Track Listing

1. Going Down On Love
2. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
3. Old Dirt Road
4. What You Got
5. Bless You
6. Scared
7. #9 Dream
8. Surprise Surprise
9. Steel And Glass
10. Beef Jerky
11. Ya Ya
12. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night (Live With Elton John) (Bonus Track)
13. Nobody Loves You (When You�re Down And Out) (Alternate Version) (Bonus Track)
14. John Interview With Bob Mercer (Bonus Track)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16603 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The careful burnishing of John Lennon's daunting legend usually obscures one telling fact: the former Beatle endured a long and troubling artistic slump in the mid-'70s. Indeed, his five-year retirement/househusband phase may have been one of the shrewdest career moves he ever made. Cut in Los Angeles during his prolonged "lost weekend" estrangement from Yoko Ono, Walls and Bridges too often sacrifices the sublime for the ridiculous--that is, when it's not being altogether superfluous. Still, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," Lennon's boisterous collaboration with Elton John, scored him his first No. 1 record as a solo artist, and compelling tracks like "Steel and Glass," "Going Down on Love," and "#9 Dream" belie the artistic genius Lennon was literally drowning in copious rounds of Brandy Alexanders during the period. --Jerry McCulley

CD Description
WALLS AND BRIDGES was made during Lennon's marital separation, while carrying on a Yoko-approved dalliance with May Pang. Lennon addresses the awkward yet open triangle with songsto each of them. In "Bless You", he wistfully wonders how and where Yoko is during their time apart and proclaims an eternal love. "Surprise, Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)" finds him admitting to being jaded to the point of self-delusion only to find beauty, love and surprise in the form of a new lover right under his nose. "What You Got" affirms "You don't know what you got until you lose it"--clearly a man struggling with a personal situation through his art.
"Beef Jerky" sounds like an homage to that great '60s instrumental by The Barkays, "Soul Finger". "Ya Ya" is a true oddity: Lennon and 11-year-old son Julian, future rock star in his own right, in a short, bluesy piano/drum duet. Of course there is also his duet with Elton John on the partying, fun-loving "Whatever Gets You Through The Night". The gem of the bunch,though, is "#9 Dream", easily one of Lennon's best post-Beatles efforts, steering through myriad moods and grooves and adding up to a bona fide pop masterpiece.

Customer Reviews

Working Weekend
Upon Yoko booting John out of the house in 1973, Lennon spent his so-called "lost weekend" in Los Angeles with various boozy mates until reuniting with Mrs Lennon late in '74. The phrase "lost weekend" is misleading though, because if John was at a low ebb personally, he was productive artistically, making an album of rock'n'roll covers and this seriously underrated set, "Walls and Bridges".

Spending his time in L.A. where the sun always shone and the wine always flowed, this album is John's most "American", with a stack of sax, brass and strings fleshing out the sound, more than a hint of a soul swagger and a warm, mellow west coast production. The musical arrangements and production style contrast markedly with the lyrical content, which dwells on feelings of loneliness and loss. The opening track "Going Down on Love" for example, with its laid back funk and cool sax, includes lyrics such as "You know I'm drowning in a sea of hatred".

Other titles like "Scared" and "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out") add to the expressions of cynicism and desire to recapture something missing in his life. Yoko for a start, perhaps. And a longing for a renewed sense of direction generally. He sounds happiest when he escapes into the other-worldly realms filled with memories of better times evoked on "Old Dirt Road" and most famously on "#9 Dream". That sense of searching and yearning carries over to the album's artwork, depicting a number of John's paintings from primary school days.

The most famous song here is "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night". The story goes that Lennon agreed to play live with Elton John if this single reached no.1, little thinking it would. But it did, and Elton John introduced a surprise guest to his audience later that year. This reissue of "Walls and Bridges" includes their live performance of "Whatever Gets You Through The Night". That's great but our friends at EMI are not being as generous as they'd like you to think. At that show John also performed "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There", which have surfaced on bootlegs in the past so why not here now?

"Walls and Bridges" is, then, not only a document, a diary almost of a turbulent time in John Lennon's life. It is also a collection of high quality, emotionally charged and mostly sad songs given a deceptively lush setting. That's California for you I suppose. Ignore the "lost weekend" dismissals, this is Lennon in great musical if not personal shape.

A Masterpiece
One of the three untouchable peaks of Lennon's solo career (with POB & Imagine), W&B is a nearly perfect blue eyed soul album. The songs are strong and the production beautifully understated. His last great album......

Lennon in contemplative mood
It is inappropriate to rate a Lennon album other than at the level of enjoyment perhaps. Certainly not comparitively, i.e better,as good as or not as good as Imagine, the album which tends to be the yardstick for his other albums to match up to. Walls and Bridges is a certain mood album, early morning music, as the NME described it. The mood is certainly not uplifting, how could it be with songs such as Going Down on Love, Scared and Nobody Loves You? These are strong but doleful songs. However, No 9 Dream is pure Lennon and harks back to his Walrus and Lucy creativity. The opening bars lead into an ethereal, vocal and melodically enchanting experience. The album is worth purchasing for this song alone, I never tire of not just listening to it but being carried away by it. Steel & Glass is Lennon at his best vocally. Few, if any rock singers, could hold a note for as long and as emotionally felt as Lennon does. Even the fade out humming is laden with emotional content. A major criticism of mine is the smothering of a brilliant voice with layers of instruments. Nobody Loves You should be a classic Lennon accoustic guitar number, but his unfortunate lack of confidence in the quality of his voice is drowned out instead by heavy handed brass and fiddle sections. Elton John adds spice to the two jaunty tracks that he appears on, and Harry Nilson is a wise partner on the bluesy, laid back Old Dirt Road. All in all, it is a mood album albeit excellent one, and stands apart from his other albums because of this.