John Lennon: The Stories Behind Every Song 1970-1980 (Stories Behind the Songs) [Flexibound]

British pop music writer Paul Du Noyer reminds me just how personal an experience art can be in his book JOHN LENNON: THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY SONG 1970-1980. Covering John Lennon music from the debut single "Give Peace a Chance" through the posthumous album MILK AND HONEY, the author quotes changing opinions of Lennon songs and albums by none other than the late artist himself. The music is what it is and does not change. But what we take to it does, which is why you might have dismissed the L.P. SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY when you first heard it in 1972 but found yourself grooving to it two decades later, when you played it for the heck of it.

Du Noyer seems to have definite takes on Lennon's music, admiring JOHN LENNON/PLASTIC ONO BAND, IMAGINE, and WALLS AND BRIDGES, for example, while disliking MIND GAMES and SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY. Frankly, I like MIND GAMES as much as any John Lennon album and also think SOME TIME IN NEW YORK CITY is pretty cool. But who knows, in ten years Paul Du Noyer and I may trade opinions.

While promising the stories behind every John Lennon song from 1970 to 1980, the book either does not cover or only mentions in passing titles such as:

- "Move Over, Ms. L," the flip side of "Stand By Me"

- "Mucho Mungo," given to Nilsson

- "Goodnight, Vienna," "I'm the Greatest" and "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)," given to Ringo Starr

- "Rock and Roll People," given to Johnny Winter

- "Fame," co-written with David Bowie and Carlos Alomar, given to Bowie

- "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him," which in reality was John's backing vocals for a Yoko Ono song presented as a Lennon record

- "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," the Elton John cover version where John plays guitar and sings backup

- "Do the Oz," which John wrote and sings, the flip side to "God Save Us" by Bill Elliot and the Elastic Oz Band

Is anyone else tired of hearing John Lennon's post-Beatles music compared to that of Paul McCartney and the other ex-Beatles? Paul (Of all names!) Du Noyer says it embarrasses John to have Ringo Starr's RINGO album outsell his MIND GAMES when both are released at the same time. According to JOHN LENNON: THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY SONG 1970-1980, Lennon himself bemoans the public's apparent preference for McCartney's Beatles songs over his. I can't be the only one who realizes the Beatles owed one another at least some credit for their development as musicians and songwriters. Would Paul McCartney be the most successful singer-songwriter of his time had John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr not been there?

I thought the British were cooler than Americans, but author Du Noyer uses the term "peacenik" in JOHN LENNON: THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY SONG 1970-1980. That is a derogatory word, likening those against war to communists, in the loaded word sense.

Being British, Paul Du Noyer should not be expected to know the "Number Nine Dream" single peaked at number 9 in America's BILLBOARD magazine chart.

The book's passage on "Meat City" says the song's backwards phrase refers to having sex with a swine. If you have both the vinyl album and the "Mind Games" flip side versions of that song, you may know the backwards phrase is "Check the album" on one and "Check the L.P." on the other. Who is Paul Du Noyer, and why is he saying those strange things?

Is it me, or does George Harrison already look sick in the 1995 photo of Ringo, Paul, George, and George Martin on page 147? Cancer would take him six years later.

A page 70 photo fails to identify the late U.S. Congress member Bella Abzug among the demonstrators it depicts. Again, Paul Du Noyer ain't from the United States.

The caption of the page 56 photo of the band Badfinger wrongly identifies Joey Molland instead of Pete Ham as one of the two group members who lost his life to suicide. As I write this in September 2011, Molland is the last surviving original Badfinger member.

Read JOHN LENNON: THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY SONG 1970-1980. Lennon fans that were there will get to relive the discussions and arguments about John Lennon and his music. And those who came later will do some catching up.