John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, Yoko Ono

John and Yoko ended the year with a one-two punch of rough-around-the-edges albums recorded at the same time with the same band; Lennon is the “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” check out “Well Well Well” and “I Found Out” from the John disc. Perhaps coolest of all, however, is the acoustic gem “Look at Me,” which sounds like a younger sister to “Julia,” the White Album tune. As he does on “Julia,” Lennon employs clawhammer picking, which is similar to Travis picking (named after country guitar legend Merle Travis). The difference is in the alternating bass pattern, played by the thumb. With clawhammer, the thumbpicking pattern goes 5-4-6-4 (in terms of strings). In Travis picking, the thumb goes 6-4-5-4. By the way, we should also mention that Lennon actually kicked off 1970 with a hit single — “Instant Karma!” — which he recorded January 27 and released February 6. The tune, which reached Number 3 on the singles chart in the U.S., features input from Harrison, who also played on Lennon’s album in 1971.