John Lennon would keep up with rock and roll records to see if the genre had “improved” before heading into the studio.
The Beatles member would “buy a few records” before he headed into the studio to keep up with where the genre was and what he would be recording. But it wasn’t, it seems, out of interest for the evolution of sound, but more because Lennon wanted to know what the competition was like in the top ten. Speaking about the boredom that came with rock music, Lennon would say he constantly checked to see if “anything happened” in the genre. It appears he was let down several times, though, and told Jann Wenner in 1971 that there was very little change in the genre from 1968 to 1971. Lennon would comment during the making of The White Album that The Beatles were rockers at heart, and it was clear Lennon still had a love for the fundamentals of the genre.
In 1968, he said: “What we’re trying to do is rock ‘n roll, ‘with less of your philosorock,’ is what we’re saying to ourselves. And get on with rocking because rockers is what we really are. It’s just natural. Everybody says we must do this and that, but our thing is just rocking. You know, the usual gig. That’s what this new record is about. Definitely rocking.”
But just three years later and his attitude to the genre had changed. He told Wenner he only listened to rock music when he needed to check what else was releasing at the time. Lennon said: “Only when I’m recording or about to bring something out I will listen [to the Top 10].
“Just before I record, I go buy a few albums to see what people are doing. Whether they have improved any, or whether anything happened. And nothing’s really happened. There’s a lot of great guitarists and musicians around, but nothing’s happening, you know.”
Lennon would then deride groups like Blood, Sweat & Tears, calling them “shit” before ripping into the genre as a whole. He said: “Rock ‘n’ roll is going like jazz, as far as I can see, and the bullsh*tters are going off into that excellentness which I never believed in.”
In a three-star review of Lennon’s Rock and Roll album, Cult Following suggested that “dressing like a greaser and revisiting a guitar rock style which he had helped shift is a bold move. Lennon clearly has a love for the genre, the aesthetic, and the style. He shares as much on Rock ‘n’ Roll, an album which won’t work if you’re hoping for a direct continuation of any of his solo works.
“This is a break from the stress of creativity. Everyone needs to return to the well of influence from time to time.”
