CULTURE BEAT
Mind Games: Lennon Makes Another Appeal to Come Together
“Some call it magic, the search for the grail.” — John Lennon
The power of the Beatles was such that even after their breakup, when they each went their own ways, many of their fans followed all of them. I was one, purchasing all their first solo albums and several that followed from Paul and John. Mind Games was John Lennon’s fourth album since the breakup, released in the fall of 1973 while I was on a semester break from college. The captivating cover art was itself memorable. The following year the title song from the album went gold as a single. This single is the topic for this blog post.
In the early 70’s John Lennon’s songs were very open about his inner struggles, his conflicts with family, relationships and religion. A previous album captured his explorations with primal therapy as one method of dealing with these inner conflicts. I think to some extent this candor in his songwriting is what made these albums so riveting.
Songs have hundreds of ways of introducing themselves. Sometimes it’s a guitar lick after which each of the other musicians joins in. Sometimes they join in one at a time and build layers to form a backdrop for the vocals. Sometimes it’s the snap of a drumstick blast, as in Like a…
