A Glimpse of Mind Games (1973) by John Lennon
Is Lennon’s fourth solo album “solid yet uninspired”, or better than that?
Reason for choice: Mind Games is released as The Ultimate Collection, featuring 72 songs, on 12 July 2024. The first preview track, ‘Mind Games (Evolution Documentary)’, piecing together the title track from the first piano demo to the completed version destined to be the single, is streaming now.
I thought I’d made a mistake when I chose Mind Games for this Glimpse. When doing the background reading, I was reminded that many critics were - at best - lukewarm about the album, including John Lennon himself, who it’s claimed suggested the record lacks energy and vision (source unknown).
The Beatles Bible calls the record “solid yet uninspired.” Hardly promising.
If you’ve been reading these Glimpses for a while, you’ll know I usually write positively about albums I like. I aim to inspire you to listen to music. In that sense, I’m not a critic or reviewer. I hadn’t listened to Mind Games for too long when I selected it, so perhaps my memory was playing tricks when I thought of it as a good album? 1
Lennon’s previous album was the overtly political Sometime in New York City. If the song ‘Imagine’ was a gentle, spiritual plea for a different humanity, Sometime was an angry album of protest songs. There was a critical backlash leading to Lennon taking a year away from writing - although this was also because he was fighting to remain in the US. When he returned to music, he wrote the songs for Mind Games in a week. He moved away from overt politics and he moved away from Yoko, spending a wild eighteen months with May Pang and getting drunk with his showbiz pals - his ‘lost weekend’. The next album, Walls and Bridges, was to reflect the chaos of this time. Mind Games, though, was the result of a calmer process.
Lennon also moved away from Phil Spector on production duties, doing the job well. Let’s pick out a few highlights.
‘Mind Games’ is a classic Lennon song; even those not keen on the whole album are enthusiastic about this song. It began life during The Beatles’ Get Back sessions but was left for later, partly because the song’s “make love not war” messages were becoming overfamiliar. This track does sound as if it could be a Phil Spector production, using Spector’s style to give depth and distinctiveness to the arrangement.
‘One Day (At a Time)’ is sung in a high register. This makes the song sound lightweight; almost as if the philosophical nature of the lyrics needs to be made light of. The arrangement took me to an alternative universe: Lennon is still with us, playing the Sunday afternoon legend slot at the Glastonbury festival. Thousands of people are linking arms, swaying, and singing “One day at a time”. 2The song is better served by Elton John on the B side of his brilliant ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ cover - a little more polished, although still sung high.
The closing track on side one is the ‘Nutopian International Anthem’. Four seconds of silence. I wonder how different the Ultimate Mix will sound?
Side two opens with ‘Out the Blue’. Why don’t we hear this song more often? After a quiet acoustic beginning, it builds, ultimately featuring the Something Different chorus, adding a gospel feel. The song ends far too soon - I wanted to hear that chorus build further over several repetitions. Always leave them wanting more though.
‘You Are Here’ isn’t the strongest song on the album, but Something Different returns (an element of the record I’d completely forgotten about). “Wherever you are you are here.” In 1994, meditation teacher Jon Kabat Zinn published a book called ‘Wherever You Go, There You Are’ (Bookshop.org aff. link). Is Jon Kabat Zinn a fan of John Lennon?
The last track on the original album is ‘Meat City’, a great rocker, with dense instrumentation including backwards guitars and a reversed vocal phrase. Better than all of that, though, it swings.
There are no below-par tracks. It’s not Lennon’s strongest album, but Mind Games' reputation isn’t as strong as it should be. Will the additional mixes and early versions we’ll hear when the Ultimate Collection drops boost its place in the Lennon canon?
Side one
‘Mind Games’ / ‘Tight A$’ / ‘Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)’ / ‘One Day (At a Time)’ / ’Bring on the Lucie (Freda Peeple)’ / ‘Nutopian International Anthem’
Side two
‘Intuition’ / ‘Out the Blue’ / ‘Only People’ / ‘I Know (I Know)’ / ‘You Are Here’ / ‘Meat City’
As part of the marketing for the Ultimate Collection, I am now officially a Citizen of Nutopia. You can be too.
PERSONNEL
John Lennon – lead, harmony and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, slide guitar, acoustic guitar, clavinet, percussion
Ken Ascher – piano, Hammond organ, Mellotron
David Spinozza – lead guitar
Gordon Edwards – bass guitar
Jim Keltner – drums
Rick Marotta – drums on "Bring on the Lucie" and "Meat City" (with Keltner)
Michael Brecker – saxophone
Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar
Something Different – backing vocals
Roy Cicala, Dan Barbiero – engineers
Tom Rabstanek – mastering
CUSTOM BUTTONS - BUY ON AMAZON
Not available on Amazon: this version for just £1350, but only 1100 have been produced …)
What’s your opinion of Mind Games? Will you be one of 1100 people buying the box?
RECOMMENDED READING
I’ve written previous Glimpses about The Beatles and solo Beatles:
Paul McCartney and Wings - Band on the Run
George Harrison - Thirty Three and ⅓
Long Gazes
Ringo and other Beatles records/solo albums will join the list in future.
Mind Games - John Lennon & Yoko Ono
See you again at the end of the week with the next album-length playlist, Gems #036, and another Glimpse early next week.
Enjoy the music,
Ian
Link rot note: I’ve been using Songwhip.com to link to albums and tracks - this enables you to use a streaming service, or buy, as best suits you. I received an email a few days ago to say the Songwhip service is closing and, even worse, all links previously generated will cease to work in a few weeks.
There is an alternative - Odesli.co - that should work in the same way (please let me know if you discover any problems). Over time, I’ll replace the links in previous Glimpses and Long Gazes, but in the meantime you can generate your own (free) if you’re exploring the LP archive.
Would I still have written about it if I didn’t enjoy it now?, asks a voice from the back. I don’t know. Probably. I suspect growing as a music writer requires greater engagement with music others enjoy but doesn’t move - watch this space.
Not that I really think Lennon would have accepted an invitation to be a Glastonbury Sunday afternoon legend - would he?
Thanks for these insights. Was the bar set too high for ex-Beatles? Yes, it was I believe.
In the 70s, there were no super deluxe editions. When a band split - even The Beatles - that was it, apart from flogging compilations. Beatles solo albums had to fly the flag for the memory of the band. Anything less than a pseudo-Beatles album was a failure.
All wrong, of course, as is my theory (possibly).
Ah a Lennon legend slot at Glastonbury… think we’ve all dreamed of that!