MIND GAMES

Lavishly illustrated volume chronicling Lennon and Ono’s years in New York, leading up to the recording of John’s 1973 album, Mind Games.

The book is organized largely along chronological lines, with photos, interviews, letters, and poems from each period. The photos are the weakest element, with too many minor variations of the same shots. There is a fair amount of material on their political activism, a lot of it in response to Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign for reelection. At first the couple associated with American radicals such as Abbie Hoffman and John Sinclair, but the attraction wore off when it became clear that they saw Lennon mainly as someone who could help draw attention to the movement. Lennon underwent a protracted battle to avoid deportation, nominally because of his 1970 London arrest for possession of marijuana, but just as likely because of his political activism. There is also a good bit of material on Lennon’s conversion to feminism and his work for women’s rights, on the mystical influences on his and Ono’s work, and on their lives together. The most interesting aspect of the book to students of Lennon’s music is undoubtedly the inclusion of lyrics from his songs of the era, usually accompanied on facing pages by the former Beatle’s handwritten drafts, with guitar chords indicated and his comments on the song’s inspiration. The final few pages are given up to interviews of the backing musicians and recording engineers who worked on the Mind Games album.

A detailed look at an important chapter in the life of one of the iconic artists of the late 20th century.