The John Lennon Thread

[feverpitch96]

Ah. Oh well, you may well be right. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img] A friend of mine who is much more of an authority than me on these things freaked when he saw the remaster cover, but perhaps he never looked at it all that closely?
[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Is there an independent arbiter out there? (Not Servalan, please)

[quote name=&#39;Jospeh&#39; date=&#39;25 Nov 2005, 4:49 PM&#39; post=&#39;174154&#39;]
[quote name=&#39;feverpitch96&#39; date=&#39;25 Nov 2005, 3:20 PM&#39; post=&#39;174152&#39;]
On the topic of packaging and graphics, has anyone noticed that the cover design for the Mind Games remaster has John&#39;s face on the mountain range replaced...&#33;&#33;&#33;...by Yoko&#39;s???

This is getting so much creepier all the time...

[/quote]
[/quote]

My original CD release from the eighties has Yoko&#39;s face as the mountain range, and I swear the original LP cover did too.
[/quote]

[rigsby]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(feverpitch96 &#064; 25 Nov 2005, 5&#58;52 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
Ah. Oh well, you may well be right. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif[/img] A friend of mine who is much more of an authority than me on these things freaked when he saw the remaster cover, but perhaps he never looked at it all that closely?
[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Is there an independent arbiter out there? (Not Servalan, please)

[/b][/quote]

I have an original copy of the vinyl, it&#39;s always been her in the background - indeed I always figured that was the point of the cover, he&#39;s packed his bags and he&#39;s walking away from her, the start of the infamous &#39;long weekend&#39;&#33;

[Jospeh]

Just bought the remastered Sometime In New York City album, it really is the worst of his solo albums. The sound is fantastic compared to what it was, and New York City is far punchier and crisper. A couple of things that irritate are the lead guitar is mixed very very low on Woman Is he Nigger Of The World, far lower than the original mix, and I can&#39;t hear Lennon singing on Attica State, all I hear on the re-issue is Yoko warbling away. Who told her she can sing? Her pitch wavers all over the place and that horrendous over the top vibrato. Dear God, at least her songs on Double Fantasy aren&#39;t too bad, these are rubbish (but then again, Lennon does serve up Luck of the Irish), having never heard Sunday Bloody SUnday beofre I had the bejeezus scared out of me when Ono started singing in the chorus [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

Must track down Mind Games and Walls and Bridges. Don&#39;t like the sound of the changes to Walls and Bridges.

[Mr Punch]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jospeh &#064; 30 Nov 2005, 9&#58;55 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
Just bought the remastered Sometime In New York City album, it really is the worst of his solo albums. The sound is fantastic compared to what it was, and New York City is far punchier and crisper. A couple of things that irritate are the lead guitar is mixed very very low on Woman Is he Nigger Of The World, far lower than the original mix, and I can&#39;t hear Lennon singing on Attica State, all I hear on the re-issue is Yoko warbling away. Who told her she can sing? Her pitch wavers all over the place and that horrendous over the top vibrato. Dear God, at least her songs on Double Fantasy aren&#39;t too bad, these are rubbish (but then again, Lennon does serve up Luck of the Irish), having never heard Sunday Bloody SUnday beofre I had the bejeezus scared out of me when Ono started singing in the chorus [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

Must track down Mind Games and Walls and Bridges. Don&#39;t like the sound of the changes to Walls and Bridges.
[/b][/quote]

Yeah, STINYC is something of a stinker. (IMHO) It&#39;s easily Lennon&#39;s worst solo album of music; his take on the situation in Northern Ireland following Bloody Sunday is both patronising to the Irish and was probably offensive to just about any Brit at the time, regardless of their political inclinations on the matter.

I wouldn&#39;t be put off &#39;Walls and Bridges&#39; though - the fiddling with the cover and other artwork is annoying but the remastered disc actually sounds great. &#39;Mind Games&#39; is probably the album that has benefitted the most from the remixing/remastering. It&#39;s something of a revelation to hear the new mix.

[Mr Punch]

The Lenno/Beatle bit is dying a death at the moment. Despite a RT cover and endless 25 years on publicity, the compilation&#39;s barely scraping the lower regions of the charts. Not for the first time it feels very uncool to be a Beatles fan.

[Mr Magister]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Punchupthebracket &#064; 5 Dec 2005, 11&#58;04 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
The Lenno/Beatle bit is dying a death at the moment. Despite a RT cover and endless 25 years on publicity, the compilation&#39;s barely scraping the lower regions of the charts. Not for the first time it feels very uncool to be a Beatles fan.
[/b][/quote]

I don&#39;t think people are fed up with Lennon so much as they probably have most of his stuff on one of the many compliations already released (if they&#39;re at all interested).

[Mr Punch]

This documentary on News 24 tonight sounds like it should be worth catching.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4507718.stm

Still haven&#39;t decided whether to watch the Chapman one on Ch4. Can&#39;t help but think they&#39;re taking the piss trying to defend the playing of Chapman&#39;s tapes - if my memory serves me well there was a &#39;First Tuesday&#39; documentary on the same subject playing other Chapman interview tapes back in 1990. Ch4 seem to be defending feeding the pig-nosed git more publicity on the grounds that the tapes tell us something we haven&#39;t heard before about his state of mind. What more can they say? "I&#39;m a talentless twat so I shot John Lennon to be famous. And I&#39;ve read Catcher In The Rye".

EDIT: Don&#39;t know what happened to the One Night In December doc on News 24. I was there, it came up on the Telewest listings, but it never appeared.

[Andrew F]

I&#39;ve been out for most of the evening, but from 10pm I&#39;ve been listening to the Lennon Live concert on Radio 2, and what I&#39;ve heard of it has been excellent. Basically, it features various artists ( in London and New York ) doing covers of Lennon songs in the studio.

Some of them have been great. I was really surprised by Jamie Cullum&#39;s version of Real Love ( only ever recorded as a demo by Lennon, although finished off by the rest of the Beatles for one of the Anthology releases ), which was wonderful. Duran Duran&#39;s cover of Instant Karma and the Stereo MCs&#39; I Am The Walrus were very good too.

Well worth a listen via Listen Again on the BBC website if you get the chance.

Someone from Duran Duran ( probably Simon Le Bon, but I was only half-listening to the talky bits ) said they&#39;d recorded their version of Instant Karma for a new Lennon tribute album to aid Amnesty International. Has anyone heard anything about this? I did a few quick searhes online but couldn&#39;t find anything...

[Mr Punch]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Andrew Foxley &#064; 8 Dec 2005, 10&#58;59 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
I&#39;ve been out for most of the evening, but from 10pm I&#39;ve been listening to the Lennon Live concert on Radio 2, and what I&#39;ve heard of it has been excellent. Basically, it features various artists ( in London and New York ) doing covers of Lennon songs in the studio.

Some of them have been great. I was really surprised by Jamie Cullum&#39;s version of Real Love ( only ever recorded as a demo by Lennon, although finished off by the rest of the Beatles for one of the Anthology releases ), which was wonderful. Duran Duran&#39;s cover of Instant Karma and the Stereo MCs&#39; I Am The Walrus were very good too.

Well worth a listen via Listen Again on the BBC website if you get the chance.

Someone from Duran Duran ( probably Simon Le Bon, but I was only half-listening to the talky bits ) said they&#39;d recorded their version of Instant Karma for a new Lennon tribute album to aid Amnesty International. Has anyone heard anything about this? I did a few quick searhes online but couldn&#39;t find anything...
[/b][/quote]

I&#39;ll certainly give it a go on the listen again. The Cullen cover sounds particularly interesting - be nice to hear the song without the Pinky and Perky vocals that blighted the Threetles version.

[Barry D]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Punchupthebracket &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 11&#58;07 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>


I&#39;ll certainly give it a go on the listen again. The Cullen cover sounds particularly interesting - be nice to hear the song without the Pinky and Perky vocals that blighted the Threetles version.
[/b][/quote]

The solo Lennon version is available s the first track on the &#39;Imagine&#39; movie soundtrack

[Mr Punch]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Barry Delve &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 11&#58;14 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Punchupthebracket &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 11&#58;07 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>


I&#39;ll certainly give it a go on the listen again. The Cullen cover sounds particularly interesting - be nice to hear the song without the Pinky and Perky vocals that blighted the Threetles version.
[/b][/quote]

The solo Lennon version is available s the first track on the &#39;Imagine&#39; movie soundtrack
[/b][/quote]

There&#39;s also a piano/solo demo version on the Lennon Anthology boxed set. What I should have said is that I&#39;d like to hear a finished version without the Pinky and Perky vocals as I think there&#39;s a great track in there somewhere, dying to get out.

[Barry D]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Punchupthebracket &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 1&#58;03 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Barry Delve &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 11&#58;14 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Punchupthebracket &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 11&#58;07 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>


I&#39;ll certainly give it a go on the listen again. The Cullen cover sounds particularly interesting - be nice to hear the song without the Pinky and Perky vocals that blighted the Threetles version.
[/b][/quote]

The solo Lennon version is available s the first track on the &#39;Imagine&#39; movie soundtrack
[/b][/quote]

There&#39;s also a piano/solo demo version on the Lennon Anthology boxed set. What I should have said is that I&#39;d like to hear a finished version without the Pinky and Perky vocals as I think there&#39;s a great track in there somewhere, dying to get out.
[/b][/quote]

There&#39;s quite a nice bootleg version of &#39;Free As A Bird&#39; that re-combines Lennon&#39;s demo with the Beatles version. I think its on one of the Anthology Extra/More boots

[Mr Punch]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Barry Delve &#064; 9 Dec 2005, 1&#58;20 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>


There&#39;s quite a nice bootleg version of &#39;Free As A Bird&#39; that re-combines Lennon&#39;s demo with the Beatles version. I think its on one of the Anthology Extra/More boots
[/b][/quote]

To be honest, I&#39;ve never had any major problem with FAAB other than I think it would have benefitted from having McCartney supporting the Lennon vocal track throughout rather than just in the final section following the solo. &#39;Real Love&#39; though remains a disappointment because Lennon sounds so distorted on it. I can see why they speeded the song up; if you&#39;ve ever tried slowing it down using PC software, you&#39;ll know that the &#39;corrected&#39; version sounds just too slow and dirge-like. I can&#39;t help but think that if somebody like Mark Ayres was to go back to the original Lennon vocal track now he could speed up the tempo without altering the pitch. I guess the technology of the mid-90s just wasn&#39;t up to the job. Love Harrison&#39;s guitar playing on the track all the same.

Scary thought - it&#39;s now over ten years since FAAB was released. I really am getting old. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ohmy.gif[/img]

[Andrew F]

I love Real Love ( the Beatles version ). I could take or leave Free As A Bird, though. I just didn&#39;t think it was a very good song.

[Mark Aldridge]

I suppose it&#39;s completely blasphemous to say that (as only a casual admirer of The Beatles) Real Love is one of my favourite tracks of theirs?

The opening gives me goosebumps.