Junk In The Yard

***Junk In The Yard*** is the fourteenth studio album released by the English-American rock band The Beatles. It is the first album since the departure of John Lennon. It was recorded through mid 1970 to early 1971, and was released on 18 June 1971 in the United Kingdom, and 23 June 1971 in the United States, reaching number one in both countries. It is the first and only album to feature the band as a Trio, after Lennon's departure in 1969. A remixed version of the album was released in 2021.

## Background

Following the departure of Lennon in 1969, The Beatles, now a three-man band consisting of McCartney, Harrison, & Starr, found themselves in a bad position; their co-founder, and in many ways, their leader, had left a vacuum of empty space. One wrong step for the unstable band could mean total collapse.

Unsure of what their next course of action should be, McCartney suggested the favored plan of 'keeping it down' and seeing what ideas stuck while in the studio. The newly publicly-dubbed 'Threetles' set to work on their next album.

With Lennon gone, and McCartney artistically drained from 1970's 'Abbey Road', Harrison found himself a notch higher on the totem pole. With 'albums worth' of rejected compositions, and the Lennon-McCartney partnership no more, Harrison set to work revisiting old works, conjuring up new ones, and recording a multitude of covers with the others.

McCartney summoned up what songwriting ability he had left from 'Abbey Road', and with help from his newly-wedded wife, Linda, he managed to turn his bottom of the barrel songs and riffs into multiple album-worthy additions, even going so far as to revisiting his 1968 composition, 'Junk', which just so happened to end up lending it's lyric '...the junk in the yard...' to the album's title.

Starr, not a prolific songwriter in general, and deeply troubled by Lennon's departure, had no luck coming up with any new material. Instead, Harrison suggested Starr sing cover songs, as they had done in years past. Starr decided on 'Only You (& You Alone)' by Buck Ram, and the recently penned '$15 Draw', by American musician Sorrells Pickard. The sessions for the album produced three non-album singles, 'Oh Woman, Oh Why' / 'Theme #9/Miss America/Oo-You', 'Another Day' / 'Behind That Locked Door', and 'Rambling Woman / 'What's It All To You' in 1970, 1971, and 1971 retrospectively.

The album was completed, and released on August 17th, 1971, in the U.K., and August 24th in the U.S. after being pushed back from the late-1970 release it had aimed for. The press, constantly trying to spy and catch a hint as to what the unusually quiet Beatles were up to in the studio, and expecting a grand follow up to 'Abbey Road', were taken aback by the new, nearly-acoustic sound of The Beatles. The public were split. Most fans welcomed the change of pace, while others boycotted the album in anger of the seemingly cash-grab approach after Lennon's departure. Nevertheless, being under the name of 'The Beatles', the album hit number one across the US and UK charts. As well as hitting the number one spot, due to the mystery surrounding the album and the rumours of Lennon leaving, 'Junk In The Yard' became the highest pre-ordered album of all time, a record it held until Pink Floyd's 1975 album 'Wish You Were Here' surpassed the record.

Lennon's 1971 solo album, 'Untitled' was held from the top spots by 'Junk In The Yard'. Furious that The Beatles continued to beat him, even after leaving, Lennon wrote multiple scathing articles and interviews against The Beatles, calling them '*irrelevant*', '*folk-bullshit*', and his trademark insult, '*granny-music*'.

## Cover photograph

The stark black-and-white cover photo was taken on the main lawn at Friar Park by McCartney's wife, Linda. The photograph shows Harrison seated (centre) holding an umbrella, Starkey seated (left) on a barrel playing a guitar and McCartney (right) petting a horse, with them all towering over, four comical-looking garden gnomes – as representing the Beatles' collective identity.

Author and music journalist Mikal Gilmore has written that Lennon's initial negativity regarding *Junk In The Yard* was possibly because he was "irritated" by this cover photo; Beatles biographer Elliot Huntley attributes Lennon's reaction to envy during a time when "everything [The Beatles] touched turned to gold".

## Reception

Upon release on 18 June 1971, the album was met with almost immediate disapproval from most listeners, despite reaching #1 on both the Billboard charts and the UK Album charts. The decision to continue on after Lennon's departure clearly left a sour taste in most people's mouths, and it was quite obvious looking at the reviews. NME dubbed it "*...lightweight muzak...*", Melody Maker said that the album was *"unworthy of being called a Beatles album*", and many listeners and critics shared the same sentiment. Despite the scathing reviews, however, there was always one track consistently singled out for praise, being Paul McCartney's powerful ballad about the power of love, "Maybe I'm Amazed". Writing for Rolling Stone, Langdon Winner called the track "*...the only song on the album that even remotely sounds like a great, even fantastic song... a song about how love can dispel the horrors of loneliness and emptiness..."*  In the years that followed, *Junk In The Yard* would maintain its low ranking among the Beatles canon, despite its reputation steadily becoming more favorable. Among critical opinion, on Rolling Stone's ranking of every Beatles album, Junk In The Yard was ranked 22nd out of 25 albums. They noted that *"it had its charm and fair share of good songs ("Maybe I'm Amazed", "Every Night", "Junk", and "Run Of The Mill"), but was ultimately a weak album where its great songs weren't enough to salvage what was an uneven record at best"*

## Track listing

**Side one**

1. "A Love For You" (McCartney) - 4:05
2. "Run Of The Mill" (Harrison) - 2:27
3. "Hot As Sun / Glasses / Mud" (McCartney-Harrison) - 3:42
4. "Only You (And You Alone)" (Ram) - 3:26
5. "I Live For You" (Harrison) - 3:37
6. "Rode All Night (Jimmy's Tune)" (McCartney-Harrison-Starkey-Page) - 6:22

**Side two**

1. "Maybe I'm Amazed" (McCartney) - 4:44
2. "Miss O'Dell" (Harrison) - 2:23
3. "Junk" (McCartney) - 3:02
4. "$15 Draw" (Pickard) - 3:22
5. "Awaiting On You All" (Harrison) - 2:29
6. "Every Night (Be With You)" (McCartney) - 2:34
7. "The Day The World Gets 'Round" (Harrison) - 2:51
8. "The Light That Has Lightened The World" (Harrison) - 2:27

## Personnel

* **Paul McCartney** – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano, organ, percussion, wineglasses, Mellotron, effects
* **George Harrison** – vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro, harmonica, Moog synthesizer, harmonium, backing vocals
* **Ringo Starr** - vocals, drums, percussion, backing vocals

### additional personnel

* **Klaus Voorman** - bass guitar
* **Jimmy Page** - electric guitar (Rode All Night)
* **Linda McCartney** - vocals, backing vocals, piano (Every Night)
* **George Martin** - organ, percussion, backing vocals
* **Billy Preston** – organ, piano
* **Bobby Keys** – saxophones
* **Gary Wright** – piano, organ, electric piano
* **Mike Gibbins** – percussion
* **Mal Evans** – percussion, "tea and sympathy"