20 years after its initial release, John Lennon's comeback release has
finally been remastered with new liner notes, pictures, and bonus tracks. Sadly, this album
will forever be known as Lennon's final official release. Critics over the years have panned
this album as being "light-weight" compared to Lennon's harder-edged 70's releases. And having
Yoko's contributions added to the release didn't help to gain any plus votes
for "Double Fantasy" in the minds of record critics. But listening to this cd again
proves that Lennon, along with Yoko, wrote some pretty solid pop songs that helped
usher popular music into the 1980's.
"Double Fantasy" kicks off with Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over". Ranking up there with some
of the best pop songs that he performed with and without The Beatles, the
song still sounds fresh and alive 20 years after it's initial release. Ironically,
it's been discovered that McCartney's "Coming Up" inspired Lennon to write his
own up-beat pop number. Besides writing about getting away with his wife on
"Starting Over", Lennon writes plenty of material about his young son. "Beautiful
Boy (Darling Boy)" is the premier track on "Double Fantasy". Filled with calypso
sounds that Lennon brought back with him from vacationing in caribbean, Lennon wrote
the perfect lulaby song for his young son. Lennon reassures Sean that "the monster's
gone, he's on the run, and your Daddy's here.". Instead of writing about "Revolution"
and "The Luck of the Irish", Lennon's influence for songwriting was focused squarely in the
home-front during these years. The swooping bass effect, played brilliantly by
Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel), gives the song a perfect dream-like effect. While bluesy piano livens up
the very popular "Watching the Wheels", I always felt that "Cleanup Time" is the most underrated song on
the cd. "No friends and yet no enemies, absolutely free..." is the phrase that
perfectly captures the Lennon's attitude at this stage of their lives.
I'll go out on a limb here to say that I enjoy most of Yoko's contributions to
"Double Fantasy". Her "new wave" approach to songwriting is a welcome contrast
to the bright pop/rock of Lennon's tunes on the cd, and amazingly suited for the
early 1980's. "Give Me Something" and
"Kiss Kiss Kiss" are almost dead ringers for the B-52's. The musicians that the
Lennons hired for this album play the new wave/punk roll just as well as the
straight-ahead rock musicians for John's songs. Echo and feedback are heard on
many of Yoko's songs here. Although I think that Yoko misses the mark on
"Beautiful Boys" and "I'm Moving On", her strongest song on the release would
be "I'm Your Angel". The jazzy/cocktail lounge effect here is a huge departure
from the other tracks. The remastered "Double Fantasy" features three bonus tracks.
Yoko's "Walking on Thin Ice" is a wild sonic assault for the ears. I'm reminded
of Blondie while listening to it. This track is
best known for being the final track that the Lennons were working on the night he
was murdered. "Help Me to Help Myself" is a simple demo of John on the piano. The
song comes off sounding more like a Billy Joel song than anything, and probably
didn't fit in with the other songs on the album. Regardless, it's well-recorded and
well performed by John. In many ways, I enjoy listening to Lennon's songs in their
original forms. The Beatle's Anthologies and the John Lennon box set have other
great examples of how effortlessly Lennon churned out classic tunes. It's a true shame
that we missed out on two more decades of his creativity.
I was 14 years old when "Double Fantasy" was orginally released. I was extrememly
excited when it was originally released, and extremely crushed when Lennon was
killed a few months later. I was always proud to have rock heroes like Lennon, Paul
McCartney, and Pete Townshend. The improved sound quality and packaging is a great
reason to re-discover this wonderful album.
