It was a cruel turn of fate that John Lennon was just making an artistic and commercial comeback when he was murdered in 1980. Earlier that year (after a long silence during which Lennon had occupied himself with the upbringing of his son ), Double Fantasy had been released, the album with which John and Yoko announced to their fans that they were definitely not yet artistically quenched. Lennon
… had even grown as a person and artist, after struggling out of an unstable period, and this personal renaissance can be heard on Double Fantasy. A record full of cheerful and accessible pop songs celebrating the simple joys of family life. But this is not album, so luckily it never gets too sentimental. Not even on Lennon's odes to his son (Beautiful Boy) and dear wife Yoko (the fifties pastiche Just Like Starting Over). Lennon was too complex as an artist to come up with a mindlessly cheerful album and even his sunniest observations have a certain depth that still made him a great songwriter. Yoko, in turn, mostly delivered her best work on Double Fantasy, such as the simple but movingly poetic Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him. Lennon's older and wiser vision of life is best expressed in the philosophical Watching The Wheels. (MS)more