lennon plastic ono

dont care about the criticisms over it being overwrought , the therapeutic screams the bile

it was raw , it was stark at the time it was even shocking and there's some great songs

Better songs. Much better.

followed very closely by McCartney.

it's Ramfor me as well. You can almost hear McCartney enjoying his release from The Beatles and even today, It sounds incredibly fresh everytime I hear it.

No, really it's Band on the Run

I think it has to be Band On The Run, followed by Imagine, All Things Must Pass, Flaming Pie and Plastic Ono Band. BTW anyone else think Flaming Pie is a great album?

.

I keep coming back to it year after year.

I've got a soft spot for it seeing as I played it to death when I was about fifteen.

songs that would and indeed should have graced the beatles latter output - followed closely by band on the run.

for me also. A while ago I probably would have agreed with Ram as the best, but since watching the Scorsese documentary on George, ATMP hasn't been too far away from my CD player. It just shows the embarrassment of riches The Beatles had when most of those songs were written, but not included on/considered for LPs from The White Album onward.

....has ANYBODY ever heard the first two Ringo LPs (Beaucoups of Blues was one, can't recall the title of the other)?

Let's not forget that, the John & Yoko experiments aside, he was the first solo Beatle to make an album - supposedly covers of maudlin country songs. But I've never even seen copies of these.

I'm fully expecting here for Mojo Working to say, 'Yes, actually, I recall being at the sessions for those...' :-D

is one of my all-time favourite albums. Raw, sparse, stark, unsparing and emotional. Magnificent vocals, great production, superlative drumming by Ringo.

I much prefer the demos to ATMP than the finished album, Spector just murders somw of the songs (arf!)

and 'Band On The Run' obviously

Followed by

RAM
Plastic Ono Band
Chaos and Creation in the back yard (yes!)
Cloud 9

...killer tunes and it's fun. Perhaps POB might have been more singalong if young Mr Lennon had laid off the H a wee bit more...

However every time I hear "Wah wah" I waver.

or convince, but McCartney is the one for me.. I think memory almost full had some great songs on it too.

...but another vote for All Things Must Pass.

Played POB yesterday and, really, apart from the three or four killer tracks, it's a bit dull, isn't it? I didn't love it as much as I remembered.

Is the only solo Beatle album I listen to regularly. Bet I'm in the minority.

best was Band on the run.Uncle albert/Admiral Halsey Brilliant,in particular the line "..the butter wpouldn't melt so I put it in a pie".
Must say though,venus and mars is pretty good too.And bonus...it has the crossroads theme to finish the album!

there have been loads of good uns as well as loads of shite but looking back the one that has made the most impact on me is The Plastic Ono Band album..At the time of its release Lennon was always in the media for one reason or another and we had almost daily updates on what he and Yoko were up to. I waited each new missive with bated breath. It all seems rather naive now but to hear that recording these days without all the hoopla of the time it was released, reveals the most personal statement made by any Beatle, anytime. Some may see it as sheer self-indulgence,it is, but it still shines through as the best Beatle solo album for displaying honesty and rawness and an almost stupid, headstrong willingness to put it all out there. It's Lennon alright, warts and all, and you cant ask for more than that!

Absolutely brilliant singing!!!!

currently I think Wall & Bridges is the best. People need to stop trying to be cool pretending Paul, George or Ringo were the main men. Sometimes the obvious truth is that - the truth - and the truth is deep down it's John's edge that drove the Fabs. Not belittling any of the others, I'd even concede Paul was a genius too but come on...

A great album and one of my faves
But I'm going with Ram.

No.1 by a mile, and one of the greatest albums ever made:

All Things Must Pass (first 2 LPs, of course)

2. Band on the Run (it was great to see McCartney play "Let Me Roll It" live last month. Top stuff.

3. Brainwashed. The great under-praised Beatle solo album

4. Chaos & Creation in the Back Yard. Surely I'm not the only Massiver who rates this?

Sorry. Don't rate Lennon's solo stuff at all.

Much as I love Macca, for me it's Sometime In New York City + Imagine. Some years ago when I was abroad on business I called my wife on her mobile. She said, "guess who I've just met." She was at Kenwood with our three young children watching Gypsy Kings while picknicking in Kenwood Park (which is where people flock for outdoor music in Summer in NW3. She was taking our then 6 year old little girl to the portaloos when Paul McCartney (walking diagonally with his ex-wife) knocked over my little girl. He then spent a few minutes chatting to my wife after picking my daughter up and apologising. I couldn't believe it! Did you get a photo, I asked? She didnt, too uncool for my wife....pity, I would have got a photo. Then, 18 months ago, while walking into a bar in Berkely Square, Paul McCartney appeared out of nowhere (actually he appeared in a doorway walking out of a room I was about to walk into. His nose was 4 inches from mine.....then that familiar voice said, just as I was registering who was talking to me and going into shock....."Should I know you."? We chatted for a couple of minutes then he left. I was gobsmacked. It was surreal. It didn't occur to me to get a photo. I would love to have met Johnny Lennon as well. I once wrote to Apple in 1971 to ask if I could buy an Apple (Old England) watch. Apple boss sent me a letter saying they are pleased I liked their watch and here's one as a gift! I still have it.

I was obsessed with the Beatles as a kid, and that was so exhausting that I lost all my completist inclinations early on in life.
The only Beatle that I followed after the break up of the band was George Harrison, my favourite.
So telling you that my favourite solo Beatle albums are:
1) All Things Must Pass
2) George Harrison (-79)
and
3) Brainwashed;
probably doesn't mean much, because I have never heard a solo album by any of the others...
I own a Lennon Best Of thingy, it has four good songs on it.
I also own the vinyl single of We all stand together, the immortal anthem by the Frog Chorus feat. Paul McCartney...

My second favourite "Beatle" is probably Yoko Ono (and I really do like her music).

1. Ram (I'm already saving up for the deluxe reissue)
2. ATMP (the songs rise above the slightly over-wrought production)
3. BOTR (almost flawless, and Macca at his most unselfconsciously Beatle-esque)
4. Ringo (if it's the re-issue with It Don't Come Easy as a bonus track)

Lennon doesn't make the top four cut. If I had to include something by him it would be Rock'n'Roll. But there are at least three of Yoko's albums that I would choose before that, including her latest.

It doesn't get mentioned much, but RRS is a lot like Ram.Plus it has a medley like Abbey Road on side two.Here is what Allmusic had to say,"Red Rose Speedway was initially planned as a double album, and Paul McCartney decided to include some unreleased songs that had originally been recorded during the Ram sessions, prior to the formation of Wings. Two of those songs, "Get On the Right Thing" and "Little Lamb Dragonfly," eventually appeared on the final album".You could almost say that Ram and Red Rose Speedway are Ram 1 and Ram 2.

Any excuse for a list, the Badger King wades in as always...

1. Imagine - One of the first albums I truly loved, aged about 13/14 - "Oh My Love" and "Crippled Inside" are underrated gems.

2. Brainwashed - First non-John fabs solo work I got - second hand for £4. Subsequent listens at uni prom, playing in the background(with Goldie Lookin Chain and Jools Holland), and in the local cinema playing before Madagascar.

3. Chaos & Creation In The Backyard - Definitely helped the sensitive soul Godrich on board who makes great sounds out of average songs - but very little in the way of granny music

4. Plastic Ono Band - Because it has "God", "Working Class Hero" and "Look At Me" on it. John thinking outside of the standard 4/4 rock box.

5. Sometime In New York City - Yes its got Yoko warbling, but its Yoko at her (sort of) most tuneful. Funky drumming on "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Attica State", and some great hobo slide on "John Sinclair". Dodgy politics, great songs.

Virgins, anyone? No?

It's best tracks sound like they were recorded in some alternate universe...Let it Roll is just sublime.

It's quite interesting comparing the greatest hits compilations. Wingspan is pretty excellent, the John Lennon Collection isn't bad, while George's Let It Roll is downright weak.

Does this count as a solo record? Prob not, but it's my fave post-Beatles album by an ex-Beatle.

I haven't heard any track from Ram mind you.

I can't believe there are so many votes for "Band On The Run". I reckon that, apart from the four UK singles and "Nineteen Eighty Five", the songs are among McCartney's wettest and weakest. (And there's one awful bum vocal note in "Bluebird" which needed an overdub). For me, "Ram" is better. I'd also second "Chaos And Creation In The Backyard" mentioned above as worthwhile.

Although Paul is clearly the more broadly talented songwriter, I think the first three Lennon solo albums are better as entities than any collection Macca has issued post-Beatles. As for George, I reckon you can count the truly top songs he wrote on two hands.

...to the solo Beatle catalogues, i'd like to suggest that it's a shame Phil Spector had ANYTHING to do with any of them (John and George, plus 'Let It Be'). His sound is just rotten. I suspect ATMP would be a hell of a lot better without it, and I always hated John's reverby vocal sound in his solo recordings. 'Instant Karma' is the only example I can think of where Phil added something useful to the sound.

I was flicking through Carr & Tyler's 'Illustrated Beatles Record' last night and raised a smile at their description of how the fabs fell under Phil's hollow spell. They sum up his contribution to John's vocals in the 70s thus: 'the effect is not unlike that achieved when singing in a small room filled with chromium fittings and tiled surfaces.' Indeed!

I can beat Mr MojoWorking re the Beatles rooftop session.
I was there, disgused as a policeman, right at the back. The disguise was necessary as I am in a witness protection scheme as I know who killed JFK. Beside me is Marlyn Monroe... she faked her death so she could spend the rest of her life with me.. we gave birth to Bono we did... I actually wrote Get Back and taught John how to play the chords... John is not dead, he lives in my fridge with the Nolan sisters...
Shagged that Cheryl Cole last week, she's actually a man you know... also Alex Salmond is an absolute twat.
Regards,
Aldridge Pryor
(Actually, only one of the above is true)

So ... no votes for George's notorious "Gone Troppo" yet.

I've never actually heard this album. Does any member of the Massive own it? It's supposed to be an utter stinker...

Maybe not the best solo Fabs album, but a seriously good one all the same.

Very good album & seriously underrated (then & now)

I don't get the praise. To my ears, it sounds far too much in thrall to Music from Big Pink, like a few others around that time.

Like the White Album, London Calling and Sandinista, a little bit of self discipline would have produced something more stellar. There's never been a "great" double album.

IMO of course.

ATMP is without question the best Beatles solo album. However a few people here qualify that choice with ...(first two albums only) whereas I'm prepared to say that the first jam track on disc 3, Out Of The Blue, is quite listenable.

I'm not going to say it's great or the equal of anything the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but it's OK.

I don't know that I'm defending it, but it is the only thing I really like on the third album.

I love it. Most of it consists of extended guitar workouts from the musicians that would shortly become Derek and the Dominoes. What's not to like?

OK, maybe the varispeed tape effects on It's Johnny's Birthday are a bit naff.

...the traditional "'Back to the Egg' is actually a really good record" discussion which appears on this site whenever the relative merits of Macca get brought up. I, for one, await the bells+whistles reissue.

that would be 'Best of The Beatles' (1965)?

deserves a mention here, as it has a big clump of brilliant songs on it, and not just the Declan MacManus collabs:

Put it There
Distractions
This One
You Want Her Too
That Day Is Done
My Brave Face

... thankfully in these digital days one doesn't have to wade through all the other rubbish on there.

Nice to see so many votes for "Ram", though it's not my favourite solo Fantabulosas effort - that'll be JL/POB.

"Ram" was about as popular as, er, foot and mouth in 1971 and I think Macca was understandably miffed. Dont you wish you could go back in time and tell him "Ram" would have its day?

On a slight tangent though: any suggestions for the WORST Beatles solo album?

I suppose it would have to be one of Ringo's. But then any one of John and Yoko's "experimental" offerings would fit the bill.

...I suspect at least a few of us will have HEARD the experimental JL albums (even I've heard one and I don't even like his non-experimental music).

But I'd put money on it that there are Ringo albums in that list above which NONE of us have heard, if even heard of.

Shall we try and see if that's the case?

Let's assume (for speed) that some at least among us will have heard the first six LPs. But after that...?

Has the critical tide finally turned after all these years? Or have we just got sick of all the canonisation?

The problem is that in any precis of his life Imagine gets played, instead of this:

Remember him this way - self-pitying, sure, but insanely honest. And what a voice.

Definitely Ram. No doubt about it.

...'Hayman's Green' by the Pete Best Band would be more enjoyable to listen to than ANY of John's albums and probably any of Ringo's too.

we'd be very happy if Paul or Ringo delivered something as Beatle-esque and unpretentious as this these days, wouldn't we? So let's hear it for Pete...

(though why he needs a second drummer is beyond me - he's almost asking to become 'the Pete Best' of his own band, isn't he? Turns out it's his brother Roag - and does ANYONE here know how that's pronounced, with evidence to back it up rather than opinion?)