John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

“John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is the debut solo album by English musician John Lennon. It was released in 1970, after Lennon had issued three experimental albums with Yoko Ono and Live Peace in Toronto 1969, a live performance in Toronto credited to the Plastic Ono Band. … In July 1970, Lennon started to record demos of songs he wrote that would show up on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and on one particular day, the 26th, Lennon recorded numerous demos of his song ‘God‘, which includes the line ‘I don’t believe in Beatles’. Lennon’s therapy was never completed due to the expiry of his US visa. … Throughout the album Lennon touches on many personal issues: his abandonment by his parents, in ‘Mother’; the means by which young people are made into soldiers, in ‘Working Class Hero’; a reminder that, despite his rage and pain, Lennon still embraces ‘Love’; and ‘God’, a renunciation of external saviours. … John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was received with high critical praise upon release. Critic Greil Marcus remarked, ‘John’s singing in the last verse of ‘God’ may be the finest in all of rock.’ In early 1971, the album reached number eight in the UK and went to number six in the US, spending eighteen weeks in the Top 100. The album was particularly successful in the Netherlands, knocking George Harrison‘s blockbuster All Things Must Pass from the top of the chart and remaining at number one for seven consecutive weeks. Robert Christgau named it the best album of 1970 in his year-end list for The Village Voice, and in a decade-end list, he ranked it 21st best from the 1970s. In a retrospective review for Rolling Stone, he wrote that the lyrics are political, existential, and carefully thought, while Spector’s production is elegantly simple so each instrument resonates, including Lennon’s voice: ‘Left out in the open, without protective harmonies or racket, Lennon’s singing takes on an expressive specificity that anyone in search of the century’s great vocal performances would be foolish to overlook.’ …”
Wikipedia
Rolling Stone: John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band By Lester Bangs
John Lennon – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (Video/Audio)
#23: John Lennon, “Plastic Ono Band” (1970)
MoMA: John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band with Yoko Ono
Discogs (Video)
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YouTube: Mother, Working Class Hero, God, Power To The People