Working Class Hero - The Definitive Lennon
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Reviews
Rubs me up the wrong way
Review date: 2010-05-02 Rating: 4 out of 10
Nothing against another Lennon compilation, and these tracks are remastered. It's just, I don't like the way they're remastered. No 9 Dream in particular just doesn't run smoothly or how I remembered it, the 'hawaian' guitar opener for instance sounds too wibbly wobbly. (Although Watching the Wheels sounds terrific.) My other problem is it's not chronological but frontloaded with the soppy, domesticated Lennon tracks so you lose that sense of narrative, the musical journey from post-Beatle despair, the Lost Weekend, commercial rebirth and so on. (Just Like) Starting Over is v poignant in the context of being recorded just before his death, but kicking off this compilation it just sounds like a naff, derivative bit of cod-1950s pastiche, which in a way, is exactly what it was. Finally, unknown (to me) tracks like Stepping Out are truly awful, they give domesticity a bad name as Lennon's househusband asks permission from his career wife for a night on the town, 'cheekily' suggesting he might be back by midnight, 'maybe one, maybe two' on the playout. This compilation cuts Lennon's cojones off, and the way the tracks are put together, the man sounds particularly self-pitying and sentimental in a way that Macca would find hard to match, especially these days with recent output like Memory Almost Full and Electric Arguments showing more musical adventure than Lennon musters in 10 years. Personally I'd go for Lennon Legend. BTW Working Class hero? Lennon wasn't working class, and these songs put one in mind of an Islington middle class lecturer pouring himself a glass of red wine of an evening, waiting for Sasha to come home from ballet with her mother.
Best Lennon compilation, but it's just not The Beatles....
Review date: 2010-01-29 Rating: 8 out of 10
This is unquestionably the best of the many Lennon compilations available, so for those in the market for a broad career overview of Lennon's solo material, look no further: this is the one to get. Minor quibbles about choice of material aside ('How Do You Sleep?' is missing, for example), this is the only double CD of songs covering all of Lennon's albums. If you are a fan, the chances are you will own all the separate albums already, so the prospect of another compilation becomes somewhat redundant for anyone other than the dedicated completist or the casual listener.
Good as this set undoubtedly is, by being broad and eclectic in its choice of material it dilutes the impact of the individual albums, and serves to underline the inescapable fact that Lennon, like all the solo Beatles, was lesser than the sum of their parts. Veering occasionally towards excessive sentimentality in the later material, there is also a harsh and repetetive edge to many of Lennon's songs that cries out for the softening influence of McCartney and studio wizardry of George Martin. But Lennon's intention always appeared to be to distance himself from his Beatles legacy, at least in song, as in 'I don't believe in Beatles.....' (from the song God), and both he and the solo McCartney indulged in musical excesses which together the other would have held in check. Talented though he undoubtedly was, there is little in Lennon's solo legacy that reaches the heights of The Beatles in their prime. Once again, we are left with the bitter aftertaste of his wasteful and untimely death, and an overriding sense of 'what if?'.
Great compilation
Review date: 2009-07-14 Rating: 8 out of 10
If you are looking to explore the music of John Lennon and want a great compilation then this is the best on the market, of all the compilations available this one goes a little more in depth than the usual'hits' packages and my personal faves have always been songs that aren't the ones everyone knows.
Get this compilation today , it's well worth investing in and the music here is a cut above most stuff you'll ever here- then again it's Lennon so what did you expect?
the definitive 'solo' lennon
Review date: 2009-03-13 Rating: 10 out of 10
This is easily the best 'solo' lennon compilation available to date. The track selection is excellent and draws from most of the solo albums. The running order is not chronological, which makes the listening more interesting. Personally, I would have left off certain posthumously released tracks to include more from Imagine, Plastic ono Band, and 'Rock and Roll', Strangely there's nothing included from 'Live Peace in Toronto 1969'.
Apart from the well known classic songs, highlights for me include the George Martin produced ' Grow Old with Me'- which is painfully beautiful and extremely moving...and tracks from Walls and Bridges (an album i didnt like upon first release)...hearing the remastered 'scared' bless you' '#9 Dream' and 'Nobody loves you when you're down and out' again after so long has been a slice of heaven! and has completely revised my opinion on that 'lost weekend' album.
Product Details/Specifications
Artist(s):
John Lennon
Recording label: Parlophone
Manufacturer: Parlophone
EAN: 0094634008020
Binding: Audio CD
Release date: 2005-10-03
Universal product code (UPC): 094634008020
Number of discs: 2
Disc 1 Tracks:
1. (Just Like) Starting Over
2. Imagine
3. Watching The Wheels
4. Jealous Guy
5. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)
6. Stand By Me
7. Working Class Hero
8. Power To The People
9. Oh My Love
10. Oh Yoko!
11. Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)
12. Nobody Told Me
13. Bless You
14. Come Together
15. New York City
16. I'm Stepping Out
17. You Are Here
18. Borrowed Time
19. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)
Disc 2 Tracks:
1. Woman
2. Mind Games
3. Out The Blue
4. Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
5. Love
6. Mother
7. Beautiful Boy
8. Woman Is The Nigger Of The World
9. God
10. Scared
11. #9 Dream
12. I'm Losing You
13. Isolation
14. Cold Turkey
15. Intuition
16. Gimme Some Truth
17. Give Peace A Chance
18. Real Love
19. Grow Old With Me
Publishers: Parlophone
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