Pictured above: John Lennon, 1971
“I think George stopped hating me by 1971, based on him actually inviting me to that Bangladesh concert. I ended up not making it due to an argument with Yoko over Georgie not letting her participate, but I did ask him if he’d be good for doing some guitar work for the album.”
- John Lennon, 1979
With the album Imagine, John Lennon was trying for a more accessible sound compared to Plastic Ono Band’s self-titled. It was originally intended to be a solo album, however, at his wife Yoko Ono’s insistence, it became a Plastic Ono Band album with songs from the two of them. However, Yoko had some songs that were deemed unsuitable for the album, some due to being too long, some due to being too short, but all for being just too experimental for the album. These songs were then put together for a solo album, which would be released sometime after the Plastic Ono Band record.
Some of the songs on the album were written years before they were recorded, an example being Jealous Guy, which is actually a re-recording and rewriting of the Beatles song Child of Nature from the album Peace.
A hot point of contention for the album was the track How Do You Sleep? which was a scathing attack on Lennon’s former bandmate Paul McCartney. The track caught the attention of Apple CEO Brian Epstein, who had a meeting with Lennon over the song, at an attempt to convince him into not releasing the track. This meeting quickly devolved into a shouting match in which Lennon accused Epstein of being biased towards McCartney, among several insults. Eventually, a compromise was found and the track was relegated to the B-side of the Imagine single.
Imagine
01. Imagine (3:06) [1]
02. Midsummer New York (3:50) [2]
03. Crippled Inside (3:51) [1]
04. Don’t Count The Waves (5:22) [2]
05. Jealous Guy (4:14) [1]
06. Mind Holes (2:45) [2]
07. It’s So Hard (2:29) [1]
08. Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in The Snow) (4:53) [2]
09. I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier (Mama I Don’t Want to Die) (6:08) [1]
10. Mrs. Lennon (4:10) [2]
11. Gimme Some Truth (3:18) [1]
12. Hirake (3:31) [2]
13. Oh My Love (2:47) [1]
14. O'Wind (Body is The Scar of The Mind) (5:22) [2]
15. Well (Baby Please Don’t Go) (4:07) [1]
16. How? (3:45) [1]
17. Oh Yoko! (4:20) [1]
Released: September 9th, 1971
Track sources:
[1] - Imagine, 1971
[2] - Fly, 1971
Fly
01. Telephone Piece (0:30) [1]
02. Fly (22:48) [1]
03. Mindtrain (16:51) [1]
04. Animale (10:43) [1]
05. You (8:57) [1]
06. Toilet Piece - Unknown (0:31) [1]
Released: September 20th, 1971
Track sources:
[1] - Fly, 1971
Pictured above: The Who, 1971
With Pete Townshend rethinking his approach to Lifehouse, recording of the album went down a lot smoother, with Pete Townshend re-working some of his synth experiments into instrumental interludes for the album, which were also planned to be used as part of the soundtrack for the Lifehouse movie. These, however, were almost omitted from the album by Decca, who found them to be useless filler in an already bloated album.
“The execs complained about how the album was too long, how it wouldn’t even fit on a single ELP, but we managed to convince them to put it out as we intended after we insisted a bit.”
- Pete Townshend, 2001
Despite the agreement to include the instrumental interludes on the album, Decca released a double LP version of the album which omitted the tracks. This almost prompted Pete Townshend to convince the band to leave Decca, yet he backed down on it upon further thinking. The album immediately became a commercial success, being viewed by many critics as The Who’s best record and even one of the greatest albums of all time. The Who took the rest of the year to embark on a greatly successful world tour which comprised of the whole album, with projector screens and pre-recorded dialogue helping progress the story further, including an explosive finish organized by Keith Moon closing out the concert.
Lifehouse
Disc 1:
01. Prelude (3:03) [1]
02. Teenage Wasteland (3:44) [1]
03. Water (4:38) [1]
04. Time is Passing (3:27) [1]
05. Love Ain’t For Keeping (4:20) [1]
06. Going Mobile (3:37) [1]
07. Baba O’Riley (4:58) [1]
08. Mary’s Escape (5:00) [1]
09. The Seeker (3:08) [1]
10. Greyhound Girl (3:00) [1]
11. Too Much of Anything (4:21) [1]
12. Mary (4:12) [1]
13. I Don’t Even Know Myself (4:57) [1]
14. Bargain (5:32) [1]
15. Infiltration (5:02) [1]
Disc 2:
01. The Grid (3:16) [1]
02. Naked Eye (5:21) [1]
03. Behind Blue Eyes (3:37) [1]
04. When I Was a Boy (3:26) [1]
05. Here For More (2:22) [1]
06. Put The Money Down (4:26) [1]
07. Let’s See Action (Nothing is Everything) (3:51) [1]
08. The Concert (4:58) [1]
09. Pure and Easy (5:19) [1]
10. Getting in Tune (4:41) [1]
11. Won’t Get Fooled Again (8:30) [1]
12. The Song is Over (6:10) [1]
13. Ode to The One Note (5:01) [1]
Released: September 14th, 1971
Track sources:
[1] - Custom mix by Auran
Pictured above: The Band, 1971
Around 1971, Robbie Robertson began exerting greater creative control over The Band, which became a point of contention between him and Levon Helm. Helm charged Robertson with authoritarianism, while Robertson claimed his increased efforts in guiding the group because of the increased unreliability of Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Bob Dylan, due to heroin usage.
Despite these problems, The Band forged ahead to record a new album, which ended up featuring much less Dylan compositions than, due to him feeling creatively spent. The album also featured vocals from Van Morrison on the song 4% Pantomime. The album was released to a mediocre reception, becoming the worst sold Band album up to that point. After the album was released, Dylan left The Band, only appearing with them in a New Years’ Eve concert, which was later documented as part of the live album Rock of Ages.
Cahoots
01. Life is a Carnival (3:58) [1]
02. When I Paint My Masterpiece (3:21) [2]
03. Last of the Blacksmiths (3:38) [1]
04. Where Do We Go From Here? (3:50) [1]
05. Watching the River Flow (3:35) [2]
06. 4% Pantomime (4:35) [1]
07. Shoot Out in Chinatown (2:51) [1]
08. Down in the Flood (2:49) [2]
09. The Moon Struck One (4:08) [1]
10. Thinkin’ Out Loud (3:19) [1]
11. Smoke Signal (5:10) [1]
12. George Jackson (5:38) [3]
13. Volcano (3:03) [1]
14. The River Hymn (4:36) [1]
Released: September 15th, 1971
Track sources:
[1] - Cahoots, 1971
[2] - Side Tracks, 2013
[3] - Non-album single, 1971
Pictured above: Lou Reed, 1971
“I got a phone call from this guy who I forgot the name of, saying he was calling in the name of Licked Records. I asked him ‘is this a prank call? What kind of stupid name is that for a record label?’. I had no idea that was gonna be the label we would end up signing to.”
- Lou Reed, 2003
Lou Reed and the rest of The Velvet Underground were flown to London in August for a business proposal involving them being one of the first artists signed to The Rolling Stones’ Licked Records.
“It was quite fitting honestly, the Stones had helped The Velvet Underground appear in the spotlight, I mean I was already out when it happened, but to Lou, it seemed natural.”
- John Cale, 2016
The album was released on September 25th, 1971, less than two months after the band was signed to Licked. The cover used was an edit for the planned cover of the failed solo John Cale album, also called Vintage Violence, which was recorded in 1969 but was unreleased due to the tapes being stolen.
Vintage Violence
01. Hello, There (2:48) [1]
02. Going Down (2:57) [2
03. Walk and Talk It (3:23) [2]
04. Big White Cloud (3:33) [1]
05. Hangin’ ‘Round (3:37) [3]
06. Cleo (2:36) [1]
07. I Love You (2:18) [2]
08. Make Up (3:02) [3]
09. Wild Child (4:37) [2]
10. Love Makes You Feel (3:13) [2]
11. Wagon Wheel (3:21) [3]
12. Amsterdam (3:13) [1]
13. Ghost Story (3:47) [1]
Released: September 25th, 1971
Track sources:
[1] - Vintage Violence, 1970
[2] - Lou Reed, 1972
[3] - Transformer, 1972
Pictured above: Eric Clapton, 1971
After the successful Concert for Bangladesh, all was set for The Ravellers to release Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. The charity single Bangla Desh / Back Off Boogaloo was released on July 28th, 1971, and the double A-side single Layla / Outa-Space was set for release in November. However, complications came when the album was to be delayed to avoid competition with Plastic Ono Band’s Imagine. As a compromise, the Layla single was released earlier than intended, on September 11th, 1971, to great commercial and critical success, topping the singles charts for three weeks.
A few days before the album was released, the band got together for a meeting concerning the future of the band. Eric Clapton’s heroin addiction proved to make him too problematic to work with, George Harrison suggesting that the band went on a hiatus.
“Honestly it was the best solution at that time, especially with what Eric was going through.”
- George Harrison, 1980
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
01. Bell Bottom Blues (5:03) [1]
02. Back Off Boogaloo (3:22) [2]
03. Should Have Known Better (2:27) [3]
04. I Live For You (3:37) [4]
05. I Wrote a Simple Song (3:23) [3]
06. Keep On Growing (6:21) [1]
07. Going Down to Golders Green (1:48) [1]
08. Blindman (2:44) [2]
09. Swing Down Chariot (4:13) [3]
10. Deep Blue (3:45) [5]
11. Outa-Space (4:07) [3]
12. I Am Yours (3:35) [1]
13. Bangla Desh (3:57) [5]
14. Layla (7:03) [1]
Released: October 11th, 1971
Track sources:
[1] - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970
[2] - Non-album single, 1970
[3] - I Wrote a Simple Song, 1971
[4] - All Things Must Pass, 1970 - 2001 reissue
[5] - Non-album single, 1971
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