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ALBUM REVIEW

WALLS AND BRIDGES

Released - 1974 on Apple Records. Produced by John Lennon

John Lennon - Lead & Backing Vocals,  Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Piano, Percussion

With:

Jesse Ed Davis - Lead Electric Guitar including Slide
Ken Ascher - Piano, Clavinet, Organ, Mellotron
Eddie Mottau - Acoustic Guitar
Klaus Voormann - Bass
Jim Keltner - Drums
Authur Jenkins - Percussion
Nicky Hopkins - Piano on tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 11

Additional Personnel:

Elton John - Vocal Harmony, Piano, Organ on "Whatever Gets You Through The Night", Backing Vocals on ""Surprise, Surprise"
Bobby Keys - Saxophone on "Whatever Gets You Through The Night"
May Pang, Lori Burton & Joey Dambra - Backing Vocals on "#9 Dream"
Harry Nilisson - Backing Vocals on "Old Dirt Road"
Julian Lennon - Drums on "Ya Ya"
Little Big Horns

All lyrics written by John Lennon except "Old Dirt Road" by J. Lennon and Harry Nilisson; "Ya Ya" by Robinson/Dorsey/Lewis

REVIEW

Walls and Bridges is my least favorite John Lennon solo album (not counting the non music ones), still, it's not that bad at all. Recorded during Lennon's "lost weekend", while he was separated from Yoko Ono, he seems to lose a bit of his inspiration with her gone, even thought one or two of the songs are about her. You can feel his pain in several of these songs, like "What You Got", where he pleas to Yoko for another chance and even address his wild lost weekend with "Well it's Saturday nite and I'm gonna rip it up". "Bless You" is another song about Yoko, but not at all bitter.

The best song on the album is the classic "Whatever Gets You Through The Night", thanks in part to his friend Elton John who sings harmony, with a great sax added by Bobby Keys. "#9 Dream" is real nice too, with girlfriend May Pang sounding a bit like Yoko as she cries out John! John!. "Steel and Glass" is another very good song, with once again, John dealing with that same situation that he really doesn't want to deal with.

The rest of the songs found here are at best, just a cut above average. I didn't rate "Ya Ya" since it's so short and is cut off after it's beginning. The song features John's son Julian Lennon on the drums, guess you can say not bad for a eleven year old, but nothing great either. The one thing about this entire album is that Lennon's voice sounds great, as usual, and why some of the poorer songs rate as high as they do. He did have a singing voice like no other!

- Keno 2004

To listen to some soundclips from  WALLS AND BRIDGES, or to purchase it, click on: Walls And Bridges

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