John Lennon 5: Mind Games

After the political nonsense of the previous year, Mind Games was a step back to melodies and tunefulness, but once you paid attention it seemed as if John was also running out of steam. There are great tunes and catchy numbers on this album, but it seems kinda ordinary, which is one of the last adjectives one would use to describe John Lennon.

The title track still has a soaring quality that makes it a great track to this day. (That’s not an orchestra, it’s just a bunch of guys! But they sound so big…) Had he ever toured again, this would have been a showstopper. “Tight A$” is boogie with nothing else to hold it up, which unfortunately doesn’t pass for art. This would not be the only example of water-treading on this album. “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)” has some interesting chord changes and a cool arrangement, but lines like “all that I know is just what you tell me” come off more pathetic than romantic. It’s heartfelt, but much too Yoko-centric for mass enjoyment. “One Day (At A Time)” is a good example of why John shouldn’t sing falsetto for an entire song; perhaps he was going for a Stylistics feel on this? Whatever the motivation, it grates. “Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple)” is a lot of fun, before you realize how maddeningly repetitive it is. And it seems pointless to spend more than three seconds on the side closer. (That’s an in-joke.)

Side two starts off with as close as a potboiler as we’ll get, the funky “Intuition”, showing John was listening to the radio from time to time. This would have been another good choice for a single, or even one for Ringo to cover. “Out The Blue” is the best on the album next to “Mind Games”, mostly because of the clever chord changes, but also because of the bare honesty in the lyrics and delivery. “Only People” is harmless if lightweight; a whole lotta so what with too much “right on, brother”. It’s much improved by the John Denverisms of “I Know (I Know)” (that’s not meant as a bad thing), yet by this point it’s become tiresome to hear John apologize to Yoko continuously. This tune has some fantastic folky harmonies right off of Rubber Soul. He may have lost the passion, but his craftsmanship is strongly in evidence on this underrated song. While the title track was an extension of the unfinished “Make Love Not War”, “You Are Here” takes another old slogan and adds an “East is East” sentiment to it, but it just doesn’t lift itself up at all. “Meat City” is a rocking way to blow out the album, which, now that you can look back on it, doesn’t say much, does it?

Mind Games is not a bad album; it just isn’t as great as Plastic Ono Band or Imagine. Many of these songs seem slight because they are merely pleasant, when his earlier work, while still incredibly personal, was more moving. Luckily his voice is as good as ever, and even the slimmest songs benefit from it. This was the best he could come up with at the time; meanwhile Yoko had become incredibly prolific, having completed two albums—one of them a double—since Some Time In New York City, and apparently getting tired of him. Once his album was mastered, he scampered off to the West Coast for an adventure with Phil Spector.

The 2002 reissue brought out sonic surprises in the mix, a lot more exciting than the demos tacked at the end. At least there were a few drawings in the booklet we hadn’t seen before. When the Ultimate Collection of the album arrived a year after its 50th anniversary—after skipping Some Time In New York City, likely because people would have been up in arms over the title of that album’s lead track—box producer Sean Lennon took the album title literally.

Following the template of the Plastic Ono Band and Imagine sets, the 12 tracks—yes, even “Nutopian International Anthem”—were presented six different ways in the Deluxe Edition, four of those simply variations on the same source. The Ultimate Mixes widened the original mixes somewhat, giving the tracks room to breathe and generally an improvement, though we wonder what happened to the sax at the end of “One Day (At A Time)”. The Elemental Mixes were stripped down to favor John’s voice, while the Elements Mixes focused on isolated instruments, generally omitting the drums in the former case, highlighting keyboards or Sneaky Pete on pedal steel in both. We can also appreciate Gordon Edwards’ bass that much more, and enjoy the reggae influence on “Intuition”. The Raw Studio Mixes purported to present the takes without embellishment, but only a few were extended past their familiar fades. The customary Evolution Documentaries presented journeys from demos to final masters, and the Outtakes were just that. (A two-CD version consisted of the Ultimate Mixes and the Outtakes.)

Most of the fanfare went toward the Super Deluxe Box, a giant Perspex cube that offered everything from the six-CD-two-Blu-ray package along with all the stated music on vinyl, reproductions of vintage John and/or Yoko art pieces, and a variety of puzzles each requiring unique solutions to find any hidden content within. In addition to being extremely limited and extremely expensive, it became a deterrent for those of us who wanted the extra music we’d come to expect by now, such as standalone demos (previously released or otherwise, such as the tantalizing peek at a very different “You Are Here” in that Evolution Documentary) and key adjacent tracks like “I’m The Greatest” and “Rock ‘N Roll People”. Those two were included as Ultimate Mixes, as was the single version of “Meat City”, but they weren’t prominently labeled. Mind games indeed.

John Lennon Mind Games (1973)—3
2002 CD reissue: same as 1973, plus 3 extra tracks
2024 The Ultimate Collection: “same” as 1973, plus 60 extra tracks (and 2 Blu-ray discs)