Isolation

"Isolation" is the fifth track on the album. It's minimalist like its predecessors, and featured John singing and playing piano and organ, Ringo on drums, and Klaus Voormann on bass. The lyrics are where Yoko Ono comes in, and also hint at the activities that they'd been getting up to lately: the words refer to "a boy and a little girl / trying to change the whole wide world".

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released in 1970. Just a year earlier, knowing their wedding would be a huge deal around the world, John and Yoko decided to use it to spread their anti-war message. They spent their honeymoon in Amsterdam and staged a "bed-in"--basically staying in bed, surrounded by photogs and members of the press from 9am to 9pm, for a week.

There are conflicting accounts of just what people were expected to take away from this publicity stunt for peace. On one hand, this wasn't their last bed-in (they held another at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal not long after the first), and in December 1969 they put up billboards in major cities around the world, proclaiming that "WAR IS OVER! If You Want It - Happy Christmas From John and Yoko". On the other hand, however, Wikipedia notes that Lennon himself seemed to be disappointed that people took the bed-in at face value:

Following the event, when asked if he thought the Bed-In had been successful, John became rather frustrated. He insisted that the failure of the press to take the couple seriously was part of what he and Yoko wanted: "It's part of our policy not to be taken seriously. Our opposition, whoever they may be, in all manifest forms, don't know how to handle humour. And we are humorous."

So, the bed-in was meant to be humorous as another tool with which to combat those party-pooping warmongers Up Top, but it was taken seriously--too seriously--by the couple's fans and by the media. Lennon might be the only artist I know of who complained of being taken seriously (usually artists and celebrities only do it when they've made a cultural or societal faux pas and want everyone to think it was "all just a joke, people!").

I like the song. It has a simple message and reveals the loneliness that Lennon was feeling at the time. He was one of the biggest stars in the entire world, and while he was attempting to use that fame for a good cause, he was also feeling very much alone. Alone--with Yoko, that is. I wonder if he also felt alone without all of his Beatles brothers standing next to him as usual, or if he was glad to be rid of them and be out on his own. We know he still felt a good deal of anger towards them (judging from his digs at them in "I Found Out"), but we'll just have to wait and see if anything else emerges over the course of the album.

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Songs Completed: 5