When critics and audiences refused to embrace the radical politics of 1972's Sometime in New York City, John Lennon shifted tracks and made a poppier, sunnier record in 1973. Despite being hunted by the Nixon administration, which sought to expel him from the country because of his views, Lennon seemed to be in a pretty good place. This is reflected in the love songs, sing-along calls for freedom, "I'll believe in everything until it's disproven" philosophies, and general good-humored silliness of Mind Games.
Once again, critics were dismissive and even outright hostile, but Mind Games certainly hit it off with listeners better than NYC had (it probably helped that, unlike the previous album's flagship single, the song "Mind Games" failed to use the "N" word). Sure, the album was a bit simple, but so was "I Feel Fine". Mind Games is not as shattering an artistic statement as Plastic Ono Band, but without the complications of the artist's most personal or political work, or the syrupiness of Phil Spector's production on Imagine, Mind Games is John's album that I personally enjoy listening to most these days. So I for one welcome the attempt to recast it as "a fan favorite" or "cult classic" or whatever and celebrate its 51st anniversary with a big new music box set and a big new hardcover book devoted to its making and the times in which it was made.Here we'll be focusing on the latter. If you want a not-entirely-white-washed portrait of where John Lennon was between the release of Sometime in New York City and the release of Mind Games: the Album, Mind Games: the Book does a good job. With text mostly pulled from a variety of radio and print interviews with John and Yoko Ono, the book's co-authors have a lot to say about each of the album's songs. They also discuss their own politics, personal beliefs, family, love of New York City, immigration issues, and even marital issues. Yoko deals with her husband's infamous infidelity on the night Nixon won his second term.
As for the making of the record, the book mostly leaves that discussion to the engineers and musicians who helped Lennon make it. Others who knew Lennon during this time, such as Abbie Hoffman, Elton John, and Tom Hayden, say their piece too. Even G. Gordon Liddy, one of the villains of this story, gets a paragraph.
The text is supplemented with tons of images of hand-written lyrics, drawings, personal Polaroids and professional photos, preliminary album cover sketches, and lots of ephemera related to the political and spiritualist temper of the time. All this makes for a very attractive package.
