'rock and roll' classics by lennon or 'run devil run' paul?
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regarding albums of early classic rock standards, do you prefer 'rock and roll' album by john lennon or 'run devil run' by paul? they're each fabulous though really. i tend to lean towards 'devil' as somewhat more ear pleasing. it's less spontaneous and thrown together and casual than lennon's too, it' s more worked on and elaborate despite the rockabilly style.
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Run Devil Run is better
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Whichever one wasn't produced by Phil Spector...
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"Run Devil Run" specially there are 3 new songs "What It is" could have been a great Beatles song from 1965 Paul sounds amazing, much better than all his previous albums since "Tug Of War" 1982 John's album has good moments also, similar to "Back to U.S.S.R", was not taken good care of.
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The "Rock'n'Roll" album has it's moments. But mostly it sounds like the sludgy drug-haze of the worst impulses of the 1970s. Way too much saxophone and the songs are generally performed way too slow. "Just Because" is beautiful and the medley of "Rip it Up/Ready Teddy" is cool. And I love his voice on "Stand By Me." But generally... it sounds more like Leo Sayer than Little Richard. "Run Devil Run" is a cool album. I really like most of it. But generally to me it doesn't sound like the 50s either. It's far more 'modern' overall. I prefer the Russian album myself.
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ive got to be honest and say i am NOT an impartial judge. but really,there is no comparisson at all.the lennon rock n roll album is pretty lame by any exbeatle standards..he absolutely ruined 'stand by me' and that was the major release. both mccartneys rock n roll records are miles better with 'run devil' being the best of the lot!
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lazydynamite88:
ive got to be honest and say i am NOT an impartial judge. but really,there is no comparisson at all.the lennon rock n roll album is pretty lame by any exbeatle standards..he absolutely ruined 'stand by me' and that was the major release. both mccartneys rock n roll records are miles better with 'run devil' being the best of the lot!
Run Devil Run has more bite than John's album, and Paul's own Russian album.I think for me the songs She Said Yeah,Party and Honey Hush are as good a vocals as Paul's ever recorded.Who said Paul has no edge to him,as one reviewer said "this is rock n roll looking for a fight",i couldn't put it better myself.
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Been listening to Run Devil Run, sweet album! Sweet selection of covers, so many great songs! Lonesome Town was great I thought. I would have really loved to hear the Beatles cover it back in the day! a lot of opportunities for some nice vocal harmonies, which I remember thinking Paul wasn?t taking advantage of when I was listening.. I personally would have loved to hear Lennon cover the songs Paul did on this album. No Other Baby, Honey Hush for example. And I remember thinking John could have done All Shook Up much better. I remember liking She Said Yeah, and only Paul could only do Movie Mag, he?s awesome on that actually. does a lot of great subtle vocal things on it, and I thought it sounded really loose. I like that about Choba as well.. tough call betwen those two Paul albums. the sounds on RDR do modernize the songs a bit, but I don?t really mind that cuz the feel is there. This is totally random.. but the guitar solo in Blue Jean Bop: love it. Is that Gilmore? He?s wild on that
Paul?s originals on RDR were good too, great chorus on What It Is right?.. though sort of a cheesy line in the verse, about ?you make me feel good about myself..? but that song sounds pretty 50?s too which is cool! I like how Paul can just write in any style he wants 
But when all is said and done, I?ll will take Rock n Roll. This whole covering the rock classics is totally John?s game. Just crazy John vocals throughout the litany of really great songs on RnR. I like the horns and arrangements, and overtly ragged production. I pretty much love everything about that album. They?re really rockin in boston pitts burg pee aye -
The major problem with Lennons Rock and Roll album is, it doesn't rock! Imagine a album titled Rock and Roll and it doesn't rock, go figure? Run Devil Run is a all out balls to the walls rock and roll screamer! As someone posted earlier, it's full of rock looking for a fight! Who says McCartney doesn't rock? Run Devil Run comes blasting out of the speakers. McCartney gets down to the real nitty gritty. He should be performing some of the songs from Run Devil Run right now. She Said yeah, What It Is, and Party would be absolutely killer performed live!
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I love both albums. Much as I love Paul, John Lennon has one of the great rock 'n' roll voices of all time. I wasn't a fan of his mid-70s albums (Mind Games and Walls and Bridges), but loved this and still do.
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mercyjames:
The "Rock'n'Roll" album has it's moments. But mostly it sounds like the sludgy drug-haze of the worst impulses of the 1970s. Way too much saxophone and the songs are generally performed way too slow. "Just Because" is beautiful and the medley of "Rip it Up/Ready Teddy" is cool. And I love his voice on "Stand By Me." But generally... it sounds more like Leo Sayer than Little Richard. "Run Devil Run" is a cool album. I really like most of it. But generally to me it doesn't sound like the 50s either. It's far more 'modern' overall. I prefer the Russian album myself.
I agree with you entirely on "Rock'n'Roll"; it's just sloppy overall, with an unbearable amount of sax - and it just doesn't have the 'edge' it needs; the early Beatles rocked better than this. As for RDR, I know what you mean about the production not being too authentic - but all in all I think it's a fab little album; edgy, with a load of excellent vocal performances worthy of Macca in his heyday. In summary: with RDR you can hear the fun that McCartney was having as he made it, just seeping out of the grooves. With R'n'R, you can just hear the drugs and alcohol.
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The problem for me with John's solo album was that when he did standard rock n' roll songs with the Beatles, such as the Larry Williams stuff, he really seemed to understand how those songs should sound and all that "understanding" seemed gone. (Maybe it was becasue they were not really oldies to him when he performed/recorded them with the Beatles.) It was pure instinct. On his own solo rock 'n roll album in the mid 70s, all that instinct seemed to have disappeared. They had become oldies to him and he didn't seem to know how to perform them. And of course, Phil Spector was there to weigh everything down, which didn't help matters. There was a distinct lack of energy. And his voice didn't seem up to it on several songs. I thought, for example, he sounded very raspy on "Stand By Me." He was straining to reach notes. He never would have sounded like that had he recorded that song when he was with the Beatles. The whole solo venture was a disappointment to me.
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hey bulldog:
In summary: with RDR you can hear the fun that McCartney was having as he made it, just seeping out of the grooves. With R'n'R, you can just hear the drugs and alcohol.
It's true! I just picture some smokey room with televisions on, ashtrays overflowing, empty bottles and glasses and people all dazed and spent laying around on couches and shag carpeting... and then saying... 'hey you guys want to record something?' ... And I agree with Beatles4Ever&Ever that the Beatles covers of songs from the 50s and early 60s were so much better. All the covers on the Rock'n'Roll Music album (released 2 years after John's album) just show how much John's album was a mess. But... Phil Spector can only be blamed for 4 songs on that album. The rest are entirely John.
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I can hear the inspiration coming out on each of these two albums for sure. pain does wonders. That?s why it?s always selfish as the listener.. all the best stuff comes when the artist is on the brink of disaster
I wish they could just live their lives in constant madness, sweet tunes but they both sound inspired to me, and I think both have tons of energy. On John's its more like John is the energy, he kills em regardless. take Ya Ya perfect example. that song IMO sucks (although thats harsh), and the production is lame (thats harsh too). but he totally takes it and sings it cool, and makes it cool. thats the album in a nutshell for me. thats him in a nut shell basically.. But John ruined Stand By Me? I'll have to write that one down C?mon Lazy.. maybe if you had said Angel Baby, from the reissue or on Menlove.. now there?s a miserable version of the song for you.. I could use a shower after listening to that its kind of like Lennon/Nilsson?s version of Many Rivers To Cross. yuck. But to me even that has its merits, to be able to create that feeling. so anyway, I had originally began posting my reply here and out started coming my terrible Rock n Roll album tribute poem or some damn thing.. inspired by the RnR detractors I suppose but I don?t know what I was doing ha!.. and I wasn?t going to post it obviously but I never deleted it and so here it is now anyway I'm a fan 
: crackling beneath the horns guitars, pianos the ?50?s but now? production sound are some of the most impassioned vocals I?ve ever heard stripped down, raw with no tricks except of course double tracking the vocals authentic vulnerable yet impervious to defect pitch perfect mastered inflections seething, venomous at times but also cool hopeful at times if you listen Lennon the rock n roll world on his shoulders never heard it done better don?t expect to ever -
Here?s one I just wrote for Paul cause I love his album too! Okay done with the poems now I have pictured him Sharpening the edges and lighting the flame Studio air crisp translating feelings onto old pick ups that reverberate in unison, all for one wounds heal in a sunrise of flawless sound spun back in time, wailing to bring a heart back home 1st loves relived, renewed rock is back to get you attack and pierce the sky McCartney brilliance flashes, penetrates and swirls like rain devouring heartache teaching the devil to run to the pound of a backbeat familiar and easy to recognize listen to truth explode with it into a stunning shade of blue
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left hand man:
The major problem with Lennons Rock and Roll album is, it doesn't rock! Imagine a album titled Rock and Roll and it doesn't rock, go figure? Run Devil Run is a all out balls to the walls rock and roll screamer! As someone posted earlier, it's full of rock looking for a fight! Who says McCartney doesn't rock? Run Devil Run comes blasting out of the speakers. McCartney gets down to the real nitty gritty. He should be performing some of the songs from Run Devil Run right now. She Said yeah, What It Is, and Party would be absolutely killer performed live!
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[quote="MaccaGirl90"]
left hand man:
The major problem with Lennons Rock and Roll album is, it doesn't rock! Imagine a album titled Rock and Roll and it doesn't rock, go figure?
As Rolling Stone said at the time, "If John Lennon loves rock and roll so much, why doesn't he ever do any?" Sadly, that was true. John responded to the magazine with: "Oh yeah?" His mid-70s albums just didn't rock. They seemed overproduced (or badly produced), something he claimed not to like about George Martin's work with the Beatles. He was unfocused. I can't bear to listen to "Whatever Gets You Through The Night." The saxaphone is embarrassingly off key, the backing track is a muddled mess, and John seems to be singing backup to Elton John rather than the other way around. And John was happy with that? That song went to No. 1 largely because Elton John was so huge in '74. It just made me feel miserable.
And yet, his work with Ringo during that time, and with David Bowie, was so much better. Go figure. -
SusyLuvsPaul:
regarding albums of early classic rock standards, do you prefer 'rock and roll' album by john lennon or 'run devil run' by paul? they're each fabulous though really. i tend to lean towards 'devil' as somewhat more ear pleasing. it's less spontaneous and thrown together and casual than lennon's too, it' s more worked on and elaborate despite the rockabilly style.
I don' t remember Lennon's record at all so I obviously prefer "Run Devil Run" I think this is a great record because of McCartney's incredible vocals. " I just absolutely love "Brown Eyed Handsome Man' and "Lonesome Town". The other thing is the original McCartney numbers are real good and fit the record perfectly.
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Yes, digging up an old thread from 15 pages back, to deliver yet another fairly mundane Lennon observation
my nights are so blue off the chain. And Spector is killing the track! In a good way...sorry, I?ve been back to listening to basically JL exclusively for about the last week.. its coming out my ears, but I just gotta roll with it 
but in John?s Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin? medley on RnR .. wholly cow, if that ain?t the sickest version of that song ever recorded then I don?t know what is 
was just blasting this in itunes.. this clip on youtube cuts in the middle of the last part of the song (and is horrible quality), but if you want to feel the noise real quick just kick it off at the 1:34 mark, don?t you know I miss you so much!? ?my (uh) days (uh) so lonely.. 
I?m here and I?m lonely 
just way hey hey tin for you 
Bravo.
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Wow...those are both stunning...I especially like the one you wrote for Paul's 
