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John Lennon's Imagine: The Ultimate Collection & Imagine/Gimme Some Truth Films

John Lennon's Imagine: The Ultimate Collection & Imagine/Gimme Some Truth Films
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While hardly a new idea, with so many classic artists and recordings now hitting forty and fifty-year milestones, there's been a proliferation of deluxe and super deluxe editions of major albums from the '60s and '70s in recent years. While some are better (and better value for money) than others, the market for surround sound mixes (and, as a consequence, new stereo mixes) and remasters have become a go-to approach for labels and artists looking to encourage fans to invest in hard media and high resolution digital downloads.

And while it's hardly new to find releases including outtakes, alternate mixes, demos and other parts of the process in taking a song from its germinal state to the finished version fans know and love, it's also becoming more common to find "anniversary celebration" releases featuring not just a handful but a large number of such early and interim versions. For those who love the process of how a song came to be, these releases are like manna from heaven. For those who don't? Well, in almost every case, these deluxe/super deluxe editions also come with smaller (and more reasonably priced) versions (on CD and, increasingly, vinyl) that usually include the new stereo mix/master along with, if at all, a second disc's worth of "process" versions.

Bob Dylan and Sony Legacy set a whole new standard, however, with 2015's The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol.12 (Deluxe Edition). Culling, across six CDs, earlier takes from music that would ultimately find its way onto three career milestones— Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia, 1965), Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia, 1965) and the double-LP Blonde on Blonde (Columbia, 1966)—The Cutting Edge 1965-1966 (Deluxe) even includes an entire disc featuring twenty takes, running over 66 minutes, of a single song: "Like a Rolling Stone." While it might sound like overkill on paper, hearing "Like a Rolling Stone" begin as a very different waltz-time song and slowly, over many takes, finally assume the finished version that's become one of Dylan's most cherished songs.

If that weren't enough for process fans, those with even deeper pockets could find the even more massive, very limited 18-CD The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series, Vol.12 (Super Deluxe Edition), which sheds even more light on how so many songs that were to become undisputed classics came to be.

Celebrating John Lennon's second post-Beatles album, Imagine (Apple, 1971)—which would go on to become the singer/songwriter's most popular album and (referring to the title track) song—Universal Music and Eagle Vision have concurrently released two different views of the album, respectively including newly mixed and/or mastered, variously configured editions of the album and, collected onto a single Blu Ray or DVD, two films inspired by it: 1972's pre-MTV video collage, Imagine by John & Yoko, and Gimme Some Truth, a 2000 film by Andrew Solt that tells the story—through studio footage, some overlap with the other film, interviews and more-of how the album was made. Taken together, the Blu Ray/DVD release and the most exhaustive of the three different versions of the album tell as complete a story of how this album came to be as can be found anywhere (commercially, at least).

John Lennon
Imagine: The Ultimate Collection
Universal Music Group
2018 (1971)

The album reissue comes in three different formats, most notably Imagine: The Ultimate Collection. In addition to its 120- page, properly bound hardcover book that adds additional insight through interviews, images, detailed multitrack breakdowns and more, this four- CD/two-Blu Ray audio set (all housed in a hard, 10"x10" slipcase) is, first and foremost, centered upon Paul Hicks' revelatory new stereo and surround sound mixes of the album and a half dozen additional contemporaneous recordings. His stereo mix, while extremely faithful to the original in terms of overall placement and original post-production processing, still provides greater clarity, detail, dynamics and punch, while also bringing Lennon's voice more forward. Being surround-incapable, this review focuses exclusively on the stereo remix.

But that's just the first part of Imagine: The Ultimate Collection's story. The box set also collects a number of other "versions" of the album, including: a remastered version of the original Quadrasonic mix; a collection of outtakes; "Raw" studio mixes and outtakes (devoid of any effects, like the slap-back echo Lennon often liked applied to his voice) and "Extended" album versions; "Elements" mixes, which focus on specific instrumentation and/or vocal takes, such as strings, rhythm section bed tracks and more, all taken (like the album remix) from the original master multitracks; and "Evolution Documentary" takes that construct, in collage-like fashion, every song, single and extra from their earliest form through various takes and, finally, to the finished version (similar to the So DNA CD in singer/songwriter Peter Gabriel's 25th Anniversary Immersion Box of his 1986 classic, So, released by Real World Records in 2012).

The majority of this music (barring, of course, the Quad mix) can be found on the four CDs. Still, the two Blu Ray audio discs not only hold everything contained on the CDs, alongside the new 5.1 Surround Sound mix, Quad mix and thirty minutes culled from journalist Elliot Mintz's various interviews with Lennon and Ono, beginning a month after the release of the album in September '71. They also introduce an additional eighteen outtakes, elements tracks and "raw" studio outtakes for which there wasn't enough room on the CDs, with almost everything (barring, by definition, the Quad mix and Mintz's monaural interviews) in 5.1 surround and stereo, and absolutely everything delivered in rich, dynamic and expansive 24-bit/96KHz high resolution format.

This, in an of itself, makes the Ultimate Collection box extremely appealing. Rarely do such big box editions provide all the CD content with high resolution surround and stereo sonic upgrades; even more rarely do they include so much additional music. What this means, for those interested in the process of making records, is that Imagine: The Ultimate Collection's sixteen remixed masters and 63 additional takes provide a huge and revealing window into the making of this classic recording.

For those less interested in process, the two-LP Imagine: The Ultimate Collection provides, in addition to the new stereo mix of Imagine, a more succinct peak into the album's creation, with a dozen outtakes on the second LP. And for those not interested in vinyl, the even more reasonably priced Imagine: The Ultimate Mixes (Deluxe) releases The Ultimate Collection's first two CDs separately—including a second disc with four "Elements" mixes and all sixteen album and single outtakes, along with the new stereo mix, which excludes, however, the six singles and extras included in the box set: "Power to the People"; "Walter Ward's "Well...Baby Please Don't Go";" Happy Xmas (War is Over)"; and the trifecta of "God Save Us," "Do the Oz" and "God Save Oz."

Collected onto a single Blu Ray or DVD, the first film, 1972's Imagine, has been meticulously cleaned up and remixed in both DTS-HD Master 5.1 and LPCM stereo. More a collection of pre-MTV music videos than a proper narrative-driven film, it includes footage from the studio sessions at Lennon and wife, Yoko Ono's Tittenhurst Park home in Ascot, England, along with a bevy of other locations including a protest in London, a book signing for the 1970 Simon & Schuster reprint of Ono's 1964 artist's book Grapefruit, various photo shoots and curiously filmed passages with guests/friends including George Harrison, Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Andy Warhol and Dick Cavett.

Similarly cleaned up and remixed/remastered, Gimme Some Truth dovetails more directly with Imagine: The Ultimate Collection, featuring video footage of some of the same takes, along with appearances by many of the album's key participants, including drummer Alan White, (fellow ex-Beatles) guitarist George Harrison, pianist Nicky Hopkins and, perhaps most significantly, bassist Klaus Voorman.

In addition to his work as a record producer and designer/artist—his first connection to the Beatles coming with his cover design for 1966's Revolver (Capitol)—the German-born Voorman ultimately came to be known for his reliably rock-solid yet interpretively deep bass playing for, in addition to former Beatles Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr, a massive roster of other artists including, amongst many others, B.B. King, Carly Simon, Leon Russell, Lou Reed, Harry Nilsson and Randy Newman. But, beyond his mid-'60s work with Manfred Mann, it was Voorman's association with Lennon that would cement his name as the bassist whose name may be known to a relative few but who has been heard by literally millions (if not billions) of music fans.

And for good reason. If Lennon is, by definition as singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and harmonicist, the principle star of Imagine, then Voorman's contributions to the album must come an easy second. Taking any one song and following it through its various iterations (from as few as five to as many as eight) and the bassist's contributions become crystal clear. The earliest take of Lennon's autobiographically inspired "Jealous Guy" (next to "Imagine," the album's most poignant, albeit more self-reflective, ballad) finds the bassist anchoring the song while providing just the right amount of embellishment to make each and every take worthy of release, even if it's "Take 29" that is ultimately used as the master take—also heard here in its "Raw Studio Mix" format, which is a few seconds longer and has yet to feature Lennon's mid-song whistling.

From the fade-out of "Take 9" and complete, slightly more propulsive "Take 11," to the "Evolution Documentary" version, Voorman's approach may be simple, focusing on the right note for every moment, but it couldn't be more perfect for an album that's more produced than Lennon's first post-Beatles album, Plastic Ono Band (Apple, 1970), but was, despite its many takes, recorded over just nine days between February and June, 1971.

While he'd never played the instrument before, Lennon wanted upright bass on the countrified "Crippled Inside." And so, he sent Voorman off to a music shop to buy a double bass and learn enough to be able to play it on the song. That said, listening to the song's "Elements Mix," which solos just upright bass and drums, reveals a couple of curious truths: first, Voorman is only playing the notes with his left hand, while Steve Brendell is striking the strings with drumsticks to achieve the "slap bass" effect that Lennon wanted but which Voorman's nascent experience with the instrument couldn't manage (and yet, it works); second, that Voorman's intonation on the fretless instrument isn't always as on the money as it should be...and yet it, too, works.

Still, a comment Lennon makes during the "Evolution Documentary" of "Jealous Guy" reveals plenty about his overall approach to recording: "That's it, that's it, don't worry about being in tune," he says (to, it appears a bit unclearly, Nicky Hopkins) at one point before a take. "If it sounds nice it's alright." That Lennon preferred feel over perfection underscores the entire album. As a singer, Lennon's pitch is often less than perfect, leaning a bit to the sharp side. Still, while the addition of slap-back echo to his voice, even as slight as it is on "Jealous Guy," helps to mask any intonation deficiencies, it is, indeed, the feel of his delivery that matters first and foremost. As far from perfect as it is from a technical perspective, it's the very imperfection of Lennon's voice on the Master Take (29) of "Jealous Guy" that renders it so evocative, so beautifully naked and vulnerable, so deeply felt...indeed, so perfect.

Barring the bluesy "It's Hard," which was put to tape in February, the rest of the album's ten tracks were recorded in six days that May, with an additional two days devoted to layering strings, saxophone (featuring King Curtis, who'd be tragically murdered soon after), and some additional bass overdubs at New York City's Record Plant. Still, germinal versions of some of Imagine's material dated a couple of years back, with the upbeat album closer, "Oh Yoko!," first appearing here as a 1969 demo recorded on a 1/4" mono tape in the Bahamas (with just Lennon, on acoustic guitar and voice, accompanied solely by Yoko on backing vocals), though an earlier home demo (not included here) dates even further back to a home cassette recording made in December, 1968.

While the breakup of The Beatles' Lennon/McCartney team still represents one of the biggest songwriting losses at the time, there are still plenty of Beatles-isms throughout Imagine, sometimes made all the more so through George Harrison's superb participation on half the album. Lennon's fingerpicked guitar chords on the message-heavy "Gimme Some Truth" harken back to Abbey Road (Apple, 1969), especially when Harrison contributes a short but effectively gritty slide guitar solo. Harrison's warm-toned guitar parts throughout the soft ballad "Oh My Love" and Lennon's chord changes also reflect the sophistication which he, alone and together with McCartney, brought to electric pop music with the Beatles.

By the time the Beatles split, Lennon's tendencies towards quirkier, more playful wordplay ("I Am the Walrus," "Strawberry Fields Forever," "Glass Onion") had been sacrificed for more direct and, oftentimes, autobiographical and confessional messages. Still, as simple as lyrics like "Imagine" and "Oh My Love" are, they remain litmus tests for meaningful and subtly poetic ways of getting strong messages across. Still, despite the more direct lyric approach that the majority of Imagine (and the six additional songs recorded around the same time and included here) reflect, there are still some glimmers of the more Puckish Lennon, most notably on "Gimme Some Truth." Who else but Lennon could come up with a chorus as idiosyncratic as this?

No short-haired, yellow-bellied
Son of tricky dicky's
Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocket full of hopes
Money for dope, money for rope.


Following how these sixteen songs develop, in some cases, from the simplest demo to the finished master fans know so well not only reveals how instruments can be layered to create further narrative development, but how, sometimes, less truly is more.

"Imagine" was a song inspired by Ono's Grapefruit but, as Lennon says at the start of the "Evolution Documentary" take, "I wasn't man enough to let her have credit for it." Written as a message of hope for children, it posits how life might be without countries ("nothing to kill or die for"), without religion ("no hell below us, above us only sky") and without possessions ("no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man, Imagine all the people sharing the world").

The song begins as a demo, with just Lennon on the white grand piano located in a large, windowed room in Tittenhurst (seen in the video on Imagine by John and Yoko) and his voice augmented with a bit of slap-back echo. By the first take, bass and drums (White) are added; but so, too, are vibes (John Tout), harmonium (John Barham) and electric piano (Hopkins). Subtle, indeed, and intriguing to hear how the song might have been...but, ultimately, unnecessary. Instead, The Flux Fiddlers, a group of 27 violins, violas, cellos and basses, creates a simple but lush backdrop for the master take, where everything is stripped back to just Lennon, Voorman and White.

That said, while he plays that white grand initially, accompanied by the other musicians located in the Ascot Studio room (and heard in his headphones), Lennon ultimately returns to an upright piano in the studio room itself for additional overdubs, and the resulting master is actually a combination of the two instruments, while his finished vocal also includes a second voice overdub.

The "Evolution Documentary" takes of every song reveal more than just how the songs developed over time. As is also true with similar "fly on the wall" recording collages from bands like King Crimson, on its Larks' Tongues In Aspic (40th Anniversary Series Box) (Panegyric, 2012) and THRAK BOX -Live And Studio Recordings 1994-1997 (Panegyric, 2015), these scratch-to-master recording documentaries also reveal how much fun making records is, with plenty of joking around and Lennon adding humorous vocals to some of the songs.

Both in the "Evolution Documentary" tracks on Imagine: The Ultimate Collection and, perhaps even more intensely when seen in video form on Gimme Some Truth, Lennon's more biting, acerbic side can, however, also be heard/seen on more than one occasion (even if justified). In the midst of singing a vocal take for "Oh My Love," Lennon stops and exclaims, "Oh, fucking hell, what's that, Nick [unidentified]? Well then, don't start changing fucking reels in the middle of a take!" Elsewhere, during the "Evolution Documentary" of "Jealous Guy," Lennon shouts out: "Dan [Richter, Lennon and Ono's personal assistant], go and tell them to turn the tellies and all that off. Dan, get everybody to shut up and stop pissin' about and close the doors...you'd think it was a fucking house not a studio..." Of course, at the end of the day, Tittenhurst Park was a home, albeit one that doubled as a studio.

But, if anything, the inclusion of such footage from the studio sessions, for better or worse, only serves to make Imagine: The Ultimate Collection all the more real, all the more human—and credit to reissue Producer and Creative Director Ono for keeping things absolutely real in truthfully depicting Lennon's complicated nature.

Much of Imagine is devoted to songs about ideas, songs about love and confessional autobiographicals, but there's also a bit of Lennon continuing his animosity with Paul McCartney. "How Do You Sleep?" is Lennon's biting, slightly reggae-informed but still somehow Beatles-esque response to McCartney's "Too Many People," from Ram (Apple, 1971), which contained lyrics that Lennon took as a direct reference to him (though, in the context of the whole song, they could truly be taken to mean a number of possible ideas):

"That was your first mistake
You took your lucky break and broke it in two
Now what can be done for you?
You broke it in two."


Lennon's response, in "How Do You Sleep?," includes stanzas like:

You live with straights who tell you, you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since you're gone you're just another day.


And, perhaps, most scathingly:

A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon they'll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years.


Curiously, the "Evolution Documentary" for "How Do You Sleep?" begins with him being asked, in retrospect, if he regrets the song. "That there was so much about Paul on it, they miss the song is a good track and I could've kept me mouth shut—not on the song, it could have been about anybody," John replies. "So it's not about Paul, it's about me, I'm really attacking meself. But I regret the association...but he [Paul] lived through it. The only thing that really matters is how he and I feel about those things, and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. I've always been a little loose, but me friends are me friends." While rumors circulated of the two burying the hatchet before Lennon's tragic murder at the hands of Mark David Chapman, just outside his and Ono's apartment in Manhattan's the Dakota in December, 1980, it remains a shame that there wasn't a real opportunity for them to find a way back to peace and, maybe even, occasional collaboration.

Acid-tongued sentiments and possible regrets aside, "How Do You Sleep?" is one of Imagine's two most groove-heavy tunes, along with the more overtly direct message-driven "I Don"t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die." "Take 1" lasts almost nine minutes and includes plenty of breaks and instruction from Lennon to his band mates, with respect to rhythm, changes and feel. As the song takes shape, it's also a particularly strong feature for Harrison (again on gritty slide), Nicky Hopkins (on Wurlitzer electric piano), bolstered by the rhythm team of Voorman and White, which anchors all but three of the album's tracks. The evolution of the song is also revealing in its gradual reduction in length to just over five minutes, with the Flux Fiddlers adding some particularly effective overdubs. Lennon recounts that people called the string parts on the album "Eastern" when, in fact, they were really just simple lines based on guitar parts, orchestrated by Torrie Zito.

The album was co-produced by Lennon, Ono and Phi Spector but, as Gimme Some Truth reveals, while Spector brought many great ideas to the sessions, co-producing with Lennon and Ono means that the album was less "Spectorized," as Lennon calls it, than some of the already massively successful record producer's other work. A second (or, in this case, third) set of ears always brings added objectivity to a production, and if Imagine is more produced than its immediate predecessor, it's nevertheless almost a perfect record, with nothing excessive to be found anywhere. Even if more tracks and instruments were recorded than show up on the finished album, perhaps Imagine: The Ultimate Collection's biggest revelation is how, even with the possibility of as much information as Lennon, Ono, Spector and the musicians were able to layer, by the time of the finished masters, there truly wasn't a wasted note or superfluous instrument.

John Lennon
Imagine by John and Yoko / Gimme Some Truth
Eagle Vision
2018 (1972/2000)

The Imagine by John and Yoko / Gimme Some Truth films, with each having a different purpose, dovetail nicely as a package, with Gimme Some Truth perhaps the better of the two as a trove of information, especially taken alongside Imagine: The Ultimate Collection. Imagine by John and Yoko is, perhaps, a bit too precious. Also including music from Ono's FLY (Apple, 1971), a thoroughly avant-garde album that reflected her overriding interest in performance art, the film is, perhaps by necessity, overwhelmed by too many images of Ono in skimpy and, for the time, weirdly high fashion attire. It's most definitely of its time...at a time when Ono's indirect/direct participation in the breakup of the Beatles was still fresh.

The years have been less kind to Imagine by John and Yoko than the more informative Gimme Some Truth, but there are still some lessons to be taken away from the reissue of these two films and the various editions of Imagine, the album.

Lennon's injection of Ono into all aspects of his life and art may have seemed, at the time and at least to some, excessive enough to have inspired, in part, Rob Reiner's classic 1984 comic rockumentary film, This is Spinal Tap. And, while continuing to periodically release solo albums like Between My Head and the Sky (Chimera, 2009) and Take Me to the Land of Hell (Chimera, 2013) (the latter timed to celebrate her 80th birthday), Ono has maintained an iron grip on Lennon's legacy since his death at the age of forty, including the occasional skirmish with McCartney about songwriting credits for Beatles tunes heating up as recently as in the new millennium.

Still, with the 85 year-old Ono credited as "Producer and Creative Direction" for both Imagine by John and Yoko / Gimme Some Truth and Imagine: The Ultimate Collection and its smaller variants, it's clear that she fully understands and appreciates the legacy with which she has been entrusted: a legacy of music and accomplishment that, despite Lennon's short time on earth, remains one of the richest and most memorable in popular music—not just of the past six decades but, perhaps, ever, and alongside his musical brethren McCartney, Harrison and Starr, both as members of the relatively short-lived but still vastly influential Beatles and afterwards.

It's difficult to know if any of Lennon's solo albums have the strength to support the same kind of detailed audio and video revelations of Imagine by John and Yoko / Gimme Some Truth and Imagine: The Ultimate Collection. With the deeply personal Imagine, Lennon created one of those rare albums that never feels dated or of its time, even though some of the sentiments certainly are. But it's hard to dismiss such personal reflections on life, from an artist who was a bundle of paradoxes. He was an anti-war peace advocate who, nevertheless, not only beat his first wife, Cynthia Lennon, but wrote about it in "Getting Better," from the Beatles' legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capitol, 1967): ""I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her and kept her apart from the things that she loved."

He may have continued to struggle with his own temper more than once during the Imagine sessions, but he was clearly fully self-aware, as the album's penultimate track, "How?," reflects:

How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing
How can I go forward when I don't know which way to turn
How can I go forward into something I'm not sure of
Oh no, oh no.

How can I have feeling when I don't know if it's a feeling
How can I feel something if I just don't know how to feel
How can I have feelings when my feelings have always been denied
Oh no, oh no.

You know life can be long
And you got to be so strong
And the world is so tough
Sometimes I feel I've had enough.


How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving
How can I give love when I just don't know how to give
How can I give love when love is something I ain't never had
Oh no, oh no.

You know life can be long
You've got to be so strong
And the world she is tough
Sometimes I feel I've had enough.

How can we go forward when we don't know which way we're facing
How can we go forward when we don't know which way to turn
How can we go forward into something we're not sure of
Oh no, oh no.


Imagine is more than just a great record; it's an album of deep personal reflection, rendered with rare honesty and humanity. Now, with the celebratory Imagine by John and Yoko / Gimme Some Truth and Imagine: The Ultimate Collection, it's possible to dive deeply into how such a vulnerable, musically compelling record was made...and, just perhaps, to gain some insight into the complicated personality of the man who made it, with the help of his wife, one of pop music's most celebrated record producers and a small but absolutely perfect collection of musicians—some already well-established, and others on their way to becoming so.

For those interested in process, it rarely comes better than this. But perhaps Imagine: The Ultimate Collection's biggest surprise is this: that, with each part of the process—"Ultimate Mix," "Outtakes," "Raw Studio Mixes/Extended Album Versions," "Raw Studio Mixes Outtakes" "Elements Mixes" and "Evolution Documentaries"—segregated into its own album-length section, even the interim music between demo and finished take is strong enough to warrant repeated spins. And that, in itself, is as rare as the magic that was clearly in the air during the making of Imagine.

Tracks and Personnel

Imagine: The Ultimate Collection

Tracks: CD1 (Imagine, 2018 Stereo Remix and Remixed Singles/Extras: Imagine; Crippled Inside; Jealous Guy; It's So Hard; I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep?; How?; Oh Yoko!; Power To The People (Remixed Single/Extra); Well... (Baby Please Don't Go) (Remixed Single/Extra); God Save Us (Remixed Single/Extra); Do The Oz (Remixed Single/Extra); God Save Oz (Remixed Single/Extra); Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (Remixed Single/Extra).

CD2 (Elements Mixes, Album Outtakes, Singles Outtakes): Imagine (strings only); Jealous Guy (piano, bass & drums); Oh My Love (vocals only); How? (strings only); Imagine (demo); Imagine (take 1); Crippled Inside (take 3); Crippled Inside (take 6—alt guitar solo); Jealous Guy (take 9); It's So Hard (take 6); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (take 11); Gimme Some Truth (take 4); Oh My Love (take 6); How Do You Sleep? (takes 1 & 2); How? (take 31); Oh Yoko! (Bahamas 1969); Power To The People (single, take 7); God Save Us (single, demo); Do The Oz (single, take 3); Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (single, alt mix).

CD3 (Extended Album Tracks and Raw): Imagine (take 10); Crippled Inside (take 6); Jealous Guy (take 29); It's So Hard (take 11); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth (take 4—extended); Oh My Love (take 20); How Do You Sleep? (take 11—extended); How? (take 40); Oh Yoko! (take 1 extended); Imagine (outtake live, take 1); Jealous Guy (outtake live, take 11); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (outtake live, take 21); How Do You Sleep? (outtake live, take 1); How Do You Sleep? (outtake live, takes 5 & 6).

CD4 (Evolution (from Demo to Final Mix)): Imagine; Crippled Inside; Jealous Guy; It's So Hard; I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep?; How?; Oh Yoko!

Blu Ray Disc 1 (Imagine—The Ultimate Mixes (Remixed Stereo Album, Singles, Extras & Outtakes): Imagine—The Album (Remixed in 5.1 and Stereo 24/96): Imagine; Crippled Inside; Jealous Guy; It's So Hard; I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep?; How?; Oh Yoko!. Singles & Extras (Remixed in 5.1 and Stereo 24/96): Power To The People; Well... (Baby Please Don't Go); God Save Us; Do The Oz; God Save Oz; Happy Xmas (War Is Over). The Outtakes (Remixed in 5.1 and Stereo 24/96): Imagine (demo); Imagine (take 1); Crippled Inside (take 3); Crippled Inside (take 6—alt guitar solo); Jealous Guy (take 9); It's So Hard (take 6); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (take 11); Gimme Some Truth (take 4); Oh My Love (take 6); How Do You Sleep? (takes 1 & 2); How? (take 31); Oh Yoko! (Bahamas 1969); Power To The People (single, take 7); God Save Us (single, demo); Do The Oz (single, take 3); Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (single, alt mix). The Quadrasonic Mixes (Remastered in Quad 4.0 24/96, Original 1971 Quadsonic Album Remastered): Imagine; Crippled Inside; Jealous Guy; It's So Hard; I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep?; How?; Oh Yoko!.

Blu Ray Disc 2 (In the Studio and Deeper Listening (The Raw Studio Mixes—Extended Album Versions—Live, New Mix in 5.1 & Stereo 24/96): Experience, in immersive Surround Sound, the moment John and The Plastic Ono Band record each song live, from a sonic soundstage at the center of Ascot Sound Studios at John & Yoko's home in Tittenhurst: Imagine (take 10); Crippled Inside (take 6); Jealous Guy (take 29); It's So Hard (take 11); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth (take 4—extended); Oh My Love (take 20); How Do You Sleep? (take 11—extended); How? (take 40); Oh Yoko! (take 1 extended). The Raw Studio Mixes—Outtakes—Live (New Mix in 5.1 & Stereo 24/96): Imagine (take 1); Crippled Inside (take 2); Crippled Inside (take 6 alt guitar solo); Jealous Guy (take 11); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (take 21); How Do You Sleep? (take 1); How Do You Sleep? (takes 5 & 6); How? (takes 7-10); How? (take 40 alt vocal); Oh Yoko! (take 1 tracking vocal). The Elements Mixes from the Master Multitracks mNew Mix in 5.1 & Stereo 24/96, Mixes from elements of the original multitracks that demonstrate some of the instrumentations from "behind the scenes"): Imagine (strings); Crippled Inside (upright bass & drums); Jealous Guy (piano, bass & drums); It's So Hard (strings); I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (guitar, bass & drums); Gimme Some Truth (electric piano & guitar); Oh My Love (vocals); How Do You Sleep? (strings); How? (strings); Oh Yoko! (acoustic). The Evolution Documentary (New Mix in Mono 24/96, The story of the songs from demo to master in rehearsals, studio chat and mixed multitrack elements): Imagine; Crippled Inside; Jealous Guy; It's So Hard; I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep?; How?; Oh Yoko!; Power To The People; Well... (Baby Please Don't Go); God Save Us; Do The Oz; God Save Oz; Happy Xmas (War Is Over); Tittenhurst Park. Imagine John & Yoko—The Elliot Mintz Interviews (New Mix in Mono 24/96): Tribute by DJ and family friend Elliot Mintz featuring revealing, philosophical, honest and humorous interviews with John & Yoko.

Personnel (* = appears on master take):

"Imagine": John Lennon: pianos (*), vocals; Alan White (*): drums (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); The Flux Fiddlers: strings (*); John Tout: vibraphone; John Barham: harmonium; Nicky Hopkins: electric piano.

"Crippled Inside": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals (*); Nicky Hopkins: piano (*); George Harrison: dobro (*); Alan White: drums (*); Klaus Voorman: upright bass (left hand*); Steve Brendell: upright bass (right hand with sticks*); Ted Turner: acoustic guitar (*); Rod Lynton: acoustic guitar (*).

"Jealous Guy": John Lennon: acoustic guitar (*), vocals (*), whistling (*); Nicky Hopkins: piano; Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Keltner: drums (*); John Barham: harmonium (*); Alan White: good vibes (*); The Flux Fiddlers: strings (*), Tom Evans: acoustic guitar; Joey Molland: acoustic guitar.

"It's So Hard": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), piano (*), vocals (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Gordon: drums (*), tambourine (*); King Curtis: saxophones (*); The Flux Fiddlers: strings (*).

"I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals (*); George Harrison: slide guitar (*); Nicky Hopkins: electric piano (*); John Barham: piano; King Curtis: saxophones (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Keltner: drums (*), percussion; Mike Pinder: tambourine (*); Joey Molland: acoustic guitar (*); Tommy Evans: acoustic guitar (*); Jim Gordon: drums; Bobby Keys: saxophone.

"Gimme Some Truth": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals (*); George Harrison: electric slide guitar (*); Nicky Hopkins: electric piano (*); John Barham: piano; Alan White: drums (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Rod Lynton: acoustic guitar (*); Andy Davis: acoustic guitar (*); John Tout: piano.

"Oh My Love": John Lennon: piano (*), vocals (*); George Harrison: electric guitar (*); Nicky Hopkins: electric piano (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Alan White: Tibetan cymbals (*).

"How Do You Sleep?": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals (*); George Harrison: electric slide guitar (*); Nicky Hopkins: electric piano (*); Alan White: drums (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); The Flux Fiddlers: strings (*); Rod Lynton: acoustic guitar; Ted Turner: acoustic guitar; John Tout: piano.

"How?": John Lennon: piano (*), vocals (*); Nicky Hopkins: electric piano (*); Alan White: drums (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); The Flux Fiddlers: strings (*); John Tout: vibes; Rod Lynton: acoustic guitar; Andy Davis: acoustic guitar.

"Oh Yoko!": John Lennon: acoustic guitar (*), vocals (*), harmonica (*); Nicky Hopkins: piano (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Alan White: drums (*); Rod Lynton: acoustic guitar (*); Andy Davis: acoustic guitar (*); The J & P duo: backing vocals (*).

"Power to the People": John Lennon: acoustic guitar, piano (*), vocals (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Gordon: drums (*); Bobby Keys: saxophone (*); Rosetta Hightower and choir: vocals (*).

"Well...(Baby Please Don't Go)": John Lennon: guitar (*), vocals (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Gordon: drums (*); Jim Keltner: percussion (*); Bobby Keys: saxophone (*).

"God Save Us": Bill Elliot: vocals (*); John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals; Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Keltner: drums (*); Nicky Hopkins: piano (*); Bobby Keys: saxophone (*).

"Do the Oz": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals (*); Yoko Ono: vocals (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Keltner: drums (*); Nicky Hopkins: electric piano (*); Phil Kenzie: saxophone (*); Dave Coxhill: saxophone (*); Geoff Driscoll: saxophone (*); Bobby Keys: saxophone; Bill Elliot: vocal.

"God Save Oz": John Lennon: electric guitar (*), vocals (*); Klaus Voorman: bass (*); Jim Keltner: drums (*); Nicky Hopkins: piano (*); Bobby Keys: saxophone (*); Ringo Starr: drums; Tina Jorgensen: piano; Charles Shaar Murray: acoustic guitar; Maureen Gray: acoustic guitar; Michael Ramadan: vocal; Steve Brendell: congas, organ; Mike Dowd: maracas; Felix Dennis: maracas; Stanislav Demidjuk: tambourine; The Oz Crowd: backing vocals.

"Happy Xmas (War is Over)": John Lennon: acoustic guitar (*), vocals (*); Yoko Ono: vocals (*); Klaus Voorman: bass; Hugh McCracken: acoustic guitar (*); Chris Osborne: acoustic guitar (*); Teddy Irwin: acoustic guitar (*); Stuart Scharf: acoustic guitar (*); Nicky Hopkins: piano (*), tubular bells (*), glockenspiel (*); Jim Keltner: drums (*), sleigh bells (*); Harlem Community Choir: vocals (*).

Imagine | Gimme Some Truth Blu Ray

Imagine

Chapters: Imagine; Crippled Inside; Good Morning; Jealous Guy; Don't Count the Waves; It's So Hard; Mrs. Lennon; In Bag; I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Mind Train; Whisper Piece; What's That in the Sky?; Power to the People; Gimme Some Truth; Midsummer New York; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep? How? Oh Yoko!; Beach/End Credits; Restoration Credits.

Produced and Directed By John Lennon & Yoko Ono; 2010-2018 Restoration Producer and Creative Director: Yoko Ono; Restoration and Production Manager: Simon Hilton; Starring: John Lennon and Yoko Ono; featuring: George Harrison, Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Andy Warhol, Dick Cavett, Jonas Mekas and others. Runtime: 67:59 mins. Aspect Ratio: 4:3. Soundtrack: remixed and mastered in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM stereo (both 24-bit/96KHz). Originally released: 1972.

Gimme Some Truth

Chapters: Imagine; Crippled Inside; Oh Yoko!; Jealous Guy; It's So Hard; I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die; Gimme Some Truth; Oh My Love; How Do You Sleep?; How? Imagine; Credits.

Produced and Directed by Andrew Solt; 2010-2018 Restoration Producer and Creative Director: Yoko Ono; Restoration and Production Manager: Simon Hilton; Starring: John Lennon and Yoko Ono; featuring: Klaus Voorman, Alan White, Phil Spector, George Harrison, King Curtis, and others. Runtime: 63:41 mins. Aspect Ratio: 4:3. Soundtrack: remastered in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM stereo (both 24-bit/96KHz). Originally released: 2000.

Bonus Features: Jealous Guy (Raw Studio Out-Take; How? (Raw Studio Out-Take); Gimme Some Truth (Raw Studio Out- Take); David Bailey Photoshoot. Total Runtime: 19:46.

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