lot of the songs sound like Harrison's own.

Ringo makes an appearance, along with Jim Gordon and Klaus Voormann who took over the production duties for George. So it naturally sounds Beatlesque in parts, in terms of the music.

Although it wasn't commercially successful at the time, its appeal has grown with the years. However, it's not an album I reach for on a regular basis!

Where do they all belong? Their only album for Apple Records, they subsequently moved back to the US and to A&M, but not Dark Horse, which is interesting. I didn't have any desire to collect their non Apple efforts.

Love (John Lennon) (LP 985)

John Lennon  John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band (various Vinyl and various CD formats, Apple Records, 1970) *****  

Genre: Beatle pop/ rock; Apple Records

Places I remember: DJ Records; JB Hi-Fi; Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Love

Gear costume: God

Active compensatory factors: Every song on this extraordinary album, my favourite album of all time, is, in its own way, a masterpiece.

It has an amazing after life too - its ripples continue outwards. Only last week I was in the Kinokuniya bookshop in the Dubai Mall buying a very expensive, very heavy book about this and Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band (her 1970 companion album).

Imagine (the song and album) were my entry point, and I backtracked to find John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band. I approached with caution because all the stories of primal screaming had me thinking this was an Avant Garde collection of screaming.

I still remember the shock of discovery - that this was brilliance unconfined. I was a Beatle fan and now it was in full focus: I was now a John Lennon fanatic as well.

Apart from the harrowing end section of Mother and Well Well Well, it's a calmly considered series of incredibly open and honest ruminations on love, life, relationships, and music. Everything important basically.

Only John Lennon could have written and performed these songs. That he did so at the end of the sixties after eight years of continual peaks and ground-breaking sounds and songs is nothing short of super-human.

Listening to it again now, I'm struck by how timeless it is. It's stripped back to essentials in approach too - just Ringo, Klaus and John for the most part. Absolutely - less is more.

Sequencing is perfect as well. There is a healthy mix of the visceral (Well Well Well, I Found Out) with the tender and loving.

Love, gentle and vulnerable, follows Remember. My Mummy's Dead ends the album - John's pain fully evident. The Mother/My Mummy's Dead tracks bookend the album - it's back to the start, back to the womb for John and he's freed up in the process.

Then there's this albums' A Day In The Life song - God. It's a new start, a newly reborn John that emerges from this song - reality- wow, what a concept!

Remarkable. Just remarkable.

The iconic cover is perfect as well. John and Yoko at Tittenhurst - together under that spreading tree. 

I commissioned my mother to paint the scene - and her result sits in my music room at Maple Grove. I treasure it for many different reasons but the calming influence of the painted scene stays with me wherever I am.

Where do they all belong? Imagine is next.

No bed for Beatle John (Yoko Ono) (LP 950 - 953)

Yoko Ono/ John Lennon  Unfinished Music #1: Two Virgins (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1968) * 

John Lennon/ Yoko Ono  Unfinished Music #2: Life With The Lions (Vinyl and CD, Zapple Records, 1969) * 

John Ono Lennon & Yoko Ono Lennon  Wedding Album (Vinyl and CD, Apple Records, 1969) * 

The Plastic Ono Band  Live Peace In Toronto 1969 (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1969) **** 

Genre: Beatle pop/rock

Places I remember: Vinyl: Noel Forth helped me get Two Virgins, Wedding Album (from Japan), and Live Peace. Life With The Lions came from Marbecks before I knew Roger and all the CDs are from Real Groovy.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Blue Suede Shoes (Live Peace)

Gear costume: Yer Blues (Live Peace); No Bed For Beatle John (Unfinished Music #2)

Active compensatory factors: These first four albums outside of The Beatles will severely test your resolve and commitment to both John and Yoko. I passed that test but it was a close thing at times.

Unfinished Music #1 (and yes my vinyl version came in a brown paper sleeve with cut outs for the faces and the album name as pictured above) is more infamous for its cover (the pair celebrating their union with a frontal nude shot - as you do) than its contents. 

It's not music as such - more a continuation of the sound collage they started with Revolution #9 on The Beatles.

Except, I really like Revolution #9. Two Virgins is much less effective as a collage.

Unfinished Music #2 collects an appearance the two made at Cambridge University - John on squawking feedback and Yoko on screaming for 26 minutes and 31 seconds, with material from a hospital stay in 1968 during which Yoko tragically miscarried.

She sings No Bed For Beatle John, the baby's heart beat is recorded, followed by a 2 minute silence and then a track where John flicks restlessly around a radio dial. Shesh.

By comparison, Wedding Album is relatively straight-forward with a side of John and Yoko repeating each other's names and a side of various press conferences from their bedisms.

Finally, there is some music on Live Peace in Toronto 1969! Wahoo, and for the most part it's spirited and remarkably coherent - given the band (Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and the Lennons) rehearsed on the plane ride to Toronto.

Side One's a fab mix of old rock'n'roll numbers, a Beatle song (Yer Blues) and a couple of solo singles. I love it!

The second side is Yoko doing her thing (all over you) on two songs. Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow) has its moments with John and Eric supplying some grunty guitar but the lengthy John John (Let's Hope For Peace) again tests that resolve.

Where do they all belong? After he got those four albums out of his system, our hero put out a five star classic and only my favourite album of all time (coming soon).