Category Archives: John Lennon

“Stripped Down” – First Photos

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Maybe the very first images of the full packaging for “Double Fantasy – Stripped Down” have been posted on the web.

Apparently the full range of the “Gimme Some Truth” releases (including the 11 CD box set) are already available for sale in a CD shop in Brussells:

The site these come from is in French and Google Translate says something like this:

“No need to wait for the official release date (October 4th), all the new Lennon are already (and apparently have been for 1 or 2 days) at a record store in Brussels in the “old quarter”…The big box (at 145 € euros), the single CDs, compilations…and “Stripped Down” (at 19 € euros). The packaging is like those for the CD stereo Beatles remasters: soft cardboard (which shows fingerprints and the ink of which will undoubtedly be transferred onto neighboring CDs in a rack – just like the Beatles ones). The CD slid out without any protective inner sleeve.”

This was posted on September 30th. Thanks to the French Beatles forum yellowsub.net for these images.

Also, as to the sound of “Stripped Down” there’s a nice side-by-side comparison been posted by Willard on the Never Get Out of the Boat blogsite.

Lennon “Gimme Some Truth”- Universe and Campaign Trailer

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Just had an email from johnlennon.com

It reads (in part):

John Lennon ‘Universe’ Revealed + Campaign Trailer

The John Lennon ‘Universe’ is an immersive and interactive online
experience around John Lennon’s life and musical career, featuring
multimedia content, audio from the remastered solo career albums, videos
and fascinating essays in an exciting, interactive format.

Fans will be able to access ‘Universe’ with the physical and digital
versions of the following products from the 70th Birthday campaign:

– Power To The People (CD+DVD Edition)
– Gimme Some Truth
– John Lennon Signature Box
– Power To The People iTunes LP
– Double Fantasy Stripped Down iTunes LP

Watch the brand new ‘Gimme Some Truth’ campaign trailer, which walks you
through all the releases, by clicking on the image of John above.

Sony, Paul, and the Sgt Pepper Cover

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I love this sort of incidental trivia that you can accidentally stumble across on the web. Even 43 years after the fact you can still learn something new about a Beatles album cover that’s been seen millions and millions of times….

I bet like me you’ve stared at the “Sgt Pepper” cover wondering about who was who and what was what, asking yourself why the Beatles and artist Peter Blake had chosen and placed all the items they did for their legendary and ground-breaking cover.

Now another small piece of the mystery has been revealed – and it comes from an unlikely source.

See that little portable TV set that is just above the “S” in the word “Beatles” (spelled out in red flowers), and behind the little doll figurine dressed in green:

Well, check out this article in the Japan Times.

Turns out “it’s a Sony”. It’s not that this connection hasn’t been noticed before. A year ago Sony itself posted this message on its own blog site, which confirmed it was a in fact a Sony television set (a model TV9-306UB in fact, which would have been fairly state-of-the-art as far as TV’s go back in the day).

It’s just confirmation now that it was actually Paul McCartney’s very own TV set.

From the articles and posts I also learned that the small Japanese figurine at the feet of the wax Beatles from Madame Tussauds is a Japanese fukusuke fortune doll owned by John Lennon. Who would have thought?

Just another bit of Beatles trivia…

(Wikipedia has a list of the people and items in the picture).

New Lennon Film + Behind the Scenes Podcast Series

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As part of an ever-growing number of events, books and CD re-issues to mark what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday, comes a new documentary film. In a couple of days (on September 25th) “LennoNYC” will make it’s premiere as part of the New York Film Festival. It will also be broadcast on PBS TV in the United States (on November 22nd), and released commercially as a DVD (on November 23).

The film, which looks to be well-researched and gets access to a number of the main players in John Lennon’s life, traces his love affair with the city of New York and how, with the city’s help, he was able to reinvent himself both artistically and in his private life. It also delves into how he worked as a composer and recording artist.

In the lead up to the television premiere the makers of the film – Susan Lacy, Series Creator and Executive Producer of the American Masters series and a producer of “LennoNYC”, and Director/Writer Michael Epstein – are making ten, hour-long, exclusive podcasts freely available. These all contain extended and largely uncut versions of the interviews that were recorded for the film with those who knew and worked with Lennon intimately during his time living in the city.

The first is with Jack Douglas, co-producer (with Lennon and Yoko Ono) of the “Double Fantasy” LP, released just prior to Lennon’s death in 1980. Its timely because he’s just been involved in preparing the special “stripped down” edition of the album which will be released the week after next.

Here is Jack Douglas from the PBS podcast talking about his work on the new stripped down version:

In the hour-long podcast interview Douglas also reveals how “Double Fantasy” was made in top secret – and surprisingly – much of it in John Lennon’s bed:

There are many other great insights and stories from Douglas. He’s particularly poignant about John’s death and its impact on him and others who knew him closely. You can download the full podcasts here, or go to the iTunes store and subscribe there. New episodes will be posted weekly every Thursday until the Thursday after the TV broadcast on November 22.  The final podcast will be a question and answer session using the best questions submitted by users via email.

The “Imagine Peace” website has extensive coverage, information and articles about the film “LennoNYC” (scroll down the page), and there’s also been a trailer for the documentary uploaded to YouTube:

Two Apple Box Sets Coming

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Steve Marinucci in his excellent Beatles Examiner column reports that both the Beatles “Red” and “Blue” plus the extensive Apple Records artists reissues will be available as box sets.

Called “The Beatles 1962 – 1970”, the box set containing the Red “1962-1966” and the Blue “1967-1970” will look like this:

Red and Blue Box Set front cover

Of course inside will be these two double disc sets:

The Red "1962-1966"

The Blue "1966-1970"

The initial information on these releases remains the same – they will be available as individual discs on October 18 (in the UK) and October 19 (in the US). The box set however is listed by Amazon UK for a November 29 release.

Meanwhile, the big Apple artists reissues also planned for October are to be gathered together in box set for those who would like to buy the complete set. The big news here is that the box will contain not only the “Come and Get It – Best Of” disc with its rarities, but also two additional discs featuring the additional and rare tracks that would have only been available as digital downloads – so, 17 CD’s in all. For collectors like me this makes this release a lot more interesting because I still like to have the physical disc in my hands, complete with the liners notes, photographs and artwork rather than the nebulous digitally downloaded audio….

The box set cover will look like this:

Steve Marinucci has a nice slide show of the box and all the discs it will contain.

The one problem I have with all this is that the Beatles and Apple have allowed such a large amount of collectable product to pile up all at the same time. Between now and November we’ll have George Harrrison’s “Collaborations”; John Lennon’s multiple “Gimme Some Truth” releases; Paul McCartney’s “Band on the Run” in multiple versions; The Beatles “Red” and “Blue”; and all the Apple re-issues. This makes it incredibly difficult if not impossible for most avid collectors to afford all at once.

Thanks to Beatles Examiner for this information.

Rolling Stone Magazine Names Its Top 100 Beatles Songs

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I’m a bit late catching up on this one as news first came out about it at the end of August, but it’s probably only just hitting news stands near you now – depending on where you live…

In a special Collectors Edition, Rolling Stone magazine has named its Top 100 Beatles songs of all time. (Apparently its the first time they’ve done this). News of the the special edition came out in the US on August 26.

The press release reads:

ROLLING STONE RELEASES “THE BEATLES 100 GREATEST SONGS”

“New York, NY – August 26, 2010 – Rolling Stone released its first-ever list of the 100 greatest Beatles songs as part of a special interest publication that coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Beatle’s final album, Let It Be, and the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. Topping the list, as ranked by the editors of Rolling Stone, is “A Day in the Life,” followed by “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”

Following an introduction by Elvis Costello, the book features the stories behind each song, dozens of photos, an index of the complete list, and a breakdown of the numbers, including the years with the most songs (1965 and 1966 each had 17), the shortest song (“Her Majesty,” 23 seconds) and the song that spent the longest time at number one on the charts (“Hey Jude,” 9 weeks).

The book also includes special sections with lists of Lennon and Paul McCartney’s five favorite songs, the top guitar and drumming moments of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, respectively, and the best Beatles cover songs.” (ends)

The magazine has created a really nice page detailing their Top Ten songs – including some great photographs too.

See also the different Australian cover.

“Starting Over” – New Lennon Book Coming

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Its the season for new biographical books. There’s a new Paul McCartney biog just released.

And now comes news of a new book associated with the massive John Lennon CD reissue release program that’s planned for October. The book is about the making of the “Double Fantasy” album which when reissued next month will contain the original recording remastered, plus a new “stripped down” version as well.

“Starting Over – The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy” will be published by Simon & Schuster on October 19:

Starting Over - front cover

The book is written by author, musician and columnist Ken Sharp who’s previous works include whats regarded as the definitive biography of Kiss.

To quote from the PR blurb:  “Starting Over is an oral history of the making of Double Fantasy and the definitive account of John Lennon’s last days. From early demos to sessions at New York City’s The Hit Factory, from the electrifying chemistry of the studio band to keeping the project under wraps to the album’s release and critical reception, here is fascinating, insightful commentary from all of the key players involved in its extraordinary creation: Yoko Ono, David Geffen, producer Jack Douglas, engineers, arrangers, session musicians, music journalists, and even Lennon himself via archival interviews.”

The book will feature never-before-seen photos of John and Yoko in the studio, by David M. Spindel and Roger Farrington.

Thanks to Scott Segelbaum of the “Beatle Briefs” podcast for the info on this one.

Speaking of the forthcoming reissue of  “Double Fantasy – Stripped Down”, the new cover art was revealed a couple of weeks ago:

Clearly its a pencil drawing (signed Sean Ono Lennon, 2010) based on the famous photograph used on the original LP and CD covers. It also appeared in a more closely cropped version on the 45 rpm vinyl single “(Just Like) Starting Over”:

105 Days with the Beatles

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This isn’t new – it comes from back in December last year but I’ve only just discovered it and thought its worth passing on because it’s kind of interesting.

Its an interview on the Australian EMI site with Richard Lush – who worked at EMI during the 60’s as second engineer to Geoff Emerick recording the Beatles. As he says in a great quote from the article:”….I did 105 sessions; 105 days I walked across Abbey Road and went to work for the Beatles….”.  Not many people can make that claim.

“I was 18 years old and I had been there for 6 months. Before I started on “Revolver”, when we did “A Day in the Life”… Geoff and I, Geoff was 2 years older then me… Geoff would have been 20 and I was 18. I remember us in the control room joking to one another… isn’t amazing…they are actually trusting us… (We laughed)”

“People often ask me: “What’s the worst thing about working for the Beatles?” And I always said… The fact that they would always start late. Most bands in those days started in the morning (10am) but they would start around 2pm. So you would show up just before 2… There would be no fans, no screaming girls, so you knew they had not arrived yet. Then George Martin would show up about 4 o’clock, we would set up, still be waiting, and then the Beatles would roll in about 7 or 8pm and go to about 8 in the morning……I worked on “Pepper”, did a track on “Revolver”, about half   “The White Album”, some of “Magical Mystery Tour”.”

Anyway, check out the interview in full – its worth a read.

If you want to see Richard Lush in the studio here’s a short clip of him examining the piano and drum parts for the John Lennon track “God”, from his solo album Plastic Ono Band. This was part of the great “Classic Albums” video series:

Harrison/Shankar – “Collaborations” Announced

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And so, the ever-growing list of forthcoming releases swells with yet another interesting title….

George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records has just announced a new box-set package called “Collaborations”. And yes, it too is coming in October.

From the official press release:

Dark Horse Records announced today the October 19th release of a limited edition deluxe box set, entitled “RAVI SHANKAR GEORGE HARRISON – COLLABORATIONS“. The release honors the sitar master’s 90th birthday.

“Collaborations” is a 3 CD and 1 DVD uniquely numbered limited edition box set. All compositions were composed by Ravi Shankar and produced by George Harrison over a period of 20 years.

The DVD is a rare concert performance of the Ravi Shankar’s “Music Festival From India”, recorded at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1974. The albums include the acclaimed “Chants Of India” (1997), “The Ravi Shankar Music Festival From India” (studio version 1976), and “Shankar Family & Friends” (1974). The 56-page book includes a foreword by Philip Glass, a history of George and Ravi “in their own words”, and rare photographs from both family archives.

"Chants of India" - original cover (1997)

"Music Festival from India" - original cover (1976)

"Shankar Family and Friends" - original cover (1974)

The official website has the full press release. Steve Marinucci has details in his Examiner column, and Wog Blog also has information on his site.

I could be wrong, but I think this is the first time that “The Ravi Shankar Music Festival From India” and “Shankar Family & Friends” have been issued on CD.

Speaking of Ravi Shankar, the master sitar player (who had such an influence on George Harrison and the Beatles) has embarked on a huge archival project of his own – with a series of discs being released on his East Meets West label.

The first in the series is a single disc CD titled “Nine Decades, Vol. 1: 1967-1968”:

"Nine Decades" - out now

The next release in the series will be the soundtrack to the movie “Raga” – which was originally issued on Apple Records in 1971 and features George Harrison. Details about the release schedule so far is here, and it looks like the “Raga” release will be a CD and DVD double which is good.

"Raga" - original cover (1971)

“Raga” is due in the “American fall” – which is a bit vague but I guess that could mean yet another October release?

October is going to be one very expensive month for us die-hard, complete-ist collectors. We’ll have to put out hands in pockets for the 70th birthdate Lennon “Gimme Some Truth” material; the remastered Apple Records catalogue; the Shankar/Harrison “Collaborations”, and “Raga” now as well. That’s not to mention “Band on the Run”, the first of the Paul McCartney re-issues on Concord Records that is due sometime in August…..

Beatles “Red” and “Blue” to be Remastered and Re-Issued

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Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music have announced that The Beatles original 1973 compilations, “1962-1966” (‘Red’) and “1967-1970” (‘Blue’) have been digitally remastered for worldwide CD release on October 18 (October 19 in the USA).

Both will be 2CD packages and each will include expanded booklets with original liner notes, newly written essays by Bill Flanagan, and rare photos. However, in typical EMI/Apple fashion they will not have contain any bonus material, nor any bonus DVD discs 😦

Its the same team at Abbey Road Studios responsible for remastering The Beatles original studio albums remasters in stereo and mono last year who have carefully maintained the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings of the “Red” and “Blue” albums. The result will be the highest fidelity versions the catalogue has seen since its original 1973 release.

See the official Beatles news site (now with cover art) here, and the EMI Music press release here.