Track 29

“Mother” is the first word to be heard in TRACK 29, which is sung by John Lennon as a young man suddenly appears on a bridge in the suburb in the American South where the frustrated Linda lives with her husband Henry. She yearns for his attention, but he dedicates it solely to his model railway while acting out his sexual desires at work with a nurse. Martin, the newcomer, claims to be Linda’s long-lost son, who she had to give up for adoption as a teenager, and proceeds to entangle her in confusing mother-son games. In this satire on the American Dream, which is shown to be infantilism at every level, the question of whether what is being shown is fantasy or reality remains open – unlike the question of whether Linda can free herself from her domestic prison. (al)