1.
Imagine: John Lennon (soundtrack)
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Imagine, John Lennon is a soundtrack album of popular music compiled for the 1988 documentary film Imagine, John Lennon from songs written or co-written by John Lennon. Originally released that year as an album, it now remains available on one CD. Bridging his two musical phases together, as a member of the Beatles and a solo artist, Imagine, John Lennon is a career-spanning collection of Lennons many musical highlights. In addition there are a couple of unreleased recordings, an acoustic demo of Real Love taped in 1979. It also features for the first time a version of A Day in the Life. Imagine, John Lennon, with its wealth of stock Lennon footage and self-narration, proved to be a film and its soundtrack sold well in the United States, reaching No.31. In the United Kingdom, the peaked at No.64. All songs by John Lennon, except where noted, tracks 2-10 produced by George Martin. Track 11 produced by Lennon and Yoko Ono, tracks 12-14,17 &21 produced by Lennon, Ono and Phil Spector. Tracks 18-20 produced by Lennon, Ono and Jack Douglas, Real Love –2,48 October 1979 demo recording, another demo of this song would eventually be re-recorded by the Beatles in 1995. Twist and Shout –2,33 Originally appeared on The Beatles 1963 debut album Please Please Me Help, –2,18 Originally appeared on The Beatles 1965 album Help. It was also credited to Lennon–McCartney, but the credit was revised in the 1990s to cite only John Lennon as its composer How. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Oh Yoko
2.
Andrew Solt
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Andrew Solt is an American producer, director, and writer of documentary films. Solt has had a career in television. A frequent focus of his documentaries is rock and roll music, its history, Solt owns the rights to The Ed Sullivan Show library, and has produced more than 100 hours of new programming from the archive. Solt was born in London and spent his years in South Africa before moving to Los Angeles in 1958. Solt graduated from Hollywood High School before attending University of California and he also earned a masters degree in broadcast journalism from U. C. L. A. Solt is married to Claudia Falkenburg and she is the daughter of 1948 Wimbledon mens singles tennis champion Bob Falkenburg and the niece of 1950s actress-model-TV personality Jinx Falkenburg. He and his wife have two children, Joshua and Dakota, Solt is the nephew of Hungarian-born screenwriter Andrew P. Solt. In 1970, Solt began working at David Wolpers production company and he worked with the National Geographic Society on their various other network specials, while there, he began a longer-term collaboration with the award-winning producer. Wolper executive-produced two of Solts documentaries, This is Elvis and Imagine, John Lennon, Solt speaking at the memorial service for Wolper, who died 10 August 2010, described the many producers who cut their teeth there as having attended Wolper U. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Solt worked on projects with Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He wrote and produced Oasis in Space, a six-part half-hour series executive produced by Cousteau, Solt received the first of nine Emmy nominations for the shows Calypsos Search for Atlantis episode. He also produced Cousteau Odyssey, four one-hour specials about deep-sea explorations shot in the waters off Greece, the two-hour documentary about the nations longest river won the 1985 Emmy for Outstanding Informational Special. The award was shared by Solt, Cousteau and his son, in 1979 Solt teamed with producer/director Malcolm Leo on Heroes of Rock and Roll. One of the first comprehensive documentaries to be made about rock music, Solt and Leo also produced the 1982 film It Came from Hollywood, a compilation of over 100 Golden Turkey movies, featuring Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and Cheech and Chong. Solt again examined rock and roll in 1995 as executive producer of Time-Lifes The History of Rock, the series, divided into 10 one-hour episodes for home video, was also syndicated and later shown on PBS and cable. It chronologically documents rock music from its roots in the early 1950s to Nirvana, other music-themed Solt productions include 25 x 5, The Continuing Adventures of the Rolling Stones and Elvis, The Great Performances. In 1990 Solt purchased the rights to the complete library of The Ed Sullivan Show from Ed Sullivans daughter Elizabeth and her husband Bob Precht. The collection consists of 1,087 hours of kinescopes and videotapes broadcast by CBS on Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971
3.
David L. Wolper
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Wolper directed the 1959 documentary The Race for Space, which was nominated for an Academy Award. His 1971 film about the study of insects, The Hellstrom Chronicle, Wolper was born in New York City, the son of Anna and Irving S. Wolper. For his work on television, he had received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the pre-1968 library is owned by Cube Entertainment, the post-1970 library is owned by Warner Bros. The filmed segment was recovered in the wreckage and was broadcast in the television series Primal Man, the cause of the crash remains unsolved. In 1988, Wolper was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame, Wolper died on August 10,2010, of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinsons disease at his Beverly Hills home. He was survived by his wife of 36 years, Gloria Hill, Wolper was also survived by ten grandchildren. His company was involved in the following productions and he was a distributor of the early shows, and became an executive producer with The Race for Space in 1958. Official website David L. Wolper at the Internet Movie Database David L. Wolper interview video at the Archive of American Television
4.
John Lennon
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John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE was an English singer and songwriter who co-founded the Beatles, the most commercially successful and musically influential band in the history of popular music. He and fellow member Paul McCartney formed a songwriting partnership. Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the craze as a teenager, his first band, the Quarrymen, first became the Silver Beatles. After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he added Ono as one of his middle names, Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to raise his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release, Lennon revealed a rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing, drawings, on film and in interviews. By 2012, Lennons solo album sales in the United States exceeded 14 million and, as writer, co-writer, or performer, he is responsible for 25 number-one singles on the US Hot 100 chart. In 2002, a BBC poll on the 100 Greatest Britons voted him eighth and, in 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time. He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1987, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, in 1988 as a member of the Beatles and in 1994 as a solo artist. Lennon was born in war-time England, on 9 October 1940 at Liverpool Maternity Hospital, to Julia and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman of Irish descent and his parents named him John Winston Lennon after his paternal grandfather, John Jack Lennon, and then-Prime Minister Winston Churchill. When he eventually came home six months later, he offered to look after the family, after her sister, Mimi Smith, twice complained to Liverpools Social Services, Julia handed the care of Lennon over to her. In July 1946 Lennons father visited Smith and took his son to Blackpool, Julia followed them—with her partner at the time, Bobby Dykins—and after a heated argument his father forced the five-year-old to choose between them. Lennon twice chose his father, but as his mother walked away, he began to cry and followed her, according to author Mark Lewisohn, Lennons parents agreed that Julia should take him and give him a home as Alf left again. A witness who was there that day, Billy Hall, has said the scene often portrayed with a young John Lennon having to make a decision between his parents never happened. It would be 20 years before he had contact with his father again, Throughout the rest of his childhood and adolescence he lived at Mendips,251 Menlove Avenue, Woolton with his aunt and uncle, Mimi and George Smith, who had no children of their own. His aunt purchased volumes of stories for him, and his uncle. In September 1980, Lennon commented about his family and his rebellious nature, Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society, but I cannot be what I am not. I was the one who all the other boys parents—including Pauls father—would say, the parents instinctively recognised I was a troublemaker, meaning I did not conform and I would influence their children, which I did. I did my best to disrupt every friends home, partly out of envy that I didnt have this so-called home
5.
The Beatles
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The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960. With members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the Beatles built their reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg over a three-year period from 1960, with Stuart Sutcliffe initially serving as bass player. The core of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison went through a succession of drummers, including Pete Best, before asking Starr to join them. They acquired the nickname the Fab Four as Beatlemania grew in Britain the next year, from 1965 onwards, the Beatles produced increasingly innovative recordings, including the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles and Abbey Road, after their break-up in 1970, they each enjoyed successful musical careers of varying lengths. McCartney and Starr, the members, remain musically active. Lennon was shot and killed in December 1980, and Harrison died of cancer in November 2001. The Beatles are the band in history, with estimated sales of over 600 million records worldwide. They have had more number-one albums on the British charts and sold more singles in the UK than any other act, according to the RIAA, the Beatles are also the best-selling music artists in the United States, with 178 million certified units. In 2008, the group topped Billboard magazines list of the all-time most successful Hot 100 artists, as of 2016 and they have received ten Grammy Awards, an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and they were also collectively included in Time magazines compilation of the twentieth centurys 100 most influential people. In March 1957, John Lennon, then aged sixteen, formed a group with several friends from Quarry Bank school. They briefly called themselves the Blackjacks, before changing their name to the Quarrymen after discovering that a local group was already using the other name. Fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly after he, in February 1958, McCartney invited his friend George Harrison to watch the band. The fourteen-year-old auditioned for Lennon, impressing him with his playing, after a month of Harrisons persistence, they enlisted him as their lead guitarist. By January 1959, Lennons Quarry Bank friends had left the group, the three guitarists, billing themselves at least three times as Johnny and the Moondogs, were playing rock and roll whenever they could find a drummer. They used the name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer. By early July, they had changed their name to the Silver Beatles, allan Williams, the Beatles unofficial manager, arranged a residency for them in Hamburg, but lacking a full-time drummer they auditioned and hired Pete Best in mid-August 1960
6.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
7.
Minute
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The minute is a unit of time or of angle. As a unit of time, the minute is equal to 1⁄60 of an hour, in the UTC time standard, a minute on rare occasions has 61 seconds, a consequence of leap seconds. As a unit of angle, the minute of arc is equal to 1⁄60 of a degree, although not an SI unit for either time or angle, the minute is accepted for use with SI units for both. The SI symbols for minute or minutes are min for time measurement, the prime is also sometimes used informally to denote minutes of time. In contrast to the hour, the minute does not have a historical background. What is traceable only is that it started being recorded in the Middle Ages due to the ability of construction of precision timepieces, however, no consistent records of the origin for the division as 1⁄60 part of the hour have ever been found, despite many speculations. Historically, the word comes from the Latin pars minuta prima. This division of the hour can be refined with a second small part. For even further refinement, the third remains in some languages, for example Polish and Turkish. The symbol notation of the prime for minutes and double prime for seconds can be seen as indicating the first, international System of Units Latitude and longitude Orders of magnitude Henry Campbell Black, Blacks Law Dictionary, 6th Edition, entry on Minute. West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota,1991
8.
Anthology 2
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Anthology 2 is a compilation album by the Beatles, released on 18 March 1996 by Apple Records as part of The Beatles Anthology series. It features rarities, outtakes and live performances from the 1965 sessions for Help. to the sessions just prior to their trip to India in February 1968. It is the second in a trilogy of albums with Anthology 1 and Anthology 3, the opening track is Real Love, the second of the two recordings that reunited the Beatles for the first time since the bands break-up. Like its predecessor, the album topped the Billboard 200 album chart and has been certified 4× Platinum by the RIAA, the Anthology albums were remastered and made available digitally on the iTunes Store on 14 June 2011, individually and as part of the Anthology Box Set. Real Love, as with Free as a Bird, is based on a made by John Lennon and given to Paul McCartney by Lennons widow. The three surviving Beatles added guitars, bass, drums, percussion and backing vocals, but unlike with the previous song, Real Love remained solely credited to Lennon, becoming the only Beatles song to have Lennon by himself in the writing credit. Disc one contains three unreleased compositions, one being an instrumental entitled 12-Bar Original, recorded for Rubber Soul, two other songs recorded for Help. If Youve Got Trouble and That Means a Lot, were abandoned, the former was originally slated to be the usual vocal spot for Ringo Starr on Help. and the latter was eventually given to singer P. J. Proby. The version of Everybodys Trying to Be My Baby from the groups famed August 1965 show at Shea Stadium, disc two contains work-in-progress versions of tracks from Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, the take of Strawberry Fields Forever that made up the first minute of the released record appears in its entirety on track three. Also included are three songs that were started during this period – Only a Northern Song, You Know My Name and Across the Universe – but would not see release until years later, in 1969 and 1970. One track that remains officially unreleased from this time, Carnival of Light, was vetoed off this set by Harrison, like its predecessor, Anthology 2 sold well. In the United States, it debuted at one, selling 442,000 copies its first week. The next week, it fell to two, selling 201,000 copies, being replaced by Alanis Morissettes Jagged Little Pill. In all, the album spent 37 weeks on the charts, in the United Kingdom, the success was similar. The first Anthology album had debuted at number two when it was released in November 1995, but its successor reached number one, where it remained for one week, the album spent a total of 13 weeks on the UK Album Chart. All tracks in stereo, except where noted, all tracks written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted
9.
Imagine (John Lennon song)
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Imagine is a song written and performed by English musician John Lennon. Lennon and Yoko Ono co-produced the song and album of the name with Phil Spector. Recording began at Lennons home studio at Tittenhurst Park, England, in May 1971, with final overdubs taking place at the Record Plant, in New York City, during July. Although not originally released as a single in the United Kingdom, it was released in 1975 to promote a compilation LP, the song has since sold more than 1.6 million copies in the UK, it reached number one following Lennons murder in December 1980. In 1985, the Central Park Conservancy memorialized a portion of the park in honor of Lennon, called Strawberry Fields, BMI named Imagine one of the 100 most-performed songs of the 20th century. The song ranked number 30 on the Recording Industry Association of Americas list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance. It earned a Grammy Hall of Fame Award and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fames 500 Songs that Shaped Rock, since 2005, event organisers have played it just before the New Years Times Square Ball drops in New York City. Dozens of artists have performed or recorded versions of Imagine, including Madonna, Stevie Wonder, Joan Baez, Elton John, Emeli Sandé recorded a cover for the BBC to use during the end credits montage at the close of the 2012 Summer Olympics coverage in August 2012. Imagine subsequently re-entered the UK Top 40, reaching number 18, Lennon later said the composition should be credited as a Lennon/Ono song. A lot of lyric and the concept—came from Yoko, but in those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted her contribution. If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not without religion, the World Church called me once and asked, Can we use the lyrics to Imagine and just change it to Imagine one religion. That showed they didnt understand it at all and it would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea. With the combined influence of Cloud Piece and the book given to him by Gregory. Blaney wrote, Lennon contends that global harmony is within our reach, in the opinion of Blaney, with Imagine, Lennon attempted to raise peoples awareness of their interaction with the institutions that affect their lives. Rolling Stones David Fricke commented, calls for a unity and equality built upon the elimination of modern social order, geopolitical borders, organised religion. He told NME, There is no real Communist state in the world, Not the way some daft Russian might do it, or the Chinese might do it. Us, we should have a nice, Ono described the lyrical statement of Imagine as just what John believed, that we are all one country, one world, one people. Rolling Stone described its lyrics as 22 lines of graceful, plain-spoken faith in the power of a world, united in purpose, to repair and change itself
10.
Yoko Ono
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Yoko Ono is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist who is also known for her work in performance art and filmmaking. She is the wife and widow of singer-songwriter John Lennon of the Beatles. Ono grew up in Tokyo, and studied at Gakushuin and she withdrew from her course after two years and rejoined her family in New York in 1953. She spent some time at Sarah Lawrence College, and then involved in New York Citys downtown artists scene. She first met Lennon in 1966 at her own art exhibition in London and she brought feminism to the forefront in her music, influencing artists as diverse as the B-52s and Meredith Monk. Ono achieved commercial and critical acclaim in 1980 with the chart-topping album Double Fantasy, public appreciation of Onos work has shifted over time, helped by a retrospective at a Whitney Museum branch in 1989 and the 1992 release of the six-disc box set Onobox. She received a Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale in 2009, as Lennons widow, Ono works to preserve his legacy. She funded Strawberry Fields in New York City, the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, and she has made significant philanthropic contributions to the arts, peace, Philippine and Japan disaster relief, and other causes. In 2012 Yoko Ono received the Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt Human Rights Award endowed by Alexandra Hildebrandt, the award is given annually in recognition of extraordinary, non-violent commitment to human rights. Ono continues her activism, inaugurating a biennial $50,000 LennonOno Grant for Peace in 2002. She has a daughter, Kyoko Chan Cox, from her marriage to Anthony Cox, Ono was born on February 18,1933, in Tokyo, to Isoko Ono and Eisuke Ono, a banker and former classical pianist. Isokos father was ennobled in 1915, isokos maternal grandfather Zenjiro Yasuda was an affiliate of the Yasuda clan and zaibatsu. Eisuke came from a line of samurai warrior-scholars. The kanji translation of Yokos first name Yoko means ocean child, Two weeks before Yokos birth, Eisuke was transferred to San Francisco by his employer, the Yokohama Specie Bank. The rest of the family followed soon after, with Yoko meeting Eisuke when she was two and her younger brother Keisuke was born in December 1936. Yoko was enrolled in piano lessons from the age of 4, in 1937, the family was transferred back to Japan and Ono enrolled at Tokyos Gakushuin, one of the most exclusive schools in Japan. In 1940, the moved to New York City. The next year, Eisuke was transferred from New York City to Hanoi, Ono was enrolled in Keimei Gakuen, an exclusive Christian primary school run by the Mitsui family
11.
Paul McCartney
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Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained fame with the rock band the Beatles, largely considered the most popular. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most celebrated of the post-war era, after the bands break-up, he pursued a solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine. McCartney has been recognised as one of the most successful composers and performers of all time, More than 2,200 artists have covered his Beatles song Yesterday, more than any other copyrighted song in history. Wings 1977 release Mull of Kintyre is one of the all-time best-selling singles in the UK.5 million RIAA-certified units in the United States. McCartney, Lennon, Harrison and Starr all received The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 1965, McCartney has released an extensive catalogue of songs as a solo artist and has composed classical and electronic music. He has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism, poverty. He has married three times and is the father of five children, James Paul McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary Patricia, had qualified to practise as a nurse. His father, James McCartney, was absent from his sons birth due to his work as a firefighter during World War II. Paul has one brother, Michael. Though the children were baptised in their mothers Catholic faith, their father was a former Protestant turned agnostic, McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton. In 1953, with three others out of ninety examinees, he passed the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute. In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his home in Speke. The two quickly became friends, McCartney later admitted, I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger. McCartneys mother Mary was a midwife and the primary wage earner, her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton. She rode a bicycle to her patients, McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at about three in the morning streets, on 31 October 1956, when McCartney was fourteen, his mother died of an embolism. McCartneys loss later became a point of connection with John Lennon, whose mother, McCartneys father was a trumpet player and pianist, who had led Jim Macs Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept a piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised Paul to take piano lessons
12.
George Harrison
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George Harrison, MBE was an English guitarist, singer, songwriter, and music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Although most of the Beatles songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and his songs for the group included Taxman, Within You Without You, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes the Sun and Something, the last of which became the Beatles second-most covered song. Harrisons earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt, Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965 he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, having initiated the bands embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, in his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978. Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, Harrisons first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Harrison, with whom he had one son, Harrison died in 2001, aged 58, from lung cancer. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India and he left an estate of almost £100 million. Born in Liverpool, United Kingdom, on 25 February 1943, Harrison was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves Harrison and he had one sister, Louise, and two brothers, Harry and Peter. His mother was an assistant from a Catholic family with Irish roots. His future wife, the model Pattie Boyd, described Harrisons parents as quite short, an enthusiastic music fan, she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons windows. While pregnant with George, she listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrisons biographer Joshua Greene wrote, Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the music would bring peace. Harrison was born and lived the first six years of his life at 12 Arnold Grove, Wavertree, Liverpool, the home had an outdoor toilet and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949 the family were offered a house and moved to 25 Upton Green. In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School and he passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959. Though the institute did offer a course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars
13.
Ringo Starr
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Richard Starkey, MBE, known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals, usually for one song on an album, including With a Little Help from My Friends, Yellow Submarine and their cover of Act Naturally. He also wrote the Beatles songs Dont Pass Me By and Octopuss Garden, Starr was twice afflicted by life-threatening illnesses during childhood, and as a result of prolonged hospitalisations fell behind in school. In 1955, he entered the workforce and briefly held a position with British Rail before securing an apprenticeship at a Liverpool equipment manufacturer, soon afterwards, he became interested in the UK skiffle craze, developing a fervent admiration for the genre. In 1957, he cofounded his first band, the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group, when the Beatles formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool group, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. After achieving moderate success with that band in the UK and Hamburg, he quit the Hurricanes and joined the Beatles in August 1962, Starr played key roles in the Beatles films and appeared in numerous others. After the bands break-up in 1970, he released several singles including the US number four hit It Dont Come Easy. In 1972, he released his most successful UK single, Back Off Boogaloo and he achieved commercial and critical success with his 1973 album Ringo, which was a top ten release in both the UK and the US. He has been featured in a number of documentaries and hosted television shows, since 1989, he has toured with twelve variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Ringos popularity brought forth a new paradigm and we started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect. His parts are so signature to the songs that you can listen to a Ringo drum part without the rest of the music and he was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers named Starr the fifth-greatest drummer of all time. Starr, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Beatle in 1988, was inducted for his solo career in 2015. Richard Starkey was born on 7 July 1940, at 9 Madryn Street, in Dingle and he is the only child of confectioners Elsie and Richard Starkey. Elsie enjoyed singing and dancing, a hobby that she shared with her husband, an avid fan of swing. Prior to the birth of their son, whom they nicknamed Ritchie, the couple had spent much of their time on the local ballroom circuit. Elsie adopted an approach to raising her son that bordered on fixation. Subsequently, Big Ritchie, as Starkeys father became known, lost interest in his family, choosing instead to spend hours drinking and dancing in pubs
14.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
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IMDb
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In 1998 it became a subsidiary of Amazon Inc, who were then able to use it as an advertising resource for selling DVDs and videotapes. As of January 2017, IMDb has approximately 4.1 million titles and 7.7 million personalities in its database, the site enables registered users to submit new material and edits to existing entries. Although all data is checked before going live, the system has open to abuse. The site also featured message boards which stimulate regular debates and dialogue among authenticated users, IMDb shutdown the message boards permanently on February 20,2017. Anyone with a connection can read the movie and talent pages of IMDb. A registration process is however, to contribute info to the site. A registered user chooses a name for themselves, and is given a profile page. These badges range from total contributions made, to independent categories such as photos, trivia, bios, if a registered user or visitor happens to be in the entertainment industry, and has an IMDb page, that user/visitor can add photos to that page by enrolling in IMDbPRO. Actors, crew, and industry executives can post their own resume and this fee enrolls them in a membership called IMDbPro. PRO can be accessed by anyone willing to pay the fee, which is $19.99 USD per month, or if paid annually, $149.99, which comes to approximately $12.50 per month USD. Membership enables a user to access the rank order of each industry personality, as well as agent contact information for any actor, producer, director etc. that has an IMDb page. Enrolling in PRO for industry personnel, enables those members the ability to upload a head shot to open their page, as well as the ability to upload hundreds of photos to accompany their page. Anyone can register as a user, and contribute to the site as well as enjoy its content, however those users enrolled in PRO have greater access and privileges. IMDb originated with a Usenet posting by British film fan and computer programmer Col Needham entitled Those Eyes, others with similar interests soon responded with additions or different lists of their own. Needham subsequently started an Actors List, while Dave Knight began a Directors List, and Andy Krieg took over THE LIST from Hank Driskill, which would later be renamed the Actress List. Both lists had been restricted to people who were alive and working, the goal of the participants now was to make the lists as inclusive as possible. By late 1990, the lists included almost 10,000 movies and television series correlated with actors and actresses appearing therein. On October 17,1990, Needham developed and posted a collection of Unix shell scripts which could be used to search the four lists, at the time, it was known as the rec. arts. movies movie database
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AllMovie
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AllMovie is an online guide service website with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. As of 2013, AllMovie. com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by All Media Network, AllMovie was founded by popular-culture archivist Michael Erlewine, who also founded AllMusic and AllGame. The AllMovie database was licensed to tens of thousands of distributors and retailers for point-of-sale systems, websites, the AllMovie database is comprehensive, including basic product information, cast and production credits, plot synopsis, professional reviews, biographies, relational links and more. AllMovie data was accessed on the web at the AllMovie. com website and it was also available via the AMG LASSO media recognition service, which can automatically recognize DVDs. In late 2007, Macrovision acquired AMG for a reported $72 million, the AMG consumer facing web properties AllMusic. com, AllMovie. com and AllGame. com were sold by Rovi in August 2013 to All Media Network, LLC. The buyers also include the founders of SideReel and Ackrell Capital investor Mike Ackrell. All Media Network offices are located in San Francisco, California, AllMusic AllGame SideReel All Media Network Official website
17.
Box Office Mojo
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Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way, founded in 1999. In 2008, Box Office Mojo was bought by the Internet Movie Database, the website is widely used within the film industry as a source of data. From 2002–11, Box Office Mojo had forums popular with film fans, on October 10,2014, the websites URL was redirected to Amazons IMDB. com website for one day, but the website returned the following day without explanation. Brandon Gray began the site in 1999, in 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and grew the site to nearly two million readers. In July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon. com through its subsidiary, Box Office Mojo had forums with more than 16,500 registered users. On November 2,2011 the forums were closed along with any user accounts. Tracking is still very closely to the day by day, actual tabulation of distributors. The site also creates an overall chart, combining all box office returns from around the world, excluding the United States. The overall weekend chart currently tracks the Top 40 films as well as approximately fifty additional films with no ranking, the site additionally has yearly and all time features for its various territories. Box Office Mojo was as of June 2009 reporting limited data from overseas and is work on improvements, most of the international charts have not been updated since November 2014. On October 10,2014, all traffic to Box Office Mojo was redirected to IMDbs box office page, queries about the closure to IMDb and Amazon representatives were met with no response. Neither Brandon Gray, who founded the website but left several years ago after its sale to Amazon, nor Ray Subers, on Ray Subers Twitter account, he revealed the websites return, but also stated he would not answer any questions pertaining to closure. Subers subsequently left the website seven months later
18.
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
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John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is the debut studio album by English rock musician John Lennon. It was released in 1970, after Lennon had issued three albums with Yoko Ono and Live Peace in Toronto 1969, a live performance in Toronto credited to the Plastic Ono Band. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band is generally considered one of Lennons finest solo albums, documenting with honesty and artistic integrity his emotional and mental state at that point in his career. In 1987, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it fourth in its list The 100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years and in 2012, janovs therapy technique emphasised emotionally reliving repressed childhood traumas rather than analytical discussion. Lennons therapy was never completed due to the expiry of his US visa, with the experience he received from the therapy, he was able to channel his emotions into an albums worth of self-revelatory material. Lennon and Ono returned from the US on 24 September 1970, to start working on Lennons album a few days later. The group jammed to a variety of songs in between recording new tracks, When a Boy Meets a Girl, Thats All Right Mama, Glad All Over, Honey Dont, Dont Be Cruel, Hound Dog, and Matchbox. Plastic Ono Band refers to the conceptual band Lennon and Ono had formed in 1969 of various supporting musicians they would use on their various solo albums, Lennon asked Spector, who had produced Lennons hit Instant Karma. earlier that year, to co-produce the album. Spector played piano on Love, but Lennon and Ono produced the album largely on their own, Spector mixed the album for three days towards the end of October. Look at Me dates from the period of The Beatles, and is built on a fingerpicking guitar pattern very similar to the one Lennon used in Dear Prudence, Happiness Is a Warm Gun, Lennon learned this technique from Donovan while the two were in Rishikesh. The album was released in Japan under the title ジョンの魂, which translates as Johns Soul, Lennons album cover is almost identical to Onos companion piece, the subtle difference being that on Onos cover, she is lying on Lennons body. The photo was snapped with a consumer-grade Instamatic camera by actor Dan Richter, the initial compact disc issue of the album listed the title and artist, while the 2000 remastered version restores the original artwork. In addition, the original LP had no track listing on the back cover, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was released in both the UK and US on 11 December 1970, the same day as Yoko Onos matching album. Mother, backed with Onos track Why, was released as a single in the US. After Lennons death, the album, along with seven other Lennon albums, was reissued by EMI as part of a box set, which was released in the UK on 15 June 1981. In 2003, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued the album in 24-karat Gold CD audio and 180 gram half-speed mastered GAIN2 Ultra Analog in vinyl reissues, in 2010, a digital remaster of Lennons entire discography was released, using original mixes and artwork. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band was received with critical praise upon release. Critic Greil Marcus remarked, Johns singing in the last verse of God may be the finest in all of rock, in early 1971, the album reached number eight on the UK and went to number six in the US, spending eighteen weeks in the Top 100
19.
Imagine (John Lennon album)
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Imagine is the second studio album by John Lennon. Recorded and released in 1971, the album is heavily produced in contrast to the basic, raw arrangements of his previous album. The album is the most popular of his works and the title track is considered one of Lennons finest songs. In 2012, Imagine was voted 80th on Rolling Stone magazines list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, while in New York, both former-Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison had a short jam session. Harrison said yes, and would ask friend and bassist Klaus Voormann, via a phone call, if he wanted to come to the recording sessions. The first songs, Its So Hard and I Dont Want to Be a Soldier, were recorded in February 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, during sessions for Lennons single Power to the People. A cover of The Olympics 1958 song Well, later released on John Lennon Anthology, was recorded in June 1971, Lennon would choose to remake I Dont Want to Be a Soldier once the main album sessions were under way. Lennon enlisted help from Nicky Hopkins, members of the Apple band Badfinger, Alan White, George Harrison would also drop by to contribute lead guitar parts on various songs. Recording for the album started on 23 June 1971, at Ascot Sound Studios, Lennon showed the musicians a song that he had recently written, the albums title track Imagine. Lennon and Ono flew to New York on 3 July 1971, to continue sessions for the album the next day, the tracks that were finished at Record Plant are, Its So Hard, I Dont Want to Be a Soldier and How Do You Sleep. As on his last album, Phil Spector joined Lennon and Yoko Ono as co-producer on Imagine, extensive footage of the sessions, showing the evolution of some of the songs, was originally filmed and titled, Working Class Hero before being shelved. Footage of Gimme Some Truth aired as part of the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test, Harrison guested on half of Imagines ten tracks, including the brutal How Do You Sleep. − a song written in retaliation against McCartneys alleged personal attacks on Lennon and Ono, Lennon said in 1980, I used my resentment against Paul. Not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta, I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write How Do You Sleep. I dont really go round with those thoughts in my all the time. The track Imagine became Lennons signature song and was written as a plea for world peace, years later he gave credit to his wife Yoko Ono who co-wrote the song. Jealous Guy has also had enduring popularity, it was composed as Child of Nature during the songwriting sessions in India in 1968 that led to The Beatles double album The Beatles. Oh My Love and the song How. were influenced by his experience with primal therapy, Lennon also indulged his love of rock and roll with Crippled Inside and Its So Hard
20.
Mind Games (John Lennon album)
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Mind Games is the fourth studio album by John Lennon. It was recorded at Record Plant Studios in New York in summer 1973, the album was released in the US29 October 1973 and the UK16 November 1973. The album was Lennons first self-produced recording without help from Phil Spector, like his previous album, the politically topical and somewhat abrasive Some Time in New York City, Mind Games received mixed reviews upon release. It reached number 13 in the UK and number 9 in the US, the album was recorded while Lennon was having difficulties with US immigration and at the beginning of his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono. The title track was released as a single at the time as the album. The album itself was reissued several times throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By the start of 1973, John Lennon began distancing himself from the political and social issues he had embraced in the previous 18 months and it was also around this time that he and his wife, Yoko Ono, were going through marital problems. Shortly thereafter, he asked Pang to book them for his sessions and he began composing after a period of almost a year of not writing any material. Amid frequent court appearances battling to stay in the United States, Lennon became stressed, Lennon said, I just couldnt function, you know. I was so paranoid from them tappin the phone and followin me, all this combined made Lennon begin to feel emotionally withdrawn. Lennon put his suffering aside to write the songs for Mind Games, under the moniker of The Plastic U. F. Difficulties between Lennon and Ono became more and more noticeable around this time, just as the sessions were to get under way in June at New Yorks Record Plant Studios, John and Yoko separated. At Onos urging, Pang became Lennons companion and lover in what would become an 18-month relationship later renowned as Lennons lost weekend, Mind Games was recorded between July and August 1973 in Lennons characteristic quick fashion, and was mixed over a two-week period. Lennon produced the album by himself, following his previous partnership with Phil Spector. When the album was remixed in 2002, many audio anomalies hidden in the original mixing were uncovered, Some rough mixes appear on bootlegs and on 1997s John Lennon Anthology. The album continued Lennons previous attempts to chronicle his life through his songs, in One Day, Lennon sings about his devotion to Ono. Out the Blue also reflects Lennons devotion to his wife, out the Blue incorporates several musical genres, starting with a gentle, melancholy acoustic guitar and moving through gospel, country and choral music portions. Another love song, You Are Here took its title from Lennons one-off art exhibition at the Robert Frazer Gallery, by the time of the Mind Games sessions, the composition had gone through several different themes, before Lennon settled on the theme of love and peace
21.
Walls and Bridges
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Walls and Bridges is the fifth studio album by English musician John Lennon. It was issued by Apple Records on 26 September 1974 in the United States, written, recorded and released during his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono, the album captured Lennon in the midst of his Lost Weekend. Walls and Bridges was an American Billboard number one album and featured two hit singles, Whatever Gets You thru the Night and #9 Dream. The first of these was Lennons first number one hit in the United States as a solo artist, the album was certified silver in the UK, and gold in the US. In June 1973, as Lennon was about to record Mind Games, Ono decided that she, while Lennon and Pang were living in Los Angeles, John took the opportunity to get reacquainted with his son, Julian, whom he had not seen in four years. Lennon had planned to record an album of rock n roll oldies with producer Phil Spector, Lennon and Pang returned to New York and Spector disappeared with these session tapes. Around this time, Lennon had written new songs during a stay at The Pierre. Lennon was rehearsing his new material with a handful of musicians at Record Plant East in New York City in July 1974, musicians included Jim Keltner on drums, Klaus Voormann on bass, Jesse Ed Davis on guitar, and Arthur Jenkins on percussion. These were some of the players Lennon had been with in Los Angeles, the core players would be billed on the album as the Plastic Ono Nuclear Band, a variation on the Plastic Ono Band conceptual group moniker that many of Lennons solo efforts were credited to. The musicians worked out their own arrangements in a time. Ron Aprea, saxophonist from the Little Big Horns, said that, Since he had no training in arranging, he would sit in the control room. If he liked what we played, he would let us know, If we thought we could get it better, he would say go for it. Aprea also said that the section was done in a two-week period. Lennon later said that it had been a year for me personally. And Im almost amazed that I could get anything out, but I enjoyed doing Walls and Bridges and it wasnt hard when I had the whole thing to go into the studio and do it. Im surprised it wasnt just all bluuuuuuggggghhhhh, several rehearsals were released on the posthumous albums Menlove Ave. and John Lennon Anthology. After the basic tracks were recorded, the process of overdubbing began, overdub engineer Jimmy Iovine said the sessions were the most professional I have still been on. John knew what he wanted, he knew how to get what he was going for, he was going after a noise and his solo thing had an incredible sound to it
22.
Rock 'n' Roll (John Lennon album)
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Rock n Roll is the sixth studio album by John Lennon. Released in 1975, it is an album of late 1950s, recording the album was problematic and spanned an entire year, Phil Spector produced sessions in October 1973 at A&M Studios, and Lennon produced sessions in October 1974 at Record Plant Studios. Lennon was being sued by Morris Levy over copyright infringement of one line in his song Come Together, as part of an agreement, Lennon had to include three Levy-owned songs on Rock n Roll. Spector ran away with the recordings, later being involved in a motor accident. With Walls and Bridges coming out first, featuring one Levy-owned song, the album was released in February 1975, reaching number 6 in both the United Kingdom and the United States, later being certified gold in both countries. It was supported by the single Stand by Me, which peaked at number 20 in the US, the cover was taken by Jürgen Vollmer during the Beatles stay in Hamburg. It was Lennons last album until 1980, With no recording contract obligation, in 1969, Lennon composed the song Come Together for the Beatles album Abbey Road. Inspired by the Chuck Berry tune You Cant Catch Me, it too much of a melodic resemblance to the original—and Lennon took the third line of the second verse for the new lyric. Publisher Morris Levy brought a lawsuit for infringement, and the case was due to be heard in a New York court in December 1973. It was later settled out of court, with the agreement that, according to an announcement by Levy, the songs intends to record at this time are You Cant Catch Me, Angel Baby and Ya Ya. Lennon had the right to change the last two songs to any other songs that were published by Big Seven, in the meanwhile, Lennon had split with Yoko Ono and was living in Los Angeles with his personal assistant, May Pang. Nostalgia was a trend on film with American Graffiti. Lennon initially teamed up with producer Phil Spector to record the album, Spector chose some of the songs, booked the studio, and the musicians. When news got around that Lennon was in Hollywood making a record, in mid-October 1973, sessions were booked at A&M Studios, with many of them having over 30 musicians, but the sessions quickly fell into disarray—fuelled by alcohol. Spector once showed up dressed in an outfit and shot a gun in the ceiling of the studio. On another occasion, a bottle of whiskey had spilled on the A&M Studios mixing console causing future sessions to be banned from the facility, unknown to Lennon, each night Spector would remove the master tapes from the studio, and move them to his house. Spector then disappeared with the tapes and would not be heard from for several months. Spector made one cryptic call to Lennon, claiming to have the John Dean tapes from the recent Watergate scandal, when a car accident on 31 March 1974 left Spector in a coma, the project was put on indefinite hold
23.
Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins
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1, Two Virgins is the first of three experimental albums released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono on Apple Records. It was the result of a session of musical experimentation with Yoko in Johns home studio at Kenwood, while his wife. In an attempt to avoid controversy, the LP record was sold in a paper bag, and distributed by Track and Tetragrammaton in the United Kingdom. Two Virgins, while failing to chart in the UK, reached number 124 in the US, the album was followed six months later by Unfinished Music No. John Lennon met Yoko Ono in November 1966 at the Indica Gallery in London after he received an invitation from its owner, John Dunbar, Lennon described the exhibition as positive and kept in touch with Ono. Two years later, Cynthia Lennon, feeling miserable and increasingly distanced from her husband, decided to go on holiday to Greece with her friends Jenny Boyd, whilst on his own, Lennon called Ono and invited her over for the night. Lennon then played her some of his tapes which consisted of recordings and electronic sounds. After hearing the tapes, Ono insisted that they make their own recording, Cynthia returned home unexpectedly the next day to find them sitting cross-legged on the floor in matching white robes, staring into each others eyes. The Unfinished Music series was an attempt by the pair to keep a record of their life together, with Onos Grapefruit in mind, they had imagined that the sound was not etched into the vinyls grooves but was meant to be created by the listeners mind. Lennon described Unfinished Music as saying whatever you want it to say and it is just us expressing ourselves like a child does, you know, however he feels like then. What were saying is make your own music, both of them had experience in avant-garde music, Ono had staged various multimedia events in New York during the early 1960s, and Lennon had worked on audio experimentation in the Beatles. Lennons longtime friend Peter Shotton recalled later in his memoir that many of the heard on the album were made by John. Lennon recorded directly to two-track stereophonic, but much of the material was monophonic. The song Together, written by George Buddy DeSylva, Lew Brown, shortly after the release of the Two Virgins, John stated in an interview that he believed the album can change people, as others have changed my head, just with their records. He then claimed thats what Yoko and my singing is, to change it like that. Lennon talked about making the album and Onos influence on him, in an interview in 1980 with Playboys David Sheff, Well, after Yoko and I met, I was still thinking it was an artistic collaboration, as it were – producer and artist, right. And Yoko came to visit me, instead of making love, we went upstairs and made tapes. I had this room full of different tapes where I would write and make strange loops, so we made a tape all night
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Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions
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2, Life with the Lions is the second of three experimental albums of avant-garde music released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in May 1969 on Zapple, a sub label of Apple. It was a successor to 1968s highly controversial Unfinished Music No.1, Two Virgins, the album peaked in the United States at number 174. The Cambridge performance, to which Ono had been invited and to which she brought Lennon, was Lennon, a few of the albums tracks were previewed by the public, thanks to Aspen magazine. The album was remastered in 1997, beatle John Lennon and Yoko Onos Unfinished Music series was an attempt by Lennon and Ono to make a record of their life together. With Onos Grapefruit in mind, Lennon and Ono imagined that the sound wasnt printed into the vinyls grooves, Lennon described Unfinished Music as saying whatever you want it to say. It is just us expressing ourselves like a child does, you know, what were saying is make your own music. A few of the tracks ended up on the album were released as a mono 8 square flexi record that was given away with copies of the American magazine Aspen. The record, which featured mostly Ono on the first side, with Lennon contributing the second side as one track. Before Lennon and Ono were together as a couple, Ono was asked to perform at a jazz concert in Lady Mitchell Hall at Cambridge University. Ono, who was going to cancel her performance, was persuaded by Lennon to perform, Lennon and Ono had their first performance together for The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus film, where they were part of the band The Dirty Mac. Concepts from Fluxus art were used for the album, Ono has used ideas from it before, the piece takes up all of side one and consists of Onos vocalisations and screaming accompanied by electric guitar feedback from Lennon. Saxophonist John Tchicai and percussionist John Stevens join Ono and Lennon near the end of the piece, throughout the performance, Lennon kept his back to the audience. The original version of the piece was longer, in a 2010 interview with Cambridge News, Tchicai said that the concert was split in two, the first set was Lennon and Ono, and the other consisted of jazz improvisation players. Recalled Tchica, Lennon and Ono said to the players, If you would like to us for some improvisation. Barnett said that Lennon had been trying to show off and be more avant-garde than anyone in avant-garde music. Side two of the album was recorded on a tape in their suite at Queen Charlottes Hospital in London.1, Two Virgins because of its controversial sleeve. Babys Heartbeat is an infant mortality recording, made with a Nagra microphone. Ono first referenced infant mortality in her book Grapefruit, then in her song Greenfield Morning I Pushed an Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City from her album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, babys Heartbeat is similar to the Beatles I Want You in that both end suddenly
25.
Wedding Album
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Wedding Album is the final in a succession of three experimental albums by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. 1, Two Virgins and Unfinished Music No, the album was released as by John and Yoko, without last names mentioned. The two recorded on individual speakers, Lennon described the heartbeats as being like African drums, and the piece being like an extended, very extreme John and Marsha that was out years ago by Stan Freberg. It really makes your hair stand on end, Lennon edited the two together on May 1,1969. Amsterdam, the side, had been recorded first, in a hotel room at the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam, Holland. The piece consists of explaining their campaign for peace, conversations. An early form of what would become John John Lets Hope for Peace forms the beginning of Amsterdam, there were also four other musical interludes including Lennon performing a blues-style composition on acoustic guitar, featuring the words Goodbye Amsterdam Goodbye. Ono sings Grow Your Hair, a song regarding peace, Lennon sings a brief excerpt in a cappela of the Beatles song Good Night. The last interlude is a recitation of the words Bed peace. Outtakes and interviews from Lennon and Onos Bed-In were released as promo 7 vinyl acetates by Bell, Wedding Album was initially released on Apple on 20 October 1969 in the US, and 7 November 1969 in the UK. It also included a bag that had Bagism printed on it. The album did not chart in the UK, but managed to peak at number 178 in the US, regarding the limited success, Lennon later addressed it saying, It was like our sharing our wedding with whoever wanted to share it with us. We didnt expect a hit out of it. It was more of a. thats why we called it Wedding Album and you know, people make a wedding album, show it to the relatives when they come round. What you call fans, or people that follow us outside, so that was our way of letting them join in on the wedding. The album was available on vinyl, cassette tape and 8-track tape, the album was also advertised through magazine print advertisements, which Lennon and Onos previous two albums had not been. The album was reissued in 1997 through Rykodisc with three bonus cuts – two of them B-sides by The Plastic Ono Band composed by Ono. When Wedding Album was released, at least one music press reviewer was led to believe that the album was more experimental than it actually was
26.
Some Time in New York City
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Some Time in New York City is a studio album by John Lennon & Yoko Ono and Elephants Memory, and paired with the live album Live Jam as a double album. Released in 1972, it is Lennons third post-Beatles solo album, fifth with Ono, Some Time in New York City fared poorly critically and commercially compared to Lennons previous two albums, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. John Lennon and Yoko Ono moved to New York City in September 1971 and continued their involvement in political, peace, the Lennons also spoke out on the Attica Prison riots, jailing of Angela Davis and oppression of women. On 12 November, Lennon taped numerous demos of The Luck of the Irish, which was filmed, on 9 December, Lennon and Ono flew to Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the John Sinclair rally, which was due to start the following day. On the morning before the rally, Lennon was recorded playing the song Chords of Fame with Phil Ochs. At the rally itself, Lennon and Ono played tracks that would end up on Some Time in New York City, Attica State, The Luck of the Irish, Sisters O Sisters and John Sinclair. The performance was filmed, and included in the short film Ten for Two which was shown at Ann Arbor sometime in December. Lennon and Ono, along with David Peel, performed Peels The Ballad of New York, on The David Frost Show and this episode was recorded on 16 December 1971 and broadcast on 13 January 1972. By January 1972, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened a file on the Lennons, fearing they would organise the youth vote, soon, the government would begin deportation proceedings against the couple, and the FBI began intense surveillance, documenting their every move. In addition to Lennon and Ono, as part of the group among others was former-Beatle George Harrison, The Whos drummer Keith Moon, Delaney & Bonnie, Billy Preston. Harrison, who before the performance had been touring with Delaney & Bonnie, was excited by Lennons proposal over a call when asked if he wanted to play with him. The ballroom had its cover by posters declaring WAR IS OVER, if you want it, love John. For Cold Turkey, Ono had sat inside a bag which was located near Lennons feet, while for Dont Worry Kyoko, Ono jumped out of the bag, facing the crowd. As the latter song got towards the end of its performance, an early mix of the two tracks was arranged by the Abbey Road Studios engineers on 26 November 1970, and was sent to Lennon and Ono. The performance was documented after Ono had arranged for someone to film it, klaus Voormann overdubbed his bass at a later date. Throughout January, until the 21st, Lennon personally mixed the live album, Lennon once again brought in Phil Spector to co-produce the new studio album, which was completed on 20 March 1972. Around this time, Lennon and Ono were producing Elephants Memorys self-titled album, the Lennons went to great lengths to explain that the word nigger was not meant as an affront to black people. A quote from Ron Dellums, referring to the use of the word nigger, appeared in an issue of Billboard
27.
Double Fantasy
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Double Fantasy is a 1980 album released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It is the seventh and final album released by Lennon during his lifetime. Following the birth of his son Sean in 1975, Lennon had put his career on hold to raise him. After five years of musical activity aside from recording the occasional demo in his apartment in New York. In the summer of 1980, Lennon made a trip through treacherous waters from Newport, Rhode Island. During the journey, Lennons yacht encountered a severe storm, most of the crew eventually succumbed to profound fatigue. Lennon was eventually forced to take the yachts wheel alone for many hours, Lennon found this terrifying but invigorating. It had the effect of both renewing his confidence and making him contemplate the fragility of life, as a result, he began to write new songs and reworked earlier demos. He commented later, I was so centered after the experience at sea that I was tuned in to the cosmos – and all these songs came. Ono also wrote songs, inspired with new confidence after Lennon had stated that he believed that contemporary popular music such as The B-52s Rock Lobster bore similarities to Onos earlier work. The couple decided to release their work on the same album, in stark contrast to that album, Double Fantasy was a collection of songs wherein husband and wife would conduct a musical dialogue. The album took its title from a species of freesia, seen in the Bermuda Botanical Gardens, Ono approached producer Jack Douglas, with whom the couple had previously worked, and gave him Lennons demos to listen to. My immediate impressions were that I was going to have a time making it better than the demos because there was such intimacy in the demos. They produced dozens of songs, enough to fill Double Fantasy, Lennon wanted to work with different musicians than he had previously, and had Douglas assemble and rehearse the band without telling them who they would be recording with. Lennon and Ono still were not signed to a record label, after they were satisfied that the album was strong, their publicist Bruce Replogle leaked the news that the couple were back in the studio again. Immediately, Lennon was inundated with offers from all the major labels and he signed them before hearing any of the tracks. The album was preceded by the single Starting Over, which was backed with Onos Kiss Kiss Kiss and it was released as a single on 20 October 1980 in the United States, and four days later in the United Kingdom. Originally peaking at number 8 in the UK chart, after Lennons death the single reached number one, in the US, the single was inching upward in the top 10 before reaching number one following Lennons death
28.
Milk and Honey (album)
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Milk and Honey is an album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono released in 1984. It was assembled by Yoko Ono in association with the Geffen label, Milk and Honey was the duos projected follow-up to Double Fantasy, though Lennons death caused a temporary shelving of the project. It took Ono three years to be able to work to complete it. Onos material largely comprises new recordings, which she undertook during the preparation in 1983. Conversely, Lennons material, being rough takes and rehearsal recordings, has a more casual feeling, nobody Told Me, a song Lennon had intended for Ringo Starrs 1981 album Stop and Smell the Roses, was released as a single and became a worldwide Top 10 hit. Other singles from the album were Im Stepping Out and Borrowed Time, the songs Let Me Count the Ways and Grow Old with Me were written by Lennon and Ono to each other using inspiration from poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning. They are presented in their demo form, the album title came from Ono, who explained that it referred to their journey to the US, the land of milk and honey. But also, in the Scripture, the land of milk and honey is where you go after you die, as a promised land, so its very strange that I thought of that title. Almost scary – like someone up there told me to call the next album Milk, the cover is an alternative take from the same photo session that produced the front cover of Double Fantasy, though this time it appears in colour. After a falling out with David Geffen, whose Geffen Records had initially released Double Fantasy, Ono moved future projects to Polydor Records, EMI, home of Lennons entire recorded output—including that with the Beatles—acquired this and all Lennon releases in the late 1990s
29.
Live Peace in Toronto 1969
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Live Peace in Toronto 1969 is a live album by the Plastic Ono Band, released December 1969 on Apple. Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, it was the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together, the band included Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann, and drummer Alan White. The group had brief rehearsals before appearing on the stage to perform songs, one of which. Eventually returning home, Lennon mixed the album in a day, the album peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200 and has been certified a gold album by the RIAA, and failed to chart in the UK. The original LP came with a thirteen-month 1970 calendar, a video of several performances, not just the Plastic Ono Bands set, was released on video. Since its first release, the album has been reissued a number of times and they also booked more modern acts such as Alice Cooper, Chicago, and The Doors. On 12 September, Brower contacted Lennon to see if he would be willing to be the master of ceremonies, Lennon offered instead to perform at the festival, bringing his own band, the Plastic Ono Band. Brower agreed, and Lennon quickly assembled a band and he initially approached Beatles band-mate George Harrison to play lead guitar, but Harrison turned him down, so Eric Clapton was chosen instead. White got a call from Lennon, and assumed it was a friend prank calling him. On the morning of the flight, the day before the concert, on 12 September, Lennon, Ono. At this point, Clapton had not been aware of the concert, Brower had managed to get through to Clapton and told him to contact Lennon and Ono, who were still in bed. Clapton said he got a call on the day we were to leave and he said that someone had asked him to do that concert. So I had to make the airport in an hour, the group had two rehearsals, one was during the transatlantic flight from London to Toronto, and the other shortly before appearing on stage at the actual festival. Lennon said the group didnt know what to play, as they had not previously performed together, also on the flight, Lennon gained the confidence, that when he got back to England, to leave the Beatles. Lennon told this to Clapton, and shortly afterwards, to the Beatles then-manager, the group played eight songs to a crowd of 25,000 people. Before the start of the Plastic Ono Bands performance, they were introduced by Kim Fowley, Cold Turkey, presented as the newest song that John wrote by Ono, had Lennon reading the lyrics off a clip-board. Ono selected a song which had been the B-side of Cold Turkey, Dont Worry Kyoko, shortly before the band went into Dont Worry Kyoko, Lennon announced that Ono was gonna do her thing all over you. With their stage remarks, Lennon and Ono linked the appearance here to their campaign for peace
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Live in New York City (John Lennon album)
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Live in New York City is a posthumous live album by English rock musician John Lennon. It was prepared under the supervision of his widow, Yoko Ono, and released in 1986 as his official live album. Rivera introduces Lennon and Ono at the beginning of the album, Live in New York City captures John Lennons last full-length concert performance, coming right after the release of Some Time in New York City. Backing Lennon and Ono were Elephants Memory, who had served as Lennon, come Together, originally in the key of D minor, was performed in E minor. Upon its early 1986 release, Ono was criticised by members of Elephants Memory for using the first –. They also took issue with the video release of the concert. However, on the release, Onos vocal performances on such numbers as Hound Dog had been mixed out completely. The video release retained the John Lennon complete set-list including Yokos Sisters, O Sisters, portions of the evening performance later saw release on the John Lennon Anthology. Live in New York City reached No.55 in the UK, Lennon never mounted a tour during his post-Beatles career. The concerts also marked the last time he performed live with Ono or with Elephants Memory, all songs by John Lennon, except where noted. Side one New York City –2,56 Its So Hard –3,18 Woman Is the Nigger of the World –5,30 Well Well Well –3,51 Instant Karma
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Shaved Fish
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Shaved Fish is a compilation album by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band, released in October 1975 on Apple Records. It contains all of the singles that he had issued up to point in the United States as a solo artist, with the exception of Stand by Me. The only compilation of his non-Beatles recordings released during his lifetime, it peaked at number 8 in the UK and it was also Lennons final release on Apple Records. The compilation includes many of Lennons most popular recordings, five of which had not yet appeared on an album, Cold Turkey. Power to the People, the holiday single Happy Xmas and Give Peace a Chance, the latter appeared in truncated form, split to begin side one and end side two. Eight of these made the Top 40 on the Billboard chart, with Whatever Gets You thru the Night going to number 1. Imagine, never released as a single in the UK, was issued as such concurrent to the release of this album. Several of the tapes were unavailable for the compilation, and dubs were used. A later compact disc issue used the original masters, restoring the full fadeouts of these songs and its release came less than three weeks after the resolution of Lennons long-running immigration dispute and the birth of Sean Lennon. The name of the album originates from the Japanese food katsuobushi, the album was released in the UK on 24 October 1975, peaking at number 8. Released from the album on the day in the UK was the single Imagine, backed with Working Class Hero. The single was also Lennons last single for Apple Records, the album later re-charted in the UK on 17 January 1981, at number 11. After the release of the album, Lennons recording contract expired, in February 1976, all songs by John Lennon, except where noted
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The John Lennon Collection
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The John Lennon Collection is a retrospective compilation album of music from John Lennons solo career. It was eventually released on 1 November 1982 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and it was the first Lennon album to be issued following his death in 1980. The EMI selections on the album are similar to those on Shaved Fish, Lennons 1975 compilation album and these were substituted with the 1975 hit single Stand by Me and Love, a popular track from the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album. The other half consisted of many of the tracks from Double Fantasy, in the US, the album was issued with a slightly different track listing, with Happy Xmas and Stand by Me excluded. Move Over Ms. L was the notable inclusion – originally intended for Walls and Bridges but cut at the last minute. The CD was released in the UK on 23 October 1989, as Lennons first posthumous release, The John Lennon Collection did extremely well, reaching number 1 in the UK and peaking at number 33 in the US where it would eventually reach triple platinum. The album sold 300,000 copies in the first week, in the UK, Love was excerpted as a single in the UK, and managed to reach number 41. Beautiful Boy was released as the B-side to Happy Xmas, which was released by Geffen, in a picture sleeve. The front and back covers for The John Lennon Collection were taken by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz on 8 December 1980, all songs by John Lennon, except where noted. Side one Give Peace a Chance –4,52 Originally credited to Lennon–McCartney, the credit was revised in the 1990s to cite only Lennon as its composer. –3,20 Power to the People –3,16 Whatever Gets You thru the Night –3,17 Features Elton John on harmony vocal and piano, edit of 1974 full length version on Walls and Bridges. #9 Dream –2,46 Edit of 1974 full length version on Walls, the full length version was included on 1989s CD reissue of the compilation. Mind Games –4,12 Love –3,22 Released as a unique to this collection. Originally released in 1970 on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Happy Xmas –3,33 Originally excluded from US version of this compilation, included on 1989 re-issue. Side two Imagine –3,02 Jealous Guy –4,14 Stand by Me –3,25 Originally excluded from US version of this compilation, Cold Turkey –5,01 Mastering – Greg Fulginiti US John Kalodner, John Kalodner Footnotes Citations
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Menlove Ave.
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Menlove Ave. is a 1986 album by English rock musician John Lennon. It is the posthumous release of Lennons music, having been recorded during the sessions from his albums Walls and Bridges. Menlove Ave. was released under the supervision of Yoko Ono, the first side of the LP comprises session outtakes from the Rock n Roll sessions with Phil Spector in late 1973, save for Rock and Roll People which is from the Mind Games sessions. The remainder features rehearsal recordings in mid-1974 for Walls and Bridges, the song Rock and Roll People was originally recorded and released on Johnny Winters seventh studio album John Dawson Winter III. The title refers to Lennons childhood home,251 Menlove Avenue, Menlove Avenue is a long road in South Liverpool, part of the Liverpool ring road. While it is residential, it is also a primary route - the A562. It also passes Woolton Village where Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, the artwork for the release was effected by artist Andy Warhol, just months before Lennons death in 1980. It was later used as a cover for 2005 compilation album Working Class Hero, though Menlove Ave. included previously unreleased material of John Lennon, it failed to chart in the United Kingdom. It did manage to reach number 127 in the United States, Menlove Ave. has not been printed since 1986. Tracks 3-5 appeared as bonus tracks in the 2004 remastered version of Rock n Roll, the song Here We Go Again was included on the 2006 soundtrack album The U. S. vs. John Lennon and 2010 box set Gimme Some Truth. Notes Tracks 1, 3-5 are recorded in late 1973, track 2 is recorded for, but left off, Mind Games. Tracks 6-10 are rehearsal recordings for Walls and Bridges in mid-1974
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Lennon Legend: The Very Best of John Lennon
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Lennon Legend, The Very Best of John Lennon is the third official compilation album of John Lennons solo career, coming after 1975s Shaved Fish and 1982s The John Lennon Collection. It was released in the UK in 1997 through Parlophone and early 1998 in the US by EMI Records, Lennon Legend, The Very Best of John Lennon peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and certified 2x Platinum by the BPI in May 1998. The album has also certified Platinum in the US and Canada as of December 2008. In the history of Japanese Oricon chart, Lennon Legend has been one of the longest charting albums that failed to reach top 40, the album re-entered the UK Chart on 18 June 2007, almost ten years after its release, at number 30. The album also appeared in a commercial for Apples iPod touch, same titled DVD was also released in 2003 as a series of remastered, remixed & new music videos with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound audio mixes. All songs written and composed by John Lennon, except where noted, US single version, issued in December 1970, for the first time released on CD
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John Lennon Anthology
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The anthology was divided by its compiler and co-producer, Yoko Ono, into four discs representing four eras in Lennons solo career, Ascot, New York City, The Lost Weekend and Dakota. John Lennon Anthology reached number 62 in the United Kingdom and number 99 in the United States, a one-disc distillation of the highlights of the box set was released as Wonsuponatime. Many of the tracks were edited down from their versions on John Lennon Anthology, wonsaponatime failed to reach the US charts but peaked at number 76 in the UK. All songs written by John Lennon, except where noted, im Losing You –3,56 Working Class Hero –3,58 God –3,16 How Do You Sleep. Song later given to Ringo Starr Track 19 taken from 16-track demo, original demo appears on Milk and Honey. Track 17 taken from 16-track studio work tape from the Ringo Starr Goodnight Vienna sessions Track 21 taken from home recording
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Acoustic (John Lennon album)
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Acoustic is a compilation album of John Lennon demos, studio and live performances that feature his acoustic guitar work and was released in 2004. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart on 20 November 2004 at number 31 and it spent eight weeks on the chart. In keeping with the theme of the album, the booklet contains the lyrics and guitar chords for each track. All tracks written by John Lennon, except where noted, tracks 1-2,4, 8-10,12 & 15-16 first released on John Lennon Anthology Reviews, Acoustic. Tracks 1-6 taken from 8-track John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band sessions John Lennon – Acoustic, Track 7 taken from home demo September 1969 Nat, Happy. Beatles Rarity Of The Week – Cold Turkey, tracks 8 &9 taken from John Sinclair benefit concert Solo Gigs. Track 10 taken from home recording Track 11 taken from June 1974 work-outs John Lennon – Acoustic, tracks 12-14 taken from home recordings John Lennon – Acoustic. Track 15 taken from live performance at the Apollo Solo Gigs, Track 16 taken from home recordings
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Lennon (box set)
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Lennon is a four-CD box set featuring many of John Lennons solo songs and was released in 1990. Not to be confused with 2015 box set of the same name, Lennon, which never charted in the United Kingdom or United States, was deleted from Lennons catalogue in the late 1990s. All songs composed by John Lennon, except where noted
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Gimme Some Truth (box set)
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Gimme Some Truth is a box set containing four themed discs of remastered John Lennon songs. The box set was released along with John Lennon Signature Box box set and Power to the People, The Hits compilation in conjunction with what would be Lennons 70th birthday. The collection features most of the released on Lennons studio albums, including in their entirety John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Rock n Roll. However, the tracks are not presented in album order, all songs written and composed by John Lennon, except where noted. Working Class Hero -3,49 Instant Karma, only seven tracks included on the original release of John Lennon solo albums are not included on the collection. The B-Side Move over Ms. L is also absent, from the albums released jointly with Yoko Ono, two songs solely composed by Lennon are missing, Dear Yoko from Double Fantasy and My Little Flower Princess from Milk and Honey. The track Grow Old With Me, which appears in a form on Milk. Three co-compositions from Some Time in New York City are missing, Attica State, on which Lennon sings lead, and The Luck of the Irish and Angela, additionally, no material from the live jam featured on the second LP of that double-album is present
