Joe Henry on John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, 2004

His writing had more to do with his own self discovery than with expressing a very smart idea. There’s a real primitive thing about his lyric writing that makes it more emotional for me, and it ages better as a result. It’s not like clever wordplay; it’s more like biting into an idea and spitting it out. It doesn’t have the same kind of crafted elegance maybe, but it has a lot more pure blood running through it.

From a John Lennon 25th anniversary story in Acoustic Guitar magazine

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