Category Archives: Yoko Ono

John Lennon – “The Life”

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I was wandering past that discount bookshop near where I work again the other day (see my previous entry:  Paul McCartney “Now and Then” )  and found a couple of copies of this book sitting on the shelves:

Paperback version

It’s the (very thick!) paperback edition of the Lennon biography   “John Lennon – The Life” , by Philip Norman. All 853 pages of it.  It came out (originally in hardback) in 2008.  The shop had about six copies – most were pretty beaten up, but this one was in very good condition and so what was an avid collector to do but get a copy….

Norman’s connections to the Beatles date back to a book he wrote in 1981 called “Shout – The True Story of The Beatles”.  He’s also written about Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones and Elton John.

To see a pretty good review of “John Lennon – The Life” by Michael Faber from the respected The Guardian newspaper click here , and another review here from the Sydney Morning Herald‘s Frank Carrigan.

For collectors, note the hardback version of the book has a slightly different cover:

Hardback version

I really like the cover photo the designers have chosen. To me its a very open, natural John Lennon who is looking out at you from the bookshelf. For those who are interested in these things I noticed this further variation of the cover floating around the internet. I think this is another British paperback version. Not as good or as classy as the one above imho, but different again:

UK paperback version

Plastic Ono Band – Live Peace in Toronto 1969

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This recent addition to the collection is the DVD version of a legendary early album by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band – recorded as the title suggests in Toronto, Canada in 1969. The newly formed group appeared at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival. Also on the bill, and seen in brief performances in the DVD, were Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Kind of a strange line-up for the Plastic Ono Band to be sharing the stage with as they were all legends of a previous era of rock, while Lennon’s group was brand new – one of his very first outings outside the Beatles. I guess it was because they were at a Rock and Roll Revival concert that they chose to do some covers of some of the great songs that Lennon had grown up with and some he’d recorded with the Beatles (“Money”, “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” and “Blue Suede Shoes”) mixed in with some more recent original material (“Yer Blues” from the White album, “Cold Turkey” and “Give Peace A Chance”), alongside a couple of Yoko Ono’s more experimental works (“Don’t Worry Kyoko – Mummy’s only looking for her hand in the snow” and “John, John – Let’s hope for peace”). Joining Lennon and Ono on stage were Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Alan White, something of a super-group who allegedly practiced their set for the first time in the jet on the way to gig….

The interesting thing about the film is that it was directed by D.A.Pennebaker, who made the legendary Dylan documentary “Don’t Look Back”.

This DVD is reasonably decent quality for both sound and vision. Its an Australian pressing.

Where possible with this blog I’ll give you as much release information as I can, including cover photos, catalogue numbers, etc.

The details are:

Plastic Ono Band    Live Peace In Toronto

Label:  Umbrella Music   Cat.No:  DAVID0669

AUS/1998/DVD

The cover artwork looks different to other releases of this film I have seen, though it all seems to be legit and not a bootleg:

Cover

Cover

 

 

Back Cover

Back Cover

DVD

DVD