Here's a little guided tour of what you can expect to find in the John Lennon remasters:
THE REMASTERS: Yoko basically adopted the same philosophy the Beatles did with their remastered CDs last year. She had the Abbey Road team go back to the original mixes. Some people like remixes, some don't. It'll depend on how you feel about them, we suppose, that will decide if you want to take the plunge and get these. What's available: "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band," "Imagine," "Some Time in New York City," "Mind Games," "Walls and Bridges," "Rock 'n' Roll," "Double Fantasy"/"Double Fantasy Stripped Down" and "Milk and Honey." "Some Time in New York City" restores the full original track listing of the album, "Walls and Bridges" has the original cover. Each disc comes with a booklet with expanded liner notes by veteran journalist Paul DuNoyer and also added photos. Unlike the last Lennon reissues, there are no bonus tracks on these new discs. Once the current supply of the reissues with the bonus tracks runs out, they will no longer be available, a source tells us. The new remastered discs are available individually and in ..
THE SIGNATURE BOX: This is one of the main components of this project. It's a Yoko designed set in a 7 inch cube. The cube comes with a hardcover book filled with pictures and also liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone, an art print, statements from Yoko, Julian and Sean Lennon and all the remastered CDs. Note, though, that if you buy the box set you still need to buy "Double Fantasy Stripped Down," as the box only comes with the remastered "Double Fantasy" and not the "Stripped Down" disc. (Also, the version of the original album included with "Stripped Down" is the remastered one from the box.) Also in the box is a two-disc set of outtakes, home demos and singles tracks. A couple of the outtakes sound very close to the originals, for example, "Mother," which opens the disc. And Lennon home demos have been bootlegged extensively. But there are some interesting things here.
GIMME SOME TRUTH: A four-disc assortment of Lennon songs arranged by theme -- "Roots," "Woman," "Working Class Hero" and "Borrowed Time." With the exception of live versions of "Hound Dog" from "Live in New York City" and "Yer Blues" from "Live Peace In Toronto," nothing here isn't on the remastered discs. So can we expect "Live Peace" and "Live in New York City" remastered or a DVD of "New York City" in the future? (There's always next year.)
POWER TO THE PEOPLE: THE HITS: In the single-disc version, a greatest hits package of 15 songs or, if you get the two-disc version, a second disc with15 videos. We didn't do a minute-by-minute comparison of all the videos, but the ones we did see were the same as the ones on "Lennon Legend," though not on "The John Lennon Collection" VHS, notably "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," which features the children choir and not the tragic images of the "Legend" version. This new compilation adds a video of "Gimme Some Truth" that includes great footage of John recording the song. It leaves off "Mother," "Love," "Beautiful Boy," "Nobody Told Me," "Borrowed Time" and "Working Class Hero" from "Lennon Legend" and "I'm Steppin' Out," "Grow Old With Me" and the live version of "Imagine" from "The John Lennon Collection" VHS.
DOUBLE FANTASY STRIPPED DOWN: This is really nothing less than a revelation. Yoko has explained in the Jody Denberg radio interview that one of the things she wanted to do was counter the burying of John's voice in the original mix, so she brought John's voice up. Not only that, but some of the new versions really highlight the beauty of the originals. "(Just Like) Starting Over" sounds even more happy than before. "I'm Losing You" is more haunting. "Woman" is more delicate. Even Yoko's songs have a new feel. As a bonus, you get the remastered "Double Fantasy." If you buy nothing else, this one's a must.
SOUND QUALITY: We did some comparisons and the first thing we noticed is, like the Beatles remasters, there's a distinct increase in volume on many songs. The difference between old and new generally didn't seem on what we heard as distinct as with the Beatles discs with one exception: The new "Milk and Honey" sounds a lot fuller than before.
STUDIO CHATTER ODDITY: The Capitol sampler disc for the Lennon remasters has a slight difference on "Oh, My Love" from the remastered released version. Just before the track starts, you can hear someone say "four." According to Chip Madinger's "Eight Arms To Hold You," it's George Harrison. This version, Madinger says, was originally released on the LP and the UK CD, but was not used on later CD issues. This track is not on the remastered disc or the compilations. (UPDATE: The "four" is on the remastered "Imagine" CD, but it's at the end of "Gimme Some Truth," which appears to be a mistake in CD mastering.)
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Comments
I have purchased the Signature Box and "Oh My Love" has the "four" at the beginning.
Yeah, I see now it's actually at the end of "Gimme Some Truth." If you play just "Oh My Love," at least on my player, you don't hear it.
Why cover this ground AGAIN? Because Lennon's remasters didn't get enough attention in the avalanche of coverage these past 2 weeks?
I'm sorry, Steve, but this is seriously turning me off from visiting this site.
These are new releases and I've heard from people who want to know more details about them. Just trying to take some of the confusion out of it.
And are you seriously suggesting evaluations like this -- rather than straight announcements -- are not a good thing?
Yes, I am. This is supposed to be a Beatles site. Shouldn't the John Lennon Examiner be writing about Lennon's solo career?
She does. I do as well. And I'll continue to write about Lennon, both as a Beatle and a solo artist.
Anonymous: You've got to be kidding! You ARE on the wrong site!! I was really happy to this post of Steve's! I haven't unpacked my Lennon signature box yet, but this post more than the others really let me know what to expect and I've read probably all the earlier ones too. Let's keep the site a positive one -- it's for complete Beatles fans and it's the BEST ONE OUT THERE!!
Thanks, Bruce!
Thank you very much. As always you are succint and detailed. I looked everywhere for this info.
I just got the individual remastered cd:s, and was slightly disappointed by the covers and the design.
I thought that they would be designed the remastered sets with the same care and love of the details as were the Beatles remastered releases a year ago. Instead the new covers seemed much cheaper than the 090909-ones, and it is difficult to get the discs out. The booklets have info and pictures but they are much thinner than the Beatles ones.
Well, the Lennon albums are not that historical than the Beatles albums and one can understand, that not that much money has been put to the design. And the music is of course the main thing here.
But I would have loved to see the original vinyl labels (Apple, Geffen and Polydor) printed on the discs like they did with the Beatles cd's.
Yeah, the original labels thing is something that would have been a nice touch.
Steve, thanks for giving us this info..I bought Double Fantasy Stripped Down and agree it's a must to have and was wondering about the rest...thanks again! Great job as always!
Thank you.
I can't believe that all these accolades have been put on these dimwits at EMI for doing another half ass job on John Lennon's recordings as was done to the Beatles..Steve do people give you praise when you do a half ass job.
Where did I give full out praise, RS? I mentioned my reservations with the sound quality of the remasters. I praised "Stripped Down" because it definitely deserved it.
Bit confused here : "There are no bonus tracks. Once the current supply with the bonus tracks runs out they will no longer be available, a source tells us."
So there are bonus tracks after all ?
Sounds like they went heavy on the compression agian (sound louder), this is bad as it removes the nuances in the music and can create "clipping".
On the individual remasters, there are no bonus tracks. The last remasters did have them. They're not making any more of those, so once supplies go dry, that's it.
I think some of us have just had enough of the hype, that's all. There's been five pages of stories about Lennn's birthday and reissues, and not one story about the Band on the Reissue. You've put all the BOTR stories on the Paul McCartney Examiner page. It just seems like you're trying to push the sale of one but not the other.
Not true at all. There was a lot more information about the Lennon reissues in the last few weeks because of the Lennon birthday and the early October release date. There will be more info about the BOTR discs. Don't worry.
I appreciate your review of the Lennon discs. I had the Signature Box in hand but, couldn't bring myself to buy it. It just didn't seem worth the $159. (I pre-ordered the Beatles remastered and loved listening to the differences) Instead, I bought 'Double Fantasy Stripped' and when I got home, I downloaded 8-10 of my favorite Lennon songs from i-tunes.
Remastered Beatles were all about the quality. Remasterd Lennon.....is just about the money. And how Yoko can make even more money with him. Glad to promote this by throwing it on the market when John turned 70...sell-a-brations I would call that.
So glad Paul stayed silent in all that hype. All this It's- Johnny's-birthday celebration was about YOKO and John's life AFTER the Beatles. She was soooooo happy to be in the public again, good time to be celebrated as the still loving widow...that she had to turn it into GOLD by doing this fake remastered.
A real reamasterd Lennon album for me would be WITHOUT her crap.
Astrid
(I would prefer to write this with my name above but whatever reasons I can't log in for weeks now...but I hate to do it anon. This is my opinion and you can blame me for it if you want to...I am no coward.)
Yes and we all know that Paul would never stoop to HYPE...yeah right....that was about the dumbest statement that I've ever read on these pages...Thanks
Thank's Steve a nice wrap of the Lennon releases much appreciated and the reason i always come back to your site.
Given all the hype, you'd think these reissues would have sold better. There were literally thousands of stories. But the highest charting record was No. 24, Power to the People, The Hits; Double Fantasy was at No. 34, Imagine was way down at No. 88. And the box set was down at No. 143, which means it barely sold 5,000 copies. So it's a mixed thing: He had maybe 6 titles in the top 200 but none of them did that well, except for the compilation and Double Fantasy, although No. 34 is not that impressive given how much the media covered it.
What a bunch of winey people on this thread. I think Stripped is fantastic an appreciate Steve covering the box set.
Thanks for the overview. I really appreciate the perspective since I continue to be on the fence about getting these remasters. It really does seem like a cash grab following the remixes, plus, I hate to say it, Yoko stroking her own ego. I'm a big fan, but something about this project is leaving me cold.
Exactly. I'm putting my money into the Apple reissues instead. At least it includes music I haven't already purchased multiple times.
Thanks, Steve, for putting this info together. I've also been confused over what was what with these reissues, so this is a big help to me. Great job as always!
I come to this site because I like the way Steve puts this stuff together. He has yet to disappoint me. I'm not surprised that talk of John Lennon has gone on for this many days and included on this site. He was amazing as were The Beatles as a whole. I look forward to more info about the BOTR discs. Keep 'em coming Steve.
Thank you, Megan. :)
Thanks, Steve - I was looking forward to your take on the box set. I bought it and am very happy with it.
Hi Steve! I´d like to point that "Here we go again" and the orchestrated version of "Grow old of me" from the "Gimme some truth" set aren´t on any of the individual remastered CDs either. Thanks!
a comment from denmark : these are great remasteres, one thing though, has anyone else notices that the IMAGINE album sounds distorted??, especially on the piano numbers..or is that just my ´delicate´ ears??..as for the box set, it´s FAB, but would have been nice if we had got the MENLOVE AVE, LIVE IN NYC, LIVE PEACE IN TORONTO, and even the pre-1970 John & Yoko albums
The DOUBLE FANTASY-STRIPPED DOWN is fantastic!..just imagine if that had been a box-set of all the songs from IMAGINE, MIND GAMES and WALLS & BRIDGES..wow!, as much as I don´t dislike Yoko´s songs from the DF album, did we really need her songs in remixed form?, I mean compared to a 4-5 cd set of JL striped-mixes?..it is after all John´s birthday celebration, right?
Anyroad (as John would have said), all in all, I´m pleased with the remastered series
CLN
I purchased all of the new Lennon items of course - as I am a collector. It would be easy to bash these products for not being what i PERSONALLY wanted them to be, but obviously they are exactly what Yoko wanted them to be. On one hand it's nice to have John's original mixes in the best sound quality possible, but on the other the remixed series from 2000-2004 sound SO much better (and with bonus tracks) so it's sad to hear that those will fade away once supplies are gone.
It's hard to please everyone, but i was underwhelmed with the content of the box with such a hefty price tag. The inclusion of the 'missing' records from the John catalog (Two Virgins, LWTL, Wedding Album, LPIT, LINYC, Menlove Ave and even Shaved Fish) and inclusion of the bonus tracks from the remasters (perhaps as a 'disc 2' for each album also including the 'Anthology' and 'Acoustic' tracks for each corresponding album to fill out the disc) would have gone along way to make this the DEFINITIVE collection - and there is plenty of room in that huge box to hold them!
The booklet in the box had a lot to be desired as well. A nice book detailing the recording sessions and at least information about what is on the actual discs would have been welcomed. John gave many interviews about each record when they were released so even a track by track commentary from Lennon taken from interviews would have been something great.
So again - it's obviously the box is what Yoko wanted it to be - but for the collector - it left a lot to be desired!
Richard B in Orando
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