Solo material recorded by the late Beatle John Lennon is set to gain an expansive re-issue.
Music was John Lennon’s life. Just a minutes after helping his wife Yoko Ono to record her now classic disco-noir track ‘Walking On Thin Ice’ the Beatles icon was shot dead by a deranged fan in New York.
Leaving behind him an incredible artistic legacy, John Lennon’s solo years are set to reach a new audience. An under appreciated part of his back catalogue, the songwriter released a total of eight albums under his own name.
Now, with celebrations for what would have been his 70th birthday dawning a new re-issue project has been launched. Available on CD and vinyl, the recordings have been spruced up by sound engineers.
The new re-issue reveals that breadth of Lennon’s songwriting, and also his battle with writer’s block. Spread across a decade, the recordings move from the classic ‘Imagine’ to his covers album ‘Rock N Roll’.
Sadly ending with ‘Double Fantasy’ and the posthumous ‘Milk And Honey’ they demonstrate that John Lennon had once again entered a creative period. The eight albums set to be re-issued are: ‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’, ‘Imagine’, ‘Some Time In New York City’, ‘Mind Games’, ‘Walls And Bridges’, ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll’, ‘Double Fantasy’, ‘Milk And Honey’.
‘Double Fantasy’ has been stripped down, with Yoko Ono and Jack Douglas – who worked on the original album – overseeing the new mix.
In addition to this, an eleven disc box set is being planned. ‘The John Lennon Signature Box’ will include unreleased home recordings, as well as essays from Yoko Ono and the singer’s two sons, Sean and Julian Lennon.
As well as this, a four CD box set titled ‘Gimme Some Truth’ is set to be released. Finally, a one disc 15 song introduction to John Lennon’s solo work has been arranged, with ‘Power To The People’ containing some of his finest moments.
The John Lennon re-issue series begins on October 9th.
