CoronaVinyl Day 178 (L): Double Fantasy by John Lennon and Yoko Ono

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "L," and with yesterday being the 40th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon, I can't think of a more appropriate choice than John and Yoko's Double Fantasy album, released in November 1980, about three weeks before Lennon's death.  It was also the album that John autographed for Mark David Chapman outside the Dakota at about 5 p.m. on December 8, 1980.  Less than six hours later, as John and Yoko returned to the Dakota after a recording session, Chapman would shoot John five times in the back from less than ten feet away.

I was barely three when John was killed, so it's not like I remember it.  However, as I have grown into a Beatles fan, the two Beatles-related dates each year that I remember are October 9 (John's birthday) and December 8 (John's death).  I couldn't tell you any other Beatle's birthday, and I know that George died in November 2001, but couldn't give you the exact date without looking it up.

Over the years and as I have engulfed myself in music history, I have come to appreciate the cultural and social significance of John's murder, essentially dealing a final death blow to whatever optimism and hope remained from the '60s, at the beginning of a decade that would celebrate materiality and superficiality -- two things John Lennon certainly would not have celebrated.  If you are a Beatles or Lennon fan, I highly recommend checking out a livestream that now-retired IU Jacobs School of Music professor Glenn Gass -- who was my favorite teacher at any level, and who taught a Beatles class at IU, among other history of rock and roll classes, and is one of the foremost Beatles scholars -- presented last night, called Remembering John Lennon 40 Years Later.  Click on the link.  It's free.  Professor Gass goes through Lennon's life and his various tragedies, as well as his Beatles and post-Beatles career and his impact and influence.  It made me wish I could take another class with Professor Gass.

As for Double Fantasy, it was John's first album in five years, as he had taken a break from music to raise his son Sean, keeping a relatively low profile during that time.  The album is a collaboration with Yoko.  Both got an equal number of songs on the album (7 each), and the album is definitely a mutual discussion about marriage, parenthood, and relationships.  There are even kind of direct rebuttal songs, like Yoko's "I'm Moving On," which directly follows John's "I'm Losing You."  When I listen to the album, I can't help but get a little emotional because I know that this was supposed to be John's reinjection into the music world and the public consciousness, for that matter.  Hell, the first track on the album is called "(Just Like) Starting Over."  The songs are heartfelt.  Some are ballads, some are pop, some are rock.  My only real issue with the album is that the track listing on the back of the album is not the order of the tracks on the album itself.

Buoyed by John's untimely death, Double Fantasy unsurprisingly became a huge hit.  The album hit #1 on the album charts in the U.S. (where it topped the Billboard album chart for eight weeks), the UK, and at least eight other countries.  It was the #2 album on the Billboard Year End album chart for 1981.  The album would go on to win Album of the Year at the 1982 Grammy Awards, and it has gone triple platinum in the U.S.

Double Fantasy yielded three Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including John's second solo #1:  "(Just Like) Starting Over" (#1), "Woman" (#2), and "Watching the Wheels" (#10).  Those songs also charted on the UK pop charts, with the former two reaching #1 and "Watching the Wheels" reaching #30.

As you can see, I have two copies of the album -- a double Double Fantasy, if you will -- and the one on the right is unopened, still fully shrinkwrapped.  I have no idea where I got that, as I didn't intentionally purchase it because it was unopened.  Obviously, I have no intention of opening that one up, but thankfully my other copy is still playable.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "I'm Losing You"

This is a crunchy rock song with an infectious repeating guitar riff.  Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and Bun E. Carlos played guitar and drums, respectively, on the original version of the song, but then it was re-recorded for the album with session musicians.  The song is all about John's worries about losing Yoko, prompted by John trying to call Yoko several times at home when he was in Bermuda in the summer of 1980 and being unable to get through.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Watching the Wheels"
"Watching the Wheels" is one of my favorite Lennon solo songs.  It's a piano-driven pop song that kind of pokes at all the people who poked at Lennon when he took those five years off to raise Sean.