I’ve been thinking about
John’s last two solo albums. I don’t think either are considered to be standouts in his overall song catalog.
So, I want to make a few observations:
Yoko’s equal song quantities on each make these seem less than true solo efforts by
John. This fact detracts from the respective importance attributed to them, IMO.
These two albums are often not discussed or referenced, especially
Milk and Honey. Is it possible to consider these “non-albums” if I may coin a term?
John had 6 songs on
Milk and Honey and none of them seem to be chart leaders or standouts in their own right. Those songs are
I’m stepping out;
I don’t wanna face it;
Nobody told me;
Borrowed time;
Forgive me (my little flower princess);
Grow old with me.
I think “
Forgive me” is beautiful but underdeveloped and I wish it were longer.
But, let’s face it,
John’s last two solo efforts are under-lauded. No shout-outs for
John here.
IMHO,
Double Fantasy and
Milk and Honey should have combined as a single album minus
Yoko’s songs.
I suspect that had
John lived, he would have continued the
John-
Yoko pattern on all future albums. A difference between him and
Paul is that on
Paul’s solo albums,
Linda accompanied him. She didn’t alternate songs with him in her own right as did
Yoko.
Well, we can’t undo history especially considering that what we know is the history that
John wanted to play out exactly as it did.
My closing thought: I can’t imagine any other artist producing a so-called solo album but having another artist alternate every other track. I mean why couldn’t
Yoko just produce her own separate albums.
Was
John trying to “market” her assuming that nobody’d listen to her otherwise?
Interesting, too, that no further unreleased material has seen the light of day since then.