THE MAKING OF PLASTIC ONO BAND AND ITS REBIRTH
The publishers had only wanted a book review. But when John Lennon received a copy of The Primal Scream by Arthur Janov in early 1970, he became galvanized. The book was subtitled “Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis,” and the idea that you could liberate your psyche by unleashing a cataclysmic scream was intoxicating. Lennon devoured the book, and he and his wife, Yoko Ono, were soon undergoing private therapy sessions with Janov at their home. And when he entered the recording studio that September to make John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, the influence on his songs was obvious: the pain of losing one’s parents in “Mother,” the loneliness of “Isolation,” the spiritual void of “God.”
“It’s just what came out of my mouth when I tried to write songs,” Lennon told journalist Ray Connolly about the album. “I was doing therapy and going through my life and so I wrote about the most important things that happened in my life. Just like any artist.” And though the record received a somewhat mixed critical reception at the time of its release, it’s now considered one of Lennon’s finest albums, plumbing emotional depths in a way no rock artist had ever done before.
This year, JL/POB has finally been given the deluxe box set treatment that it’s always deserved, with the tracks presented in a variety of new mixes, along with accompanying singles, outtakes, jams and demos. The result is a release that offers new insights into Lennon’s transition from being a band member in The Beatles, to his second act as a solo artist.
Lennon and Ono had made experimental recordings from the beginning of their relationship. The “Plastic Ono Band” was an especially playful idea, described by Lennon as, “A conceptual group which exists only in the mind.” The “Give Peace a Chance” single, recorded during the couple’s “bed-in” in Montreal in May 1969, took the concept public. Ads for the single proclaimed “You are the Plastic Ono Band,” the artwork using a page from the phone book, of people with the generic name “Jones.”
The Plastic Ono Band then made their first appearance, at the Toronto Rock 'n' Roll Revival Festival on September 13, the couple joined by Eric Clapton (guitar), Klaus Voormann (bass) and Alan White (drums). The performance saw the
