Mind Games

Mind Games
Mind Games
Studio album by John Lennon
Released 2 November 1973 (US)
16 November 1973 (UK)
Recorded Record Plant Studios, New York, July – August 1973
Genre Rock
Length 40:41
Label Apple/EMI
Producer John Lennon
John Lennon chronology
Some Time in New York City
(1972)
Mind Games
(1973)
Walls and Bridges
(1974)
Singles from Mind Games
  1. "Mind Games"
    Released: 16 November 1973

Mind Games is John Lennon's fourth post-Beatles album, and was recorded and released in 1973. Like his previous album, the politically topical and somewhat abrasive Some Time in New York City, Mind Games was poorly received by music critics. It reached #13 in the UK and #9 in the US, where it went gold.

The release of the album marked the beginning of Lennon's 18-month separation from Yoko Ono.[1]

Contents

Background

In mid-1973, as Yoko Ono was completing her fourth album, Feeling the Space, Lennon decided he also wanted to record a new album. He liked the musicians assembled for Ono's album by their assistant and production coordinator, May Pang, and he asked Pang to book them for his sessions. Lennon then quickly wrote the songs for Mind Games.

Just as the sessions were to get underway in June at New York's Record Plant Studios, the Lennons separated.[1] With Ono's approval, Pang would become Lennon's companion and lover in what would become an 18-month relationship known as Lennon's 'lost weekend'. Lennon's design for the Mind Games sleeve represented his symbolic walking away from Ono and her apparent mountainous influence on him.

Under the incarnation of 'The Plastic U.F.Ono Band', Lennon engaged the services of session drummer Jim Keltner, guitarist David Spinozza, Gordon Edwards on bass, Arthur Jenkins on percussion, and the vocal backing of a group called Something Different. Lennon produced the album without the aid of Phil Spector.[2]

Songs

The tone of this album ranges from somber and melodic songs directed to Ono ("Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)", "One Day at a Time", "Out The Blue", and "You Are Here"), to more light-hearted and optimistic tracks ("Intuition", "Only People") and a few that indulge Lennon's affinity for pure rock 'n' roll ("Tight A$" and "Meat City").

The title track (with its "love is the answer" refrain and call to "make love not war") was begun during the Beatles' Let It Be sessions, and became a Top 20 US hit.

"Bring on the Lucie (Freda Peeple)", "Only People" and the three-second silent "Nutopian International Anthem" were the only political tracks on the album.[1] The latter referred to “Nutopia: The Country of Peace”, a conceptual country which the Lennons had announced at a press conference in New York City on April Fool's Day 1973.[3]

Mind Games's closer, "Meat City", contains a Lennon curse, ("Fuck a pig!"), sped up and backwards-masked, while the mix used as "Mind Games"'s single B-Side gives the same treatment to the phrase "Check the album!"

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars[4]
Rolling Stone (2002) 4/5 stars[5]

Rolling Stone magazine assessed the album as "his worst writing yet" and found Lennon to be "helplessly trying to impose his own gargantuan ego upon an audience ... waiting hopefully for him to chart a new course".[6]

Writing for Allmusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album ; "While the best numbers are among Lennon's finest, there's only a handful of them, and the remainder of the record is simply pleasant."[4]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by John Lennon. 

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Mind Games"   4:13
2. "Tight A$"   3:37
3. "Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)"   4:44
4. "One Day (At a Time)"   3:09
5. "Bring on the Lucie (Freda Peeple)"   4:12
6. "Nutopian International Anthem"   0:03
Side two
No. Title Length
7. "Intuition"   3:08
8. "Out the Blue"   3:23
9. "Only People"   3:23
10. "I Know (I Know)"   3:49
11. "You Are Here"   4:08
12. "Meat City"   2:45
Bonus tracks on 2002 re-issue
No. Title Length
13. "Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)" (Home version) 3:49
14. "Bring on the Lucie (Freda Peeple)" (Home version) 4:08
15. "Meat City" (Home version) 2:37

Personnel

Charts

Chart positions

Chart (1973/74) Position
Australian Kent Music Report Chart[7] 8
Canadian RPM Albums Chart[8][9] 28
Dutch Mega Albums Chart[10] 7
Italian Albums Chart[11] 14
Japanese Oricon LP Chart[12] 6
Norwegian VG-lista Albums Chart[13] 7
UK Albums Chart [14] 13
U.S. Billboard 200 [15] 9

Year-end charts

Chart (1974) Position
Italian Albums Chart[11] 30

Certifications

Region Certification
United Kingdom (BPI)[16] Gold
United States (RIAA)[17] Gold

Aftermath

In 2002, Yoko Ono supervised a remixing of Mind Games for its remastered reissue with three previously unreleased demo recordings; it was reissued in 2005 by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. In 2010, the original mix was remastered as part of the re-release of the entire John Lennon catalogue.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Cepeda, Adrian Ernesto. ""Bring on the Lucie": Lennon's Last Overtly Political Stand". PopMatters. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/133566-bring-on-the-lucie-lennons-last-overtly-political-stand. Retrieved October 6, 2011. 
  2. ^ John Lennon: The Complete Guide
  3. ^ Toy, Vivian S. "A Brush With a Beatle," New York Times. March 7, 2010.
  4. ^ a b Allmusic review
  5. ^ Rolling Stone (2002) review
  6. ^ Landau 1974.
  7. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0646119176. 
  8. ^ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 20, No. 24, January 26, 1974". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.4961a&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved 2011-02-07. 
  9. ^ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 21, No. 4, March 09 1974". RPM. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.4985b&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=c6btf3r8hs459qqt5ln3o3dcv5. Retrieved 2011-02-07. 
  10. ^ "dutchcharts.nl John Lennon - Mind Games" (in Dutch). dutchcharts.nl. MegaCharts. http://dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=John+Lennon&titel=Mind+Games&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
  11. ^ a b "Hit Parade Italia - Gli album più venduti del 1974" (in Italian). hitparadeitalia.it. http://www.hitparadeitalia.it/hp_yenda/lpe1974.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-03. 
  12. ^ a-ビートルズ "- Yamachan Land (Archives of the Japanese record charts) - Albums Chart Daijiten - The Beatles" (in Japanese). 2007-12-30. http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~yamag/album/al_beatles.html a-ビートルズ. Retrieved 2011-09-14. 
  13. ^ "norwegiancharts.com John Lennon - Mind Games". http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=John+Lennon&titel=Mind+Games&cat=a. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
  14. ^ "Chart Stats - John Lennon - Mind Games". UK Albums Chart. http://www.chartstats.com/release.php?release=37632. Retrieved 2011-09-12. 
  15. ^ "allmusic ((( Mind Games > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r11525/charts-awards. Retrieved 2011-09-14. 
  16. ^ "British album certifications – John Lennon – Mind Games". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx.  Enter Mind Games in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Go
  17. ^ "American album certifications – John Lennon – Mind Games". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?artist=%22Mind+Games%22.  If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH

References


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