Menlove Ave

John Lennon: Menlove Ave.

When I purchased Menlove Ave. back in the mid-1980s, I was terribly disappointed! There was hardly a decent song on the album and Yoko Ono seemed to be hell-bent on milking every penny she could from sentimental fans by naming the album Menlove Ave., actually Lennon's boyhood address (or was it a sly slur on Lennon's manhood?).  I understood that it was probably an attempt to stem the small but lucrative bootleg trade but...as an official release, Menlove Ave. just wasn't that great.

Of course, that was before Time had made Lennon more interesting to me...and long before the release of The Beatles Anthology, through which I'd learned to appreciate archival material a lot better. Looking back on it, Menlove Ave. was actually quite interesting...but with re-releases, there may no longer be any great need to own it:

• half of Menlove Ave.'s tracks are on the Remastered Rock'n'Roll album &
• the other half are LIVE studio takes from Walls & Bridges, one of which is on the remastered album 

However, Here We Go Again is pretty good, so, if you're a Lennon Archivist, you may wish to give Menlove Ave. a listen, though everybody else could probably spend their moolah better on the reissues.

John Lennon: Menlove Ave.

For more info, see:

• Wikipedia, John Lennon Menlove Avenue