John Lennon - Rock 'n' Roll

By Jerry McCulley

It may have come a bit late in the day, but producer Phil Spector had done fairly well by the Beatles. His much-criticized salvage job of Let It Be was quickly forgiven in the wake of his production efforts on John Lennon's spare, harrowing Plastic Ono Band album (and the similarly biting singles "Instant Karma" and "Cold Turkey"), its follow-up (and Lennon's best solo album) Imagine, not to mention the overwrought magnificence of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass. Expectations were thus stratospheric when Lennon decided to collaborate with Spector again on this 1975 collection of the ex-Beatle's favorite boyhood rock & roll chestnuts. Beset by publicized personal problems and a series of haphazard sessions, the resulting album nevertheless has some fine, emotionally compelling highlights (especially Lennon's stark reading of "Stand By Me"), but the production sometimes sounds thin, rather than spare, and there's often a sense that Lennon is waltzing his way through some of these tracks. Still, it's a treat to hear Lennon pay loving tribute to the songs and artists that inspired his own legend.

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