JOHN LENNON - WALLS AND BRIDGES @ 50

 

Celebrating its golden jubilee at 50 years old is John Lennon's fifth solo studio album, Walls and Bridges, which was released on September 26th, 1974. While the album came along at the tail end of Lennon's notorious "lost weekend" era, its a remarkably coherent release, containing one of his most successful solo singles, Whatever Gets You Through the Night.

Back in June of 1973, Yoko Ono had suggested a separation between her and John, as an attempt to try to create some space between them and allow for a reassessment of their marriage. Lennon, with Yoko's encouragement, left NYC to set up camp in LA, taking along personal assistant and paramour, May Pang. Once in LA, Lennon briefly became involved in the now legendary LA party club, The Hollywood Vampires, an outfit that started as a softball team, but quickly mutated into a cadre of professional boozers haunting the LA strip, which included as its core members: ex-Monkee Micky Dolenz, Alice Cooper and Harry Nilsson. Lennon also got the chance to reconnect with firstborn son, Julian while in LA.

The initial plan was to record an album of classic vintage rock 'n' roll covers, with Phil Spectre producing. While the booze flowed and the tapes rolled, material was recorded, but the album went into limbo after Lennon and Pang returned to NYC and Spectre disappeared for a time with the recordings. The "Rock 'N' Roll" album would eventually get released in 1975, but in the meantime, Lennon returned to the east coast with a batch of new songs and a desire to get back into the studio to record something fresh.

Lennon began rehearsing his new material with studio musicians at Record Plant East in New York City in June 1974, which included Jim Keltner on drums, Klaus Voormann on bass guitar, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar and Arthur Jenkins on percussion. Once sessions began, a number of notable guests popped in, including Elton John, who helped out on Whatever Gets You Through the Night. Harry Nilsson contributed to Old Dirt Road, and son Julian played drums on the album closer, Ya Ya. Despite Lennon's debauchery in LA, the NYC sessions were noted as being surprisingly professional, with Lennon being organized and prepared throughout, though the core musicians were mostly responsible for working out their own arrangements as the recordings progressed.

The album proved to be exceptionally popular with fans, though critics were divided at the time, albeit the majority of reviews were some of the most positive for Lennon since the release of Imagine in 1971. Thought it might have seemed like Lennon was revitalizing his career, Walls and Bridges would turn out to be his penultimate collection of original music. The Rock 'N' Roll covers album would get finished and released in 1975, and then Lennon would take a five year career hiatus as he reconnected with Yoko Ono with the birth of their only child, Sean. Lennon's desire to be a present father for Sean trumped any career aspirations at that time. Sadly, as Lennon and Ono were on the path to reasserting their creative presence with the split Double Fantasy album, Lennon's career and life would come to a tragic end that fateful day in NYC outside his Manhattan apartment building.