John Lennon - Anthology
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Free Music Notes for Anthology
Free Music Review: The John Lennon You Never Knew!
Hit: 5 Stars
This is one of the best box sets ever. Not only is the design first class - the accompanying booklet and the 4 discs are housed in excellent cardboard digipak fashion - the sound quality of the recordings is very, very good reflecting an excellent remastering job.
This album is very aptly called "Anthology" as that is just what this is: a loving history of the brains of the Beatles from the start of his solo years to his untimely death. As such, much of the material here is "unpolished" and intentionally done so to the extent that we get many outtakes and alternative takes of the various hits that never made it to the final original albums that eventually went on sale over the years.
Still, the overall effect is a very personal aural experience for the listener who gets to know the real John Lennon. I'm deeply moved listening to the banter between him and his son Sean especially the outtake where John reveals his great love for his son, wanting to please him and you can almost hear the disappointment in his voice when he had to tell him that he couldn't raise the volume of the guitar amp any louder as requested by Sean. Anyone who's ever been a father can empathise with a man who just desperately wants to please his son.
If you are looking for an album of John Lennon's greatest hits, this is not it; you'll have to go get the latest album release by that name but if you are looking to understand the man and to get that rare glimpse of his personality, his essence and what he really was about, this is the essential listening experience that you need to get.
You get to see his traumatic inner psyche on disc 1 with "Mother", "God", "Jealous Guy" and "Long Lost John". You get to see his altruistic, bon homie side on disc 2 with "John Sinclair", "Luck of the Irish", "Attica State" where John shows his "political" side, doing all he can to help the underdog and downtrodden.
You get to see his independent and paradoxically also his very dependent nature on disc 3 with "Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out" among other tracks and finally on disc 4 you get to see his acceptance of himself as a loving father/husband about to enter into his 4th decade of life expressing his great love for his family on "Woman", "Life Begins at 40", "Dear Yoko", "Beautiful Boy", "Grow Old With Me" and eerily predicting his own death on "Borrowed Time". We also get to see his brilliant, witty, sense of humour on the inspired "The Great Wok" and the three tracks satirising Bob Dylan.
Listening to this album in its entirety at one sitting is a very touching and moving experience for any fan and it never fails to affect me every time I listen to it. If you thought you knew John Lennon before you've heard this, you're in for a big surprise.
All credit to his widow Yoko for putting together a wonderful portrait of John and for so generously sharing with us all a glimpse of the true nature of the great man that only a soul mate can describe as she does so brilliantly here on this work of art. Very, very highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Hey? Who says John wasn't a Genius? Let me at 'em!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
First of all, I'm glad I bought this album when it was still $60, I hate putting money in Yucko Oh-No's pocket (basically debasing John and exploiting him) but at least I gave her less money and was fortunately able to benefit from the amazing genius of John Lennon's outtakes and unreleased songs.
Ok, I've just been reading the reviews for the CD "Menlove Ave." and I must say, some people went WAY overboard! "Paul was the genius behind the Beatles"??? *EEP!* *Choke, GAG, cough, splutter* If John had a grave, he'd be revolving rapidly, and for those of you of a lesser intelligence who think Paul is the genius (restraining myself at this point) that means that John would be Spinning in His Grave!
Yes, I agree that John and Paul as a team were absolutely amazing and that they cannot be topped by anyone before or since. BUT John by himself had magic to spare! Paul got silly, superficial and too popish, commercial. John followed his heart and soul, at least in terms of his music. I love hearing the studio talk, different versions of some of our old favorites, touching conversations between John and Sean. Plus, the booklet was fantastic, lots of stories about the songs and John himself. The boxed set is very nice, there is plenty of John's artwork and things are very well made, they'll last a long time!
But the music, it really IS good! I love the outtakes, it's a lot like The Beatles Anthology, just some really good alternate versions of songs and rough versions as well. I love to hear John's comments and laughter. He really was a genius, he had so many varying ideas for songs, even at the end he was still writing lovely songs like "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love".
The quality for the most part is pretty good, some I guess could not be cleaned up to perfection, but others were wonderful! I like the simple version of "Watching the Wheels" and some of my favorites are "Grow Old with Me" "Luck of the Irish" "How Do You Sleep?" "Old Dirt Road" "Oh My Love" "Satires 1,2 and 3" "The Rishi Kesh Song" "Dear John" "Borrowed Time" "My Life" and "Nobody Told Me". Beautiful versions and with a true sense of John's humor, creative process and GENIUS!
John is a Legend for a very valid reason, he was smart, creative, innovative and open! He sang for the love of music and to express himself. John took music MOST seriously, it was his passion and his reason for existence. John changed the world with his music, I know he made me more open-minded! Many of us are free because of John, and if that isn't an achievment, then nothing is!
Free Music Review: John Lennon: The Workings of a Genius
Hit: 5 Stars
We always see the "end", but rarely are we privileged to the confines of the "means", as masterpieces are created and evolved until "the stroke of a paint brush lightly kisses the canvass and caresses the artist's final signature."As with the studio sessions of "Let It Be", this masterpiece allows us the rare moment to see a gifted artist at work.
Such is the embodiment of the latest John Lennon's Anthology, and we are honored with this rare gift. I wish to thank Mrs. Yoko Ono Lennon, who painstakingly wove this web of intrigue and wonder. It offers us a rare introspective view of John Lennon.
In one of his interviews, John Lennon shared with us that Yoko Ono kept saying (paraphrasing here) "imagine this" and "imagine that", and that is how the song was conceived. I believe that "Imagine" delves further in its depth of expression: Yoko's creativity, imagination, artistry, and John's love for her. (these attributes being obtuse to many...).
Yoko Ono has used her exquisite talents and intelligence to create a magnificent masterpiece of her own - "The John Lennon Anthology."
Thank you, Yoko Ono.
We are all greatly appreciative that Yoko Ono shared with us, the precious, tender, personal, and emotional moments of and with John Lennon: A husband, father, a honest and caring man, a genius, and a gifted connoisseur of expressing life and love in the words of music.
Yoko Ono is a very courageous woman. It is an incredible ordeal to design this complex artwork, with every articulation close to Yoko's heart. My endearing complements to Yoko.
There is no doubt that Yoko Ono travelled through the backroads of yesterday with John, "re-living" the past, impressed with a mosaic of personal, emotional, painful, and beautiful colors. The moods and visions paint the mountains, meadows, and valleys of the heart, embarking on backroads which meandered in the walks of life.
John's insight was of great magnitude, and what he saw in Yoko Ono was Love. Wanting a person to share and to enter into one's life is the crescendo of love. John and Yoko lived it. That says it all...
"More I cannot say. What more can I say?" John Lennon
Respectfully,
Rama R. Nerella nerella@home.com Arlington Heights, IL USA
Free Music Review: Portrait of the artist as an artist...
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a fascinating album. In one amazing turn it clarifies Lennon's solo career and highlights every phase, redefining and delineating, in a musical way, every phase. This is more than a fan's obsessional compilation of home recordings and outtakes... In compiling this album, Yoko Ono has carefully crafted a compelling portrait of Lennon that highlights the artistry of the man. This is refreshingly devoid of the media hype that surrounded the ex-Beatle PeaceFreak pseudo Revolutionary Media Junkie Lennon and concentrates on the songwriter, and the singer. Songs like "You Are Here", and "One Day At A time", once buried under layers of overproduction are pared down to reveal brilliant, melodic compositions that would be classics today if thay had been recorded by...McCartney! Sometimes the legacy overshadows the music (one of the pitfalls of being a "hero")... Well, anyway this album brings the musician back to life. Listen to any of the "Rock n'Roll" outtakes, stripped down and you'll see that buried under all that overproduction lay some friggin' great music. Just like the Beatles outrocked thier seminal influences in thier cover songs, Lennon really kicks with his cover tunes of early rock standards. No contest. This album reveals Lennon, again, to be simply the best R&R singer of all time. It's too goddamn bad this guy isn't still around. This is one time when they talk about "greatness" there is no overstatement. Take a listen to the man's solo output and you realize that John had it in him to encompass everything from brilliance (Plstic Ono Band) to sheer crap (Sometime In New York City). Tnis shows you the brilliance that lay behind the wildly swinging pendulum that was his talent, sans McCartney. Outstanding tracks are many, but really cool is "Mr. Hyde's Gone", "Stepping Out" (a great, underrated song), "Real Love" (piano demo), a great take of "I'm The Greatest", "Dear John"... and so on. Look, if you are a fan, even if you have the bootlegs, this is a must have. For everyone else, this will be an awakening.Free Music Review: Homemade Jewellery
Hit: 5 Stars
After collecting Lennon and Beatles albums for years, both legitimate and bootleg, I purchased this album with low expectations. Much of this has been bootlegged before, so I was expecting no surprises, really. What I found in this album was a surprising re-definition of John Lennon, artist, singer and writer. Some songs are reborn in a rawer context than thier previously released forms, such as "One Day At A Time" and "You Are Here", both from the "Mind Games" era. The overproduction and voice-echo are stripped away to reveal touching gems equal to his best work. Similar for the "Rock N' Roll" outtakes presented here. Check out "Send Me Some Lovin'" for some of the best singing anywhere. Who would have known that under all those honking saxophones lay the raw edge of a recording that rocks as hard and true as the best Beatles cover tunes. And the same goes for an absolutely brilliant rendition of "Only You"...intended only as a guide vocal for Ringo. John Lennon was THE best R&R singer. It is amazing to rediscover this fact after so many years of listening. There are many unreleased recordings on this album as well, mostly from his "househusband" years at the Dakota in New York. You can hear Lennon as he falls back into the muse that had left for so long. Some of these songs, like "Mr. Hyde's Gone", for instance, have a playful melodic quality that recalls some of McCartney's work with Wings...Others, like "My Life" and "Real Love" are haunting love songs...And one realizes again what a loss his assassination really was. These are wonderful songs, charming in the simplicity of melody and lyric, and the home demo, low-fi recordings are actually timely givn the similar releases by current writers such as Elliot Smith. What this album does is portray Lennon as the dedicated master artist that he obviously was, the great writer and brilliant vocalist that was sometimes obscured by overproduction, and offers a glimpse into where he has going at the time of his untimely demise.