John Lennon Said Kids Understood 1 of His Albums More Than Adults
TL;DR:
- One of John Lennon’s albums featured him “expressing himself without any words or format.”
- He collaborated with another celebrity on the album who was not a member of The Beatles.
- John discussed how children would react to the record.
One of John Lennon‘s albums was designed to mean whatever listeners wanted it to mean. He said “you get it or you don’t.” Subsequently, John said youngsters would understand the album.
1 of John Lennon’s albums was supposed to mimic the way children communicate
John collaborated with Yoko Ono throughout his career. In 1969, the couple released the experimental album Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions. According to the book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, John discussed the album in a 1969 interview.
“That’s [the album’s screeching, nonmusical sound] just saying whatever you want it to say,” he said. “It’s just us expressing ourselves without any words or format, not formalizing the sound we make to make words or to make music or beat.”
John discussed the message of Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions. “We’re just expressing ourselves like the child does … and you get it or you don’t,” he said. “What we’re saying is, ‘Make your own music.'”
John Lennon discussed the title of ‘Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions’
John elaborated on the title of the album. “This is unfinished music,” he said. “We’re not giving you finished products wrapped up in a bit of paper and saying, ‘Here you are, aren’t we clever?’ … Youngsters don’t have any trouble digging it … You play it for a twelve-year-old, they just go along with it.”
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions was part of a trilogy of experimental albums John and Yoko made. The albums were Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions, and Wedding Album.
How the album and the other albums in the trilogy performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins became the most popular of the trilogy in the United States. It reached No. 124 on the Billboard 200, lasting on the chart for eight weeks, Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and Wedding Album peaked at No. 174 and No. 178 on the Billboard 200, respectively.
On the other hand, The Official Charts Company reports John and Yoko’s avant-garde music was less popular in the United Kingdom. None of the albums from the trilogy charted in the U.K. Of the albums, Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins probably remains the best-known because of its nude album cover.
Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions wasn’t much of a hit but John felt it could connect with younger audiences.
