Category Archives: Plastic Ono Band

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.

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.

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:

Some Unusual Asian Beatles Items – Part Three

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Herewith Part Three in a series of posts on some unusual Beatles and Beatles-related items I was able to buy on a recent visit to Vietnam. I should say again here that all my collection of records, CD’s, books and DVDs have been, to date, the official record company releases. I don’t collect pirate or illegal Beatles material. However, I was presented with something of a dilemma in Vietnam by not knowing if these quite intricately produced items were illegal or the real thing. As they were all sealed in heat-shrink plastic and on the outside had official-looking logos, etc. it made it very difficult to tell. In the end because they were so cheap and I didn’t have ready access to the internet to do research on them I decided to buy and check out their credentials later. So far I have not found anything on the web about this next CD.

Its another one I got in Hanoi in the country’s north:

As you can see its called John Lennon “Definitive Lennon”.  It has a shiny, iridescent almost 3D cover that is very nicely done in green, white, silver and black. It really looks expensively produced. The photo above is of the printed slipcase around the over-sized plastic CD jewel case, which contains two CDs.

CD 1 is exactly the same track list as an official EMI Asia and Australia-only release called John Lennon “Peace, Love and Truth” from 2005. The release I have of that CD was printed in the Philippines (see below for info and images).

CD 2 has the same track listing as the CD re-issue of John Lennon’s “Rock’n’Roll” which came out in 2004. It has the same bonus tracks as that CD.

The Vietnam CD has the same SHM-CD logos that are on the Beatles Double Golden Collection series I posted about earlier. SHM-CD seems to be a legitimate process to improve CD technology and they have quite a few authorised releases – you can read more about it here.

Here’s the front cover image of the CD jewel case for “Definitive Lennon”:

The rear cover contains the track-listing:

When you open the jewel case there’s a booklet (with song lyrics) and two CD’s on a swinging “door”:

Here’s a close-up of the printing on CD 1:

As with the “Beatles Double Golden Collection”, the CD box is oversized. Here’s a comparison with the standard CD jewel case for “Lennon Legend”:

You can also see this by comparing the spines of the CD cases. The unofficial one is much wider:

The is what appears to be an official-looking Universal records logo on the outer slipcase, though to my knowledge John Lennon never had a record deal with Universal:

As mentioned above CD 1 from this set is copied from an official 2005 release called “Peace, Love and Truth” which came out in the Asian and Australian markets only. It contains a number of (then) newly remixed version of some classic Lennon songs including “Give Peace a Chance 2005  (featuring Voices of Asia)”, “Gimme Some Truth (Remix), “Love (Remix)”, “Hold On (Remix)”, “Give Peace a Chance 2004 Y2K+”, “Imagine (Remix)”, “Bring On the Lucie (Remix)”, “Mind Games (Remix)” and “I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier (Remix)”. There are also versions of “Real Love (Slow Version)”, “Help ME To Help Myself”, “I Don’t Want to Face It”, “Bless You”, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, “Listen the Snow is Falling” and the standard version of “Give Peace a Chance”.  The cover of the official “Peace, Love and Truth” looks like this:

The rear cover:

The “Definitive Lennon” SHM-CD was amongst some other purchases made in Vietnam. You can see posts on those in Part One and Part Two.  Again, there has been quite a lot of thought, expense and detail put into the production of the disc and its packaging, making it difficult to categorically rule it out as a fake.

I think this is the first detailed information about this release I have seen on the Internet.

UPDATE: I just realised where this CD cover comes from. It always reminded me of something I’d seen before – and its the artwork for the cover of the 2009 charity release “Make Some Noise – The Campaign to Save Darfur”:

Make Some Noise - various artists cover John Lennon songs for the Amnesty International CD release to raise funds for troubled Darfur

If the South East Asian CD “The Definitive John Lennon” is a fake then not only are they ripping off the Lennon estate, they’ve stolen artwork probably donated to the Amnesty International cause……

See also Some Unusual Asian Beatles Items – Part One, and also Some Unusual Asian Beatles Items – Part Two

Label Variations Part Four – Shaved Fish

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Earlier this week I blogged about an interesting CD variation of John Lennon’s “Shaved Fish”.

That post prompted me to drag out the vinyl copies of this 1973 “Best Of” compilation and publish some photos of the different versions I have in the collection.

The front cover, rear cover, and inner sleeve of this album in LP form seems to be very consistent right around the world. Here’s a typical front cover. This one below is the Italian release:

Italian front cover of Lennon's 1973 "Shaved Fish"

And here is the rear cover:

"Shaved Fish" rear cover (Italy)

There is a strong Japanese influence to the graphic design throughout, which was provided by designer Roy Kohara who worked again with Lennon as Art Director and Designer for both his “Walls and Bridges” and “Rock’n’Roll” LP’s.

The sub-title for this album seems to be “Collectable Lennon” as this phrase is printed on the rear covers of both the Italian and British versions of the album. Its not on the US or Australian rear covers, but does appear on a big sticker on the front of the US copy of the LP that I have:

All copies seem to come with an inner sleeve which is solid red on one side with the lyrics for each song printed in white. The other side has a red rising sun, reminiscent of the Japanese national flag, continuing Kohara’s Japanese theme:

Red inner sleeve with lyrics - Italian release

Kohara's Japanese theme continued on inner sleeve

Here’s the label for the Italian release – a green Apple label:

Italian Apple label

I have two versions of the Australian release. The original Apple label:

Australian green Apple

And the later Parlophone black and silver re-issue:

Australian Parlophone re-issue

The U.S. release is a green Apple:

US green Apple label

And finally the U.K. release, again a green Apple label:

UK green Apple label

If you’d like to see some more label variations you can go to:

Label Variations – Part One “Sgt Pepper”

Label Variations – Part Two “Let It Be”

Label Variations – Part Three – McCartney’s “Choba B CCCP”

and

The Beatles “Love” collectable variations

John Lennon – A “Shaved Fish” Variation

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A while back blog reader and correspondent Ned in the US sent through some photos of Beatles and Beatles-related oddities from his collection. I’ve already published a couple of posts featuring his rare “Love” CD single, and a still-sealed copy of the “Lennon” 4 CD box set with a unique printing error that he has.

Ned has also sent some shots of an unusual copy of John Lennon’s 1975 compilation CD “Shaved Fish”. Its believed this is a rare withdrawn release originally made in Japan but intended for the US market, and that it was subsequently withdrawn from sale and replaced with (the more common) locally pressed Capitol version. As you can see below there are variations in both the rear cover and interior artwork, and in the printing on the CD itself. Here’s the rear cover of the rare version:

Rear cover of the withdrawn "Shaved Fish" release

Ned writes: “The back cover art of the withdrawn “Shaved Fish” doesn’t list the producer credits on the bottom that are found on the common U.S. release.  Also notice that the label number CDP 7 46642 2 (upper right corner) is the same as the common [U.S.] one, indicating that the release was intended as the official U.S. CD.  Had this Japan-made CD been intended for the Japanese market or elsewhere it would have had a different reference number. I’ve also included a photo of both releases side-by-side.  It’s possible that the EU version of “Shaved Fish” has the same art as the withdrawn U.S. one but since I’ve never run into a European import of it I can’t confirm that”:

”]

Ned says: “The withdrawn version (pictured on top) has the words “Lennon Plastic Ono Band” at the top of the disc just under the EMI logo and the name, “Shaved Fish” at the bottom.  While the official and far more common re-release (pictured on bottom) shows the Capitol logo instead of the EMI logo while John Lennon’s full name appears without the addition of the Plastic Ono Band.  (It’s awkward to call the bottom one the “official release” since most people never knew there had even BEEN a withdrawn one).  How did I acquire this withdrawn one?  I really don’t know!  I just bought it when it came out and then it swiftly disappeared for a few years until I saw it again in it’s reincarnated state.”

Thanks again to Ned for providing these photos and info. If anyone has any further information on this Lennon release it’d be good to share it. Either post a comment using the blog “Comment” link below, or email me direct at beatlesblogger@gmail.com

I have a couple of vinyl LP versions of the “Shaved Fish” release in my own collection and Ned has inspired me to drag these out and do a Label Variations post on these – so keep an eye out for that soon. 


John Lennon – Gimme Some Truth

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To mark what would have been the 70th birthday of the late John Lennon Yoko Ono, EMI Music and the Lennon Estate are to embark on what can only be described as a huge re-issue and release program – starting on October 4, 2010.

Called the “Gimme Some Truth” campaign, it will comprise a series of Lennon albums remastered from the original mixes as well as new collections compiled for CD and digital download release. One of the new releases will be a “naked” version of the Grammy Award winning album “Double Fantasy” – made available for the first time in a newly remixed, stripped down version produced by Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas, co-producers of the original album with Lennon. The new version will come in an expanded 2 CD edition which will include with the original mix, remastered.

Eight of  the original solo albums and other recordings have also been newly digitally remastered.  These include:

• A hits compilation in two editions titled “Power To The People: The Hits”

• A 4CD set of themed discs titled “Gimme Some Truth”

• A deluxe 11CD collectors box with the remastered albums, rarities, and non-album singles, titled “The John Lennon Signature Box”

Yoko Ono said: “In this very special year, which would have seen my husband and life partner John reach the age of 70, I hope that this remastering / re-issue program will help bring his incredible music to a whole new audience. By remastering 121 tracks spanning his solo career, I hope also that those who are already familiar with John’s work will find renewed inspiration from his incredible gifts as a songwriter, musician and vocalist and from his power as a commentator on the human condition. His lyrics are as relevant today as they were when they were first written and I can think of no more apposite title for this campaign than those simple yet direct words ‘Gimme Some Truth’.”

The albums have been digitally remastered from their original mixes by Ono and a team of engineers led by Allan Rouse at EMI Music’s Abbey Road Studios in London, and by George Marino at Avatar Studios in New York. All of the remastered titles will be packaged in digisleeves with replicated original album art and booklets with photos and new liner notes by noted British music journalist Paul Du Noyer.

The albums to be reissued are:

• John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)

• Imagine (1971)

• Some Time In New York City (1972)

• Mind Games (1973)

• Walls and Bridges (1974)

• Rock ‘n’ Roll (1975)

• Double Fantasy Stripped Down (2010) / Double Fantasy (1980)

• Milk and Honey (1984)

Yoko Ono added: “Double Fantasy Stripped Down” really allows us to focus our attention on John’s amazing vocals. Technology has advanced so much that, conversely, I wanted to use new techniques to really frame these amazing songs and John’s voice as simply as possible. By stripping down some of the instrumentation the power of the songs shines through with an enhanced clarity. “Double Fantasy Stripped Down” will be complemented by the original album in the 2 CD format. It was whilst working on the new version of this album that I was hit hardest emotionally, as this was the last album John released before his passing.”

“Power To The People: The Hits” will gather 15 of Lennon’s most popular songs, and will be available as a 15-track single-disc, and as whats being called an “Experience Edition” with additional content. Both versions will be packaged in digisleeves with booklets including a new liner note essay by Du Noyer. “Gimme Some Truth” will be packaged in a slipcase with rare photos and a new liner notes essays by respected American music journalist and author, Anthony DeCurtis. It will contain 72 of Lennon’s solo recordings on four themed CDs:

• ‘Roots’ – John’s rock ‘n’ roll roots and influences

• ‘Working Class Hero’ – John’s socio-political songs

• ‘Woman’ – John’s love songs

• ‘Borrowed Time’ – John’s songs about life

The “John Lennon Signature Box” is a deluxe 11 CD and digital collection of the eight remastered albums, a disc of rare and previously unreleased recordings, and an EP of Lennon’s non-album singles. The CDs will be housed in digisleeves within a deluxe box including a collectible limited edition John Lennon art print and a hardbound book featuring rare photos, artwork, collages, poetry, and new liner notes by DeCurtis.

Check out johnlennon.com for more info, official announcements and updates as the release dates for these new John Lennon collectables draws closer.

“I Met the Walrus” – A Book….and a Film.

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In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan managed to get himself, a reel-to-reel tape deck and some cameras into John and Yoko’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. John and Yoko were in between their famous “Bed-ins for Peace” (the first in Amsterdam, the second in Montreal) and the world’s media wanted to talk to them. How a fourteen year-old pulled off such an exclusive is a fascinating story. The meeting had a profound effect on the boy and, thirty-eight years later, Jerry Levitan produced a film about it, and then a book. They are both called “I Met the Walrus”.

Released in 2009 (I only just got a copy) its a really good read.

The book gives a lot more background and detail about Levitan’s childhood, how as a teenager he came to be in the right place at the right time when John and Yoko blew into Toronto in late May, 1969, and how a personal brush with fame shaped his life as a result. The book is lavishly produced by Harper Collins, with an embossed cover, a collector’s DVD, unique photographs, great design, and illustrations like this one by artist James Braithwaite:  It was only after I bought the book that I remembered early last year seeing a terrific little animated film that was created about the same young boy going to visit the Lennon’s in Toronto. Turns out it was indeed this Academy Award-nominated film, also called “I Met the Walrus”:

As you can see, the film takes the original hotel interview recording as it’s soundtrack. Director Josh Raskin then illustrates Lennon’s every word in what’s been described as “….a cascading flood of multi-pronged animation”.

The amazing pen illustrations for the film were by James Braithwaite (who also illustrates the book), with digital illustration provided by Alex Kurina.

How the film came about so many years after the interview – and the story of it’s subsequent Oscar nomination – forms the Epilogue chapter of the book.

On the back cover Yoko Ono provides these words: “I remember fondly, how young Jerry came to us and did the interview, when so many journalists were trying to speak to us. He was not only brave but very clear and intelligent. Both John and I thought it was a very pleasant experience.”

Book cover

New John Lennon Limited Edition Singles

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Each year Independent Record Store Day in the US gets more interesting and influential, and it seems to be spreading to other countries.

This year to mark the day (April 17), EMI/Capitol in the US will release a limited edition pack of three John Lennon 45rpm vinyl singles.

Formally announced by EMI,  it is also in the “News” section of the official John Lennon site, at the Capitol Records vinyl re-issue site fromthecapitolvaults.com, and there are strong hints at the Record Store Day site itself as well.

The three singles, in original replica sleeves, will be:

John Lennon “Mother” / Yoko Ono “Why”
John Lennon “Imagine” / John Lennon “It’s So Hard”
John Lennon “Watching the Wheels” / Yoko Ono “Yes, I’m Your Angel”

All three will come in what is described as an individually numbered quality “Kraftpac” paper envelope with a poster, three postcards and a special custom adoptor hub for the 45’s.  There’s not a lot of artwork around yet but this looks like it could be the cover of the special bag:

So, here’s to Capitol for celebrating the survival of independent record shops and also the survival of the vinyl record with a special John Lennon release.

For readers in Australia, Record Store Day will also be celebrated on Saturday, April 17. For more info go to the local site.