Although the chaotic sessions that spawned this album have passed into rock & roll legend, and the recording's very genesis (as an out-of-court settlement between
John Lennon
and an aggrieved publisher) has often caused it to be slighted by many of the singer's biographers.
Rock 'n' Roll
, in fact, stands as a peak in his post-
Imagine
catalog: an album that catches him with nothing to prove and no need to try.
Lennon
could, after all, sing old rock & roll numbers with his mouth closed; he spent his entire career relaxing with off-the-cuff blasts through the music with which he grew up, and with
, the sound of him doing precisely that emerges. Four songs survive from the fractious sessions with producer
Phil Spector
in late 1973 that ignited the album, and anyone who has listened to the posthumous compilations that also draw from those archives, will know that the best tracks were left on the shelf,
"Be My Baby"
and
"Angel Baby"
among them. But a gorgeous run through
Lloyd Price
's
"Just Because"
wraps up the album in fine style, while a trip through
"You Can't Catch Me"
contrarily captures a playful side that
rarely revealed on vinyl. The remainder of the album was cut a year later with
alone at the helm, and the mood remains buoyant. It might not, on first glance, seem essential to hear him running through nuggets like
"Be Bop A Lula,"
"Peggy Sue,"
"Bring It on Home to Me,"
but again,
has seldom sounded so gleeful as he does on these numbers, while the absence of the
Spector
trademark Wall of Sound production is scarcely noticeable. As the object of one of
's own productions,
David Peel
once pointed out, "John had the Wall of Sound down perfectly himself." Released in an age when both
David Bowie
Bryan Ferry
had already tracked back to musical times gone by (
Pin-Ups
These Foolish Things
, respectively),
received short shrift from contemporary critics. As time passed, however, it has grown in stature, whereas those other albums have merely held their own. Today,
sounds fresher than the rock & roll that inspired it in the first place. Imagine that. ~ Dave Thompson