John Lennon's 'Mother' - classic or dud

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This song was designed for the classic/dud binary. It couldn't possibly be anything in between. You either get sucked right into those simple piano chords and primal scream, or you find the whole thing unlistenably histrionic. Personally I love it, some days I think it's the best thing he ever did.

― the mask of mishima, Friday, 10 February 2006 12:39 (twenty years ago)

Classic, of course. The whole POB album is great, and his piano is key to a good bit of it.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 10 February 2006 12:43 (twenty years ago)

http://www.riokou.co.uk/sin/pob.jpg

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 February 2006 12:45 (twenty years ago)

yeah classic - i once played it for my mom, and she cried.

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Friday, 10 February 2006 15:05 (twenty years ago)

awww!

yeh i like it.

― Vintage Latin (dog latin), Friday, 10 February 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

"Genius is Pain".

― matty bobatty, Saturday, 11 February 2006 04:19 (twenty years ago)

Such a very good song.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 11 February 2006 04:29 (twenty years ago)

i prefer the pink floyd version.

― Tim Paul (timnyc), Saturday, 11 February 2006 04:30 (twenty years ago)

i'm glad everyone likes it as it's just the kind of thing that ten thousand snobs would stand up and actively hate.

― Vintage Latin (dog latin), Saturday, 11 February 2006 04:41 (twenty years ago)

Has anyone heard the Barbra Streisand version?

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Saturday, 11 February 2006 05:03 (twenty years ago)

good verses but no chorus = dud.
let's not say it's classic because he's dead.

― retrogurl, Saturday, 11 February 2006 05:53 (twenty years ago)

That's not the reason why. There are duds in his solo catalog, but this isn't one.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 11 February 2006 05:57 (twenty years ago)

I think "Mother" is really cool structurally in part because it doesn't have a chorus. There's so much of a sense of finality to the end of the verse that there would have to have been some sweeping thematic shift in the lyrics to necessitate a chorus or bridge.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 11 February 2006 06:51 (twenty years ago)

Or, I don't know, not necessarily a "sweeping thematic shift," but at least some chunk of text significant enough ON ITS OWN to merit deviating from the series of verses.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 11 February 2006 06:57 (twenty years ago)

Beautiful song.

― Freud Junior (Freud Junior), Saturday, 11 February 2006 06:59 (twenty years ago)

it's good but "god," from that album, is better and has possibly lennon's greatest vocal ever.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 11 February 2006 07:00 (twenty years ago)

As dud as the rest of that overrated album.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 11 February 2006 13:34 (twenty years ago)

i like "love" best off the album.

― Vintage Latin (dog latin), Saturday, 11 February 2006 13:44 (twenty years ago)

"Love" would be excellent if he replaced his voice with a violin.

― Cheek0 (Cheek0), Saturday, 11 February 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

whenever i try to remember this song, i hear the "mother, oo-oo-oo-oo" part from "bohemian rhapsody"

― amateuristo, Saturday, 11 February 2006 21:47 (twenty years ago)

And I just tried remembering the melody and "Mother" by DANZIG came up ("Motherrrrr, tell your children not to bla bla bla"). Fuck's wrong with me.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Saturday, 11 February 2006 22:48 (twenty years ago)

'Mother' - classic. Though I find the POB album a bit uneven; I only like 'Love' and 'Isolation' from the rest.

What does anyone think of the Kubb cover version?

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Saturday, 11 February 2006 23:08 (twenty years ago)

"Love" is the only good song on the "Plastic Ono Band" album.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 11 February 2006 23:10 (twenty years ago)

I was interested to see George Harrison's comment that "it wasn't until (John) made that album about Janov, the primal scream one, that I realised he was even more screwed up than I realised" - as they must have known each other really, really well by then.

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Saturday, 11 February 2006 23:19 (twenty years ago)

The Shelby Lynne/Glen Ballard version slays. I'm serious. Maybe it's partially the backstory and all, but it still slays.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Saturday, 11 February 2006 23:30 (twenty years ago)

http://www.fortunecity.com/wembley/trafford/555/glennpic5.jpg

"MOTHER"

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Sunday, 12 February 2006 00:12 (twenty years ago)

it is a screwed up, self masturbating album. a precursor to practically all his post-beatles work but somehow, despite his wankering i forgive lennon because he manages to hold all his shit togather.

― Vintage Latin (dog latin), Sunday, 12 February 2006 02:34 (twenty years ago)

does anyone else find "my mummy's dead" absolutely horrific. i remember hearing this when i was quite young and finding the starkness just bone-chilling.

― Vintage Latin (dog latin), Sunday, 12 February 2006 02:39 (twenty years ago)

Hey, Bob, where's that George quote from?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 12 February 2006 03:02 (twenty years ago)

The Shelby Lynne/Glen Ballard version slays.

ysi?

― kanye twitty (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 12 February 2006 03:06 (twenty years ago)

crap!

that was supposed to be a picture of danzig.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Sunday, 12 February 2006 03:20 (twenty years ago)

>does anyone else find "my mummy's dead" absolutely horrific<

Yes.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 12 February 2006 03:37 (twenty years ago)

Yup.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Sunday, 12 February 2006 07:32 (twenty years ago)

Rickey - the quote's from the 'Anthology' book, where George is discussing the 'Dental Experience' (page 180 -hardback).

Here's a ysi for the Kubbb version (I'm kind of hoping it'll encourage someone to post a ysi for Shelby Lynne):

http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1XXRKJL0PT43X2U1CVQFHVXZE9

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Sunday, 12 February 2006 09:12 (twenty years ago)

Thanks, Bob. I've got that but never read it straight through.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 12 February 2006 09:17 (twenty years ago)

genuinely emotionally affecting. classic.

― ZR (teenagequiet), Sunday, 12 February 2006 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Momus don't go
Dada come home!

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Sunday, 12 February 2006 20:38 (twenty years ago)

Sorry for the sacrilege.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Sunday, 12 February 2006 20:38 (twenty years ago)

http://www.phillyist.com/attachments/philly_john/071505_shelby.jpg + http://soundtrack-information.net/img/Glen%20Ballard.jpg

= http://s6.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=17BH65TQ1F9MJ0QHXEFXRRA8B1

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Sunday, 12 February 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

Those "Mama don't goooooOOOOOOOH!!"s are as harrowing as "Frankie Teardrop" or any Diamanda Galas I've ever heard. Certainly not an enjoyable song at all, but of course that was the point.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Monday, 13 February 2006 06:11 (twenty years ago)

shelby sounds real real good there. now if only glen ballard were a decent producer...

― kanye twitty (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 13 February 2006 06:32 (twenty years ago)

If you want it sans Ballardry, check out the John Lennon tribute vid, Come Together. I only saw it when it aired, but for those five minutes my world stopped.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Monday, 13 February 2006 17:17 (twenty years ago)

this album inspired one of my fav critical putdowns ever, from ian penman: "entirely dependent on our presumed fascination with this deeply unpleasant and superficial man." still classic obv.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:35 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

does anyone know where i can hear/leech the radio broadcasts of the lost lennon tapes? thanks in advance.

― iago g., Sunday, 21 March 2010 05:29 (sixteen years ago)

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/0512/Magical_Misery_Tour.mp3

funny this thread came up, friend just mailed me a copy of the National Lampoon parody of 'Mother' with all the lyrics replaced by excerpts from the RS 1970 Lennon interview with Wenner (music played by Melissa Manchester / sung by Tony Hendra (aka Ian Faith the manager from Spinal Tap)

turn left at iceland

― Milton Parker, Sunday, 21 March 2010 05:40 (sixteen years ago)

(I mean I'd heard this way too long ago but it's kind of even funnier now, especially now that I've heard leaks of the tapes from that interview, the bit where Lennon is going off on how he can't ever forgive his aunt for burning his poems or forgive any of his schoolteachers for making the mistake of not recognizing him as a genius)

― Milton Parker, Sunday, 21 March 2010 05:41 (sixteen years ago)

strange mix this album. Mother, Love, God - all terrific. Some of the bluesy angst dosen't work for me in the way that Yer Blues does, where it's tempered with humour.

― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 21 March 2010 22:40 (sixteen years ago)

Love Magical Misery Tour. Here's a thread that went nowhere, trying to drum up other examples of songs composed of quotes from interviews and the like (the only other one I know is Bongwater's "Frank"):

Songs whose lyrics are mostly sardonic quotes of another musician's words

― dad a, Monday, 22 March 2010 19:02 (sixteen years ago)

four years pass...

CLASSIC! the simplicity and starkness of the lyrics makes it universal. plenty of people can identify with "momma don't go, daddy come home!!!!!!!!!" harrowing and musically beautiful

― ET sippin the wig (spazzmatazz), Thursday, 4 December 2014 11:53 (eleven years ago)

Glad this thread wasn't full of old music critics ruining something I find moving. I feel so battered by Old ILM sometimes.

― 18th Century Celebrity WS of Shame (Hurting 2), Thursday, 4 December 2014 12:38 (eleven years ago)

^ it would be too easy to slay this.

― Hello, my name is Dark Chocolate Cookie (dog latin), Thursday, 4 December 2014 12:53 (eleven years ago)

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