John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

I've been listening to post-Beatle albums by Paul McCartney, so I should give equal time to John Lennon. His solo debut (not including experimental works with Yoko Ono) was John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and it's amazing, perhaps the best Beatles solo album. What impresses is the rawness of both the sound and the emotion.

Released in 1970, the album begins with funeral bells, and then breaks into "Mother." Lennon never got over the death of his mother, who gave him away (though the two still saw each other) to be raised by his Aunt Mimi. He also sings about his sailor father, who was not a presence in his life. The naked emotion of his vocals is very powerful.

"Mama, don't go! Daddy, come home!" he sings, or rather wails. Listening to this song is like eavesdropping on someone's therapy session. If we weren't yet aware of his circumstances, the album ends with "My Mummy's Dead."

Also on this album is "Working Class Hero," which is a song that never goes out of political fashion:

"They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
'Til you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules"

Interestingly, Lennon didn't really grow up working class. To hear Ringo tell it, John was posh, going to art school and living in middle class comfort with his aunt and uncle.

The great song on this record is "God," which defines the title for Lennon: "God is a concept by which we measure our pain," which I've never really understood. He then lists people and movements he does not believe in, ranging from Jesus to Hitler to Zimmerman (Bob  Dylan). Finally he sings,

"I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me, Yoko and me
That's reality"

Then, in a verse so poignant it makes the heart swell, Lennon says goodbye to his fans, in a vocal that Greil Marcus called the best in rock history:

"The dream is over
What can I say?
The dream is over
Yesterday
I was the dream weaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the walrus
But now I'm John
And so, dear friends,
You'll just have to carry on
The dream is over."

After Lennon was killed, there was a memorial service outside the Dakota. I didn't go into the city that day, but listened on WNEW-FM. There was a ten-minute moment of silence and the first song they played coming back was that one. You can imagine how much of a wreck that made me.

The album also includes basic Lennon staples as "Love," and "Isolation," and "Well, Well." I think if you wanted to explain John Lennon to anyone who didn't know who he was, this would be the album to do it.