Track Listing

1. Be-Bop-A-Lula
2. Stand By Me
3. Rip It Up/Ready Teddy
4. You Can't Catch Me
5. Ain't That A Shame
6. Do You Want To Dance
7. Sweet Little Sixteen
8. Slippin' And Slidin'
9. Peggy Sue
10. Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin'
11. Bony Moronie
12. Ya Ya
13. Just Because
14. Angel Baby
15. To Know Her Is To Love Her
16. Since My Baby Left Me
17. Just Because (Reprise)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12028 in Music
• Released on: 2004-09-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
In the five years following the break-up of the Beatles, John Lennon established himself as a critically and commercially successful solo artist in addition to dealing with a number of private and public tribulations. Lennon eventually released ROCK'N'ROLL, a batch of covers ranging the gamut of early rock classics from the '50s and '60s. Lennon threw himself lovingly into this project that hearkened back to the simpler times of being a teenager smitten with the sounds of Chuck Berry and Little Richard (both of whom are represented on this record), light years away from any kind of political statements.
Dr. Winston O'Boogie was in full effect whether applying a slight reggae beat to "Stand By Me" and "Do You Want To Dance" or using a pounding piano and honking saxophone to fine effect on "Ain't That A Shame". Unbridled joy can be heard in Lennon's swinging reading of "Slippin' And Slidin'" and within the yelps punctuating Larry Williams' silly "Bony Moronie".

Customer Reviews

Another good cleanup job
As you may or may not know Yoko has been getting all of John's albums remixed and/or remastered over the past few years and releasing one per year round about the anniversary of his birthday. This year (2004) has seen the re-release of Rock 'n' Roll. This is one of my favourite Lennon albums as it is good to hear him take a step back from all of those deep and meaningful songs he was writing and just go back to his roots with some good old rock 'n' roll standards that he used to listen to as a teenager. Initial sessions were in 1973 Phil Spector (who better to record this stuff with) and then later the album was finished in 1974, with John producing things himself although keeping to the wall of sound style recording of the earlier sessions. This give the album a certain originality even though the songs are all covers. Phil's wall of sound style of recording could make the sound muddy at times though but the folk at Abbey Road have certainly cleaned the recordings up enough to make a difference. On this release we get a couple of outtakes (albeit released previously) and a previously unreleased reprise of 'Just Because' in which John says hi to Paul, George and Ringo. Another nice bonus could've been the 'Roots' version of 'Be My Baby', but we can't have everything. Now the only regular albums still to be reissued in this way are Walls & Bridges and S.T.I. New York City, so it looks like we'll be getting more releases like this for the next couple of years at least.

Mostly a Great Album
Apparently this album was John's attempt to be 'just a musician' and let the producer treat him as the singer. However, when the producer was Phil Spector being difficult, this didn't turn out to be a good idea. Only four Spector produced songs made it to the finished record and John had to arrange and produce the rest.

I have to admit to hating Do You Wanna Dance and the Rip it Up medley, but the rest is great. You Can't Catch Me and Stand By Me are marvellous.

I like the extra tracks on the new CD release, but the packaging is pathetic: no musician credits or liner notes and only a thin bit of folded paper. OK, the LP had even less information on it, but a nice package does add value and many people may like to know the story behind the music. However, the cover features one of the best ever photos of John, so one can't complain.

Apparently the musicians were the same ones who played on Walls and Bridges, including Jesse Ed Davis and Jim Keltner.

John's singing on Just Because, when he was in effect saying goodbye to the music business, is a real highlight. But, it closed the original album and should also have closed this one. (A similar thing was done with John Lennon/POB, which should have closed with My Mummy's Dead, but in its new form, closes with Do the Oz, which doesn't make sense).

The album came out at the same time as other 'oldies' collections such as The Band's Moondog Matinee, Bowie's Pin Ups and Bryan Ferry's These Foolish Things (I think) but this beats them for sheer authenticity and honesty. And enjoyment.

Highly recommended.

If you don't already have this album, then buy it!
This is a wonderfully spirited album of rock 'n roll covers from Lennon which shows him in confident and exuberant mood as he tackles the favourite songs from his Liverpool youth. It contains no Lennon originals but the Lennon voice and delivery is in top form throughout. And there are several moments of brilliance.
A companion piece to 'Walls And Bridges' recorded in the same year. They both show Lennon at the top of his game and provide regret that he hung up his guitar for a full five years thereafter.
Some tracks work wonderfully well, others less so. So let's start with the triumphs. 'Be Bop A Lula' is an inspired opener, delivered with gusto and aplomb. 'Stand By Me' is such a timeless cover that he practically makes this great song his own. If only because Lennon's vocal is so utterly brilliant and full of desperate conviction. He must have been sub-consciously crying out to Yoko here who at the time of its recording has not yet taken him back. So here we have a great song taken to a new level by the passionate singing which was, one suspects, straight from Lennon's heart. Everybody Hurts as Mr Stipe later commented.
Apart from those two, there are four Spector produced songs that survived from what were thoroughly drunken and difficult sessions from 1973. And at least three of them provide true highlights here: 'Sweet Little Sixteen' is taken a beat or two slower than the original and benefits from this to great effect. Again Lennon has virtually transformed this famous Chuck Berry original into a powerful Lennon tour de force, full of quintessential Lennon singing and phrasing which are totally absent from the original. It is brilliant. The same is true of 'Bony Maronie' which is a great chugging rocker with a fantastic vocal, the like of which could have taken 'Walls And Bridges' to an altogether higher level had it been included there. Not that 'Walls And Bridges' wasn't utterly brilliant of course. Just that in a parallel universe, that album could have been combined with this one to make an unbeatable double album which rocked and agonised in equal measure. For that is about the only criticism that can be levelled at 'Walls And Bridges', that it didn't rock enough. But this album was recorded mostly in the same month!
A third Spector produced track 'Just Because' is brilliant, for its lyric for sure (it is a cover by the way) but more importantly for the quality of Lennon's vocal which is again awesome in its passion, almost on a Plastic Ono Band level, though not quite as Lennon didn't write this one.
Other highlights include rollicking versions of 'Ain't That A Shame', 'Rip It Up / Reddy /Teddy' and of 'Slippin And A Slidin' which are mostly memorable again for Lennon's scathing and passionate vocals.
Other tracks work less well, for example 'Do You Wanna Dance' is an unfortunate attempt at a reggae cover of a well known '50s song, 'Peggy Sue' is OK but rather seems like Lennon is rather going through the motions here. 'Ya Ya' is pretty average in its conviction and its production.
But taken as a whole this Rock 'N Roll cover album is pretty successful. And it is so much rewarding than Paul McCartney's attempts at the same thing: 'Chocca B CCCP' (1988), much of 'Unplugged' (1991) and also 'Run Devil Run', the pretty much disastrous live album from 1999.
The difference is partly in the choice of material perhaps. But I have to say that whenever Paul lapses into a '50s cover version these last two decades it just gets quite annoying. Quite quickly. This album of Lennon's was of course no more than 5 years after the Beatles split. So it has that advantage. At that time remember (1975), McCartney was preparing a triumphant world tour with Wings. And indeed Lennon received accusations from some quarters at the time that he had lost his ability to write songs and reduced to this Oldies But Goldies collection. So Paul at the time could not have won either way had he attempted this kind of album at the time!
History has shown this latter accusation of Lennon's lost ability to be ridiculous and if it wasn't for his untimely death we would surely have had many memorable Lennon songs in the ensuing decades. But this was not to be. The correct historical assessment of this album is that Lennon was having a lot of fun and recording much uplifting music to boot.
No one after all, as we saw from 'Twist And Shout' onwards, can sing rock and roll like Lennon can. This album kicks ass for the most part and it has endured as an album well worthy of investigation. And for freaking out to....Ready Now Ted I'm Ready!!
(Footnote: These bonus tracks I already have on other releases for the most part (on Lennon Anthology or Menlove Avenue for example) so do not add value to the above review from my perspective. I am basically reviewing the original album, not these tedious extras, which frankly should have been included in the afore mentioned Anthology or were a couple of them kept back deliberately to entice fans to 'repurchase' this album? Sorry Yoko but I don't buy it)
So for that I will drop a star if you already own this album on CD. If you don't it is worthy of 4 stars.