CoronaVinyl Day 109 (RS Greatest Songwriters 1-50): Shaved Fish by John Lennon

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Today is the second of a two-day look at Rolling Stone's 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All-Time, and today is featuring someone ranked #1-50 on the list.  I've already featured George Harrison and Paul McCartney's post-Beatles efforts on CoronaVinyl, so it's time to give John his turn.  John Lennon ranks #3 on the list of greatest songwriters, behind only his longtime collaborator Paul (#2) and, or course, Bob Dylan (#1).

It's crazy to think that John would have been 80 this October -- and that this December will mark the 40th anniversary of his murder.  I'd like to think that he would have had some choice things to say about what's going on right now in the U.S.

Shaved Fish is a 1975 compilation album -- the only compilation album of his solo work released during his lifetime -- and it features 11 of the 12 singles he had released in the U.S. up to that point.  This was John's last release on Apple Records, the label he co-founded with his former Beatles bandmates.  What's crazy is that, until this album came out, "Imagine" had not been released as a single in the UK.

But anyway, the album is a wonderful selection of songs showing why Lennon was one of the best there ever was.  Songs like "Give Peace a Chance," "Power to the People," "Woman is the Nigger of the World," "Imagine," and "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" give you a glimpse of how he pushed for social and political change through his music.  "Cold Turkey" "Instant Karma!" showed that he could rock and could still belt songs out like he did in his early Beatles days.  In "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," "Mind Games," and "#9 Dream," he gave us well-crafted pop songs.  "Mother" shows us that, behind his strong and steely public image, there was still a guy who hadn't come to grips with the fact that his dad left when he was young and his mom was killed when he was a teenager.

The album reached #12 on the Billboard album chart and #8 on the UK album chart.  Of the eleven songs on the album, eight were Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four that reached the Top 10 and one #1 ("Whatever Gets You Through the Night").  In the UK, nine songs were Top 40 hits, with five reaching the Top 10 (including "Imagine," which was released in the UK in 1975, four years after it was released in the U.S.).

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Instant Karma!"
"Instant Karma!" is one of my favorite solo John songs.  Produced by the legendary Phil Spector, the song features elements of his signature Wall of Sound.  On top of that, John wrote it on January 27, 1970 -- in about an hour -- and the called George Harrison and Spector, telling Spector, "Come over to Apple quick, I've just written a monster."  Joined by George on guitar and piano, Billy Preston on organ, Klaus Voormann on bass and electric piano, Alan White on drums and piano (he has some delicious fills), Mal Evans on chimes and handclaps, and everyone of them (plus Yoko and some others) on backing vocals, the song was recorded that same day.  It was released a mere ten days later, on February 6, 1970, making it one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history.  Lyrically, the song deals with the concept of, well, instant karma -- that our actions and conduct have an immediate effect on our lives.  The lyric "we all shine on" inspired the title to The Shining, one of Stephen King's most famous novels.  And anyone who was alive in the early '90s may remember "Instant Karma!" from a Nike commercial.  Yoko allowed the song to be used after she had allowed "Revolution" to be licensed to Nike a few years earlier for an ad campaign, only to reneg on her position after public outcry against the ad and lawsuits.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Imagine"
This is John's signature song and one of the greatest songs in rock and roll history.  Rolling Stone ranked it #3 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all-time.  With its message of imagining a world without barriers and divisions along national, socioeconomic, and religious lines, it's still as poignant today as it was when it was released in 1971.