John Lennon Anthology

The John Lennon Anthology is a 4 CD boxed set released in 1998. I decided to listen to this today, the 25th anniversary of the day Lennon was murdered outside his New York City apartment, mostly because I haven't listened to it very much before. This collection features demo and alternate versions of many Lennon originals and along with a bunch of covers. While collections of this type sometimes seem to be a chance to cash in after an artist has died, this collection is well worth a listen.

The John Lennon Anthology contains about 100 tracks, varying from versions of songs so good it is hard to believe another version was originally released, through simple demos, to incredibly silly parodies of other artists' songs. For example, the version of God features an incredibly edgy vocal performance from Lennon that is arguably better than the one included on Plastic Ono Band. Similarly, the only problem with the recording of I Found Out is that it is a home recording, so the sound quality is substandard - but the performance is scintillating. Mother features a lot less of Lennon's primal screaming and the guitar playing gets quite grungy before the end of the recording - nice!

The version of Imagine, apparently the 1st take, features some beautiful organ playing that didn't make it to the released version. There's also a great cover version of Baby Please Don't Go, from the Imagine sessions. The take of I Don't Want To Be A Soldier featured here is much more of a loose jam than the version on Imagine - well worth a listen.

As far as protest songs go, there isn't much to compare to Luck of the Irish. Wow...

Later on it simply isn't possible to understand why this particular version of Slippin' and Slidin' was passed over for the version that ended up on Rock 'n' Roll. This version rocks like very few recordings, by any artist, that I've ever heard. I suppose there's a wrong note in there somewhere...

Most of the recordings that feature a band sound like they were done live in the studio. This is interesting when you consider the studio shenanigans employed by The Beatles in their last few years. Lennon really seemed to value interacting live with other musicians.

The John Lennon Anthology is a very good reminder of what a great songwriter and performer John Lennon was.