‘sees [him]
creatively channelling the ongoing trauma of his childhood relationship – or
lack of one – with his father, through what were the present trials and tribulations of his
romantic life as a grown man in his mid-30s.’
Photograph Smile (1998)
by Julian Lennon
Following Father Into
The Family Firm
Consider the names on the following list:-
Jeff Buckley Adam
Cohen Jakob Dylan
Charlotte
Chesney Hawkes Enrique Iglesias Jean Michel Jarre Norah
Jones
Ziggy Marley Liza
Minelli Randy Newman
Nancy Sinatra
Chris Stills Teddy
Thompson Rufus and Martha Wainwright Kim Wilde
Carnie and Wendy Wilson with Chynna Phillips (as Wilson
Phillips)
Hank Williams Jnr.
Dweezil Zappa
The list is not intended to be comprehensive, but it does at
least show that, as in so many walks of life, family connections have opened
doors for many a would-be pop star (showbiz is a particularly nepotistic world
and a list of film and TV stars would be even longer). Markedly, it is the
offspring of famous male musicians
who seem most likely to follow in father’s footsteps – Liza Minelli and Chynna
Phillips would be the exceptions above, unless we count the Wainwrights, whose
mother was Kate McGarrigle but she, of course, was married to the more
well-known Loudon Wainwright III.
A famous family name, however, is no guarantee of success,
although some of the artists above have actually outsold their parents: Jean
Michel Jarre’s Oxygene (1976) sold
more than 12m copies, which is probably way more than his father, film
composer, Maurice shifted in his entire career; meanwhile, the eponymous Wilson
Phillips debut album knocked out over 10m sales in 1990, far above any single
Beach Boys or Mamas & Papas LP; and Enrique Iglesias may yet overtake the
sales of father Julio to become the most successful Latino singer of all time.
In terms of critical rather than commercial success,
singer-songwriter, Randy Newman’s uniquely satirical albums are highly rated
and he has also proved himself to be the equal of his film composer father and
uncles by winning two Oscars amongst other awards for his own soundtrack work.
The protean talents of Rufus Wainwright may have well have eclipsed those of
his father Loudon, although he’s yet to achieve a US Top 20 single (Loudon did
in 1972 with the fragrant ‘Dead , Skunk’). Although his recording career (only
one finished album) was nowhere near as long or varied as that of Tim Buckley
(dead at 28), Jeff (dead at 30) is also regarded - along with his father, who
he barely knew - as one of the great voices of the late 20th
century.
Sons Of The Beatles
As we see above, musical genes are inherited with varying
levels of career-development. Musicians descending from The Beatles – or to put
it another way, The Sons Of The Beatles – might be expected to have higher than
normal chances of maximising the nature / nurture equation. It seems, however,
that the heat from the torch passed on by senior Fabs can sometimes be a little
too hot to handle.
Dhanni Harrison, at 34, the youngest of The Sons, has yet to
make an album, despite being described as a working musician. Three years
older, Sean Lennon, has made the most of his celebrity background, having been
involved in numerous projects as well as having made three albums under his own
name, but he has yet to register any high profile success. In terms of
musicianship, 47 years old Zak Starkey not only has Ringo’s nose, but also his
drumming ability, having worked considerable stints with prestigious bands like
The Who and Oasis amongst others.
It is, however, Julian Lennon - now 50 years old, the first
born of the Fab juniors, who has been the most successful in terms of a solo
career. In the 1980s, he had several hits, but in a recording history now
approaching thirty years, his tally of only six albums seems a meagre return.
He regards the fifth of these, Photograph
Smile as his best work, despite its failure on the charts and its current
unavailability other than on import.
Now, I’m no expert on Julian and I can’t actually recall
what made me buy Photograph Smile,
the only record of his that I own, but I do know he’s had a relatively rough
deal over the years as a character in the long-running saga of Post-Beatles
World. I say ‘relatively rough deal’ because I’m not about to lose any sleep
about a Poor Little Rich Boy who lives by Lake Como and is rumoured to be worth
about $40m.
Having also been the 5 years old only child of a broken
marriage, more or less estranged from his father, I have, however, sometimes empathised with his situation. One gets the
impression that Julian has also had quite a tough time of it with Yoko, his
extended family, and the snobbery of many Rock fans and the music press. He
has, understandably, felt it keenly when, on various occasions he seems to have
been snubbed by The Royal Family Of Pop. If this sounds rather lame, then let’s
remind ourselves, that Julian was the direct source of no less than three
Beatles songs (‘Lucy In The Sky With
Diamonds’, famously inspired by one his nursery school paintings; the lullabye,
‘Goodnight’, another song by John; and ‘Hey Jude’, McCartney’s song of solace
for the small bewildered boy in the midst of his parents’ break-up).
To his credit, Julian has never appeared to directly milk
his association with his father in the subject-matter of his material, although
the genetic link in his phizog and vocal cords is sometimes undeniably apparent
in his singing, as are various Beatles musical tropes in some songs (but hey,
how many acts could that charge be
levelled at?). As we shall see, however, any sensitive listener is likely to
detect areas of metaphorical significance in the lyrics which may be entwined
with the peculiar – and unavoidable – history of his background.
Songs For Lucy –
Amongst Others…
As well as playing various guitar, sitar, keyboards and
percussion, Julian also sings all the backing vocals, which he arranges as well
as some of the strings – and he co-mixed and co-produced the record. Three of
the songs are solo compositions, ‘Way To Your Heart’ is co-written with
Canadian singer songwriter, Lisa Dal Bello, whilst the others are co-writes
with either pianist, Greg Darling or top AOR songwriter, Mark Spiro.
First up is ‘Day After Day’, a love song for his then new
fiancée, Lucy Bayliss*1. It’s a superior example of a rock ballad but, with its
complex arrangement and Beatlesque guitars and drumming, not to mention the
chip off the old block vocal, it was bound to provoke cries of ‘Beatles
rip-off!’ (interestingly, no-one ever says that anymore about Badfinger, do
they – one of whose hits was also titled ‘Day After Day’ and was equally
Beatlesque? But then critical acceptance was inevitable for a band who had the
integrity to feature double-suicide – if only Julian had strung himself up
after this record, his kudos would now be assured.
The emotional weather turns ‘Cold’ though, on the next
track, one of those ‘please don’t leave me’ songs, lifted here by its pleading
melody, elegant acoustic guitar solo and an opening couplet which could easily
refer to you-know-who (‘I’ve read the headlines covering your wall / A thousand
lifetimes, you must have lived them all’).
A third ballad, ‘I Should Have Known’, finds the narrator ‘trapped in
this lonely room’, by someone who, mark you, has cast him aside:-
‘Cos time and
time again
You’ve
disappeared and then
You’ve come home to me
And played my
emotions.’
The bitterness of the lyric, which also includes the line
‘You killed my inner heart’ and which is likely to strike a chord with many
kids from broken families, is offset by the stately but unsentimental progress
of the melody and cello-led sting arrangement.
The tempo picks up with ‘How Many Times’, a song reflecting
the singer’s sincere, active and sustained interest in ecology*2 which
compellingly observes:-
‘Well, we’re always looking for
something new,
But
what difference does it make when there’s no point of view
How
do you expect the future to last?’
‘I Don’t Wanna Know’, with its spirited time- to-move-on
theme, is a beat song which might almost have been one of John Lennon’s
up-tempo numbers from his group’s first four albums. Clearly an homage then
but, listen if Oasis could do it over and again, then anybody is entitled! The
originals, however, would have trimmed the all but four minutes of this by half…
‘Crucified’ – ‘on a cross of innuendo’ – appears to sum up
how Julian may feel about his life and work being scrutinised and sneered at by
gossip columnists and rock-critics. It canters along winningly, whipped up by
swirls of Arabic strings, but loses out eventually by again being overlong.
The following trio of songs are attractive ruminations on
the need for reconciliation. The piano-led ‘Walls’ resolves to empathise and
keep on keeping on in the face of adversity; ‘Believe’ devoutly hopes for
resolution only for that hope to ultimately founder; whilst ‘Good To Be Lonely’
rises above the doubtful rationalization of its title with a liltingly
classical string section and some succinct imagery:-
‘Wind through my window,
Come sing me a song,.
Show me the way home,
I’ve been disconnected,
Loved and rejected,
Travelling inside of my soul.’
‘Kiss Beyond The Catcher’ is the sort of
pleasant, sun-kissed shuffle that Jack Johnson would be selling vast amounts of
a few years down the line. It’s a fairly simple tune about the pursuit of an
elusive girl but, of course, we know that John Lennon’s murderer, Mark Chapman,
was carrying a copy of J. D. Salinger’s famous novel of teenage angst, The Catcher In The Rye when he shot the
star. Julian, who has admitted that he’s struggled with the pressures of
adulthood and hasn’t so far had any children of his own, clearly identifies
with Holden Caulfield*3, the book’s protagonist with a troubled hero-worship-relationship
with his older brother who leaves the family home to make it big as a Hollywood
screen-writer…
‘And She Cries’ is another
mid-tempo ballad, this time with guitar-parts which recall George Harrison and
The Searchers. About an obsessive, abandoned lover, it’s another above average cut,
but what raises Photograph Smile above
the level of a good album to one that is very
good is the final sequence of three songs (it may not be a great album because, at more an hour, it is perhaps overlong and
ballad-heavy – but it is certainly an
underrated one.).
The title-track is a beautiful torch
song by any standard and highlights what a fine singer Julian is at his best. On
these last three songs he is backed by a melancholy piano and sharp, sweeping
strings which never for a second descend into schmaltz – quite an achievement,
considering that ‘Faithful’ is practically a marriage proposal in which the
narrator offers to exchange vows of faith and declares himself ready ‘to sign
upon the dotted line’.
‘Way To Your Heart’, the closer,
is the killer track. Intensely moving, it begins with the sounds of studio
noise, a clock ticking and a cigarette being lit. As the first drag is exhaled,
the piano chimes and a dark undertow of strings lurches in like a heart coming
up into a mouth. It’s as if the singer is needing to take a deep breath before
taking on a song which will make testing demands on his emotions. The narrator,
a besotted, desperate lover, pleads for acceptance, almost demented with the
depth of his feeling: ‘I wanna leave you / So I can miss you.’ The clock is a
constant presence, reminding us, between the verses, of time trickling
indifferently away.
As the bridge begins though, time
starts to go backwards as the narrator, his vocal now heavily reverbed, urges
himself to waste no more time: ‘Open your eyes as you look to the skies / And
you see her just floating by’. The strings, joined by synthesisers, then take
off in a deft echo of the melody of ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’. The effect
is magical and as soon as the verses return, one longs for it to be repeated.
The fact that it isn’t only strengthens the emotional pull of the song and when
it ends with that solitary clock ticking away into infinity, I always feel
drained.
If you’re thinking this sounds like Julian
ripping off his old man, you couldn’t be more wrong. ‘Way To Your Heart’ works
wonderfully well on its own terms, as a yearning love song and when it summons
up the spirit of the Beatles song, it does so in a way which transcends
quotation. In any case, if Julian doesn’t have the right to refer to that song, then outside of the remaining
Beatles, I don’t know who does. Let’s not forget either, that the object of his
romantic affections at the time was named Lucy…
If I’m right about this, then Photograph Smile sees Julian Lennon creatively channelling the ongoing
childhood trauma of his earlier relationship – or lack of one - with his father
through what were the present trials and tribulations of his romantic life as a
grown man in his mid-30s. The album’s front and back covers feature sepia
pictures of him as a lttle boy – probably taken around the time of his parents’
separation (on the front he is, indeed, producing a photograph smile).
The dedications in the sleeve-notes subtly caution us from
viewing Julian’s every move through the prism – or should that be, from the prison – of you-know-who and co.
‘Crucified’ is dedicated to a friend ‘who tragically died last year’;
‘Faithful’ is for someone called Valeria; and ‘Kiss Beyond The Catcher’ is for
Lucy (though teasingly, with no surname attached*4).
Most tellingly of all, the whole album is dedicated to his
mother, Cynthia’s second husband, Roberto Bassanini*5, who is described as ‘my
‘Step’-Father (Julian’s inverted commas). Nowhere on this record will you find
any mention of John Lennon.
N. B.
*1 - Lucy Bayliss –
usually described as a ‘socialite’ was engaged to Julian for some ten years,
after which he was also engaged briefly to actress Olivia D’Abo (daughter of
singer-songwriter, Mike d’Abo, who took over as vocalist in Manfred Mann from
Paul Jones).
*2 - Julian’s interest in ecological issues seems
to be sincere, rather than just another celebrity’s publicity pose. He is
actively involved with both the Whaledreamers Organisation and The White
Feather Foundation (which he founded in 2009).
*3 - The second
line of track 4, ‘How Many Times?’ goes, ‘How many times must I catch you from
grace?’
*4 – The other Lucy, Lucy O’Donnell – the
little girl who inspired Julian’s original ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’
painting, died in 2009 from the disease lupus. Julian wrote and released a song
called ‘Lucy’ to raise money for lupus research.
*5 – Cynthia and Roberto were only married from 1970-73, but
the Italian ‘Step’-Father’ must have made a very positive impression on Julian…
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