Lennon, John - Legend (The Very Best Of John Lennon)

Year of Release: 2003
Label: EMI
Catalog Number: 7243 4 90945 9 8
Format: CD/DVD
Total Time: 83:08:00

The collection starts with John and Yoko walking hand in hand in the park that surrounds Tittenhurst Park. Once they enter the stately house Yoko opens the curtains one by one to let the sun in. What better way to start this collection of no fewer than twenty of John Lennon's greatest hits images 'n all. For years we have been able to cherish John's music that, after the demise of the Beatles, sounded a little different, but still contained the magic that only Lennon was able to come up with. Ingenious music, hidden typical British humour, sometimes even flirting with sarcasm, and often sad memories set to music. The images which accompany "Mother" perfectly illustrates the feeling inside John's heart having seen his father leave when he was still a little boy whilst he never felt any love from his mother, something which marked him for the rest of his life. Sentences like "Mother you have me, but I never had you" and "Father you left me but I never left you" come deep from the heart and are illustrated here by black and white archive photos from John's childhood family. John tries to persuade his parents: "Mommy don't go, daddy come home," whilst images are shown of John and Julian and later of John and Sean as if Yoko wants to illustrate the fact that John tried not to make the mistake his parents made. This collage of photographs is so ingeniously put together that we see a picture of manager Brian Epstein when John sings "Daddy come home" as if to illustrate that due to the lack of presence of his real father, Epstein played the role of Lennon's ersatz father. Later on the same lines "Mommy don't go" and "Daddy come home" are sung when an image is shown of Yoko Ono so it's like in later life she took on the role of both of John's parents. Interesting!

Throughout this DVD you will see that Lennon didn't make the video age as most of the images used to enhance the music are not really what one could call a video clip. Often "logical" images are used such as the demonstration march to underline the importance of "Power To The People." Sometimes live footage is used such as for "Instant Karma" (featuring a young Alan White!) and "Cold Turkey," the latter which in the end section tries to emulate the effect of "cold turkey" in a musical way. "Mind Games" sees Lennon enjoying himself in New York. being friendly with children and passers by whilst "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" is treated to a surrealistic cartoon. Now and then footage from the same location has been used to spice up different "videos," which illustrates once again that Lennon didn't really experience the video age at all. Based on a quote from John in Rolling Stone magazine, "Starting Over" illustrates John' s saying that he and Yoko would be living along the coast in Ireland when they would be 64, looking through their scrapbooks of madness. In fact it looks like this is the first "video" that is properly directed and I wouldn't be at all surprised that it's done by the same people who later on did the "Free As B Bird" video, as it kind of contains a similar technique.

Strange as it may seem, but "Woman" even includes a newspaper cutting showing Lennon's killer Mark Chapman. Then Yoko goes on to put the sleeve of the Mind Games album together with a photograph of John lying dead on the ground showing an almost similar posture. At the end of the song the screen says "to be continued," as if to say the life of John Lennon simply never stops! We are treated to some private film when John sings of his love for his son Sean during "Beautiful Boy," a rare treat even if the camera constantly films from the same angle. "Nobody Told Me" has Phil Spector, George Harrison, Andy Warhol, Miles Davis and even Fred Astaire in the video! We even see a tiny glimpse of John's psychedelic Rolls Royce whilst he's playing basketball. In the reggae tune "Borrowed Time" we see the magnifying glass and the word "Yes," which I believe could be found in Yoko Ono's art exhibition, which led to John falling in love with her in the first place. No doubt the most heartbreaking images have been reserved for "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," as by seeing these images it is clear that war still isn't over and probably never will. From the very first second to the very last there's only images of sadness, of tragedy, of dead people, of crippled children, of hatred, of disbelief, of injustice, of a world where you can ask yourself only one thing ? why ? Even the September 11th disaster passes by, although very briefly.

Some of the extras are rather interesting, such as the video that was made for Anthology, acting like a short documentary on John's life. There's a live rendition of "Slippn' & Slidin'," as recorded on 18th March 1975 at the Hit Factory in New York, plus a live recording of "Imagine" from 18th April 1975, sadly John's very final live performance ever! Then there's some surrealistic "art" in the form of a thing called "Hair Peace" next to an excerpt from John and Yoko's Film #6 which reveals a so far unseen performance from December 1968. Some photographs spanning all of John's life are backed by an instrumental version of "Imagine" to which you can sing along. In only 1:31 twenty cartoons of John come to life. Although all of these extras are fun, it nevertheless remains Lennon's music which is the main attraction here.

Throughout the entire duration of this DVD, only one other Beatle can be seen and that's George Harrison, strangely enough, the other Beatle who is no longer amongst us. Pity there's not even a glimpse of Cynthia Lennon, because she, too, was an important part of John's life, she too was part of ? the legend!

Tracklisting:
Imagine / Instant Karma! / Mother / Jealous Guy / Power To The People / Cold Turkey / Love / Mind Games / Whatever Gets You Thru The Night / #9 Dream / Stand By Me / Starting Over, (Just Like) / Woman / Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) / Watching The Wheels / Nobody Told Me / Borrowed Time / Working Class Hero / Happy Xmas (War Is Over) / Give Peace A Chance

Special features : Working class hero video documentary, Slippn' & slidin' filmed at The Hit Factory in New York on 18th march 1975, Imagine live filmed at the 'Salute to Lew Grade' concert on 18th april 1975, Hair Peace, Everybody had a hard year, Imagine audio instrumental with picture gallery, a selection of animated John Lennon line drawings

Musicians:


Discography:
Two Virgins: Unfinished Music No. 1 (1968)
Life With The Lions: Unfinished Music No. 2 (1969)
Live Peace In Toronto 1969 (1969)
Wedding Album (1969)
John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970)
Imagine (1971/2003)
Sometime In New York City (1972)
Mind Games (1973)
Walls And Bridges (1974)
Rock N' Roll (1975)
Shaved Fish (1975)
Double Fantasy (1980)
The John Lennon Collection (1982)
Milk & Honey (1984/2001)
Live In New York City (1986)
Menlove Ave (1986)
Imagine: John Lennon (Original Soundtrack) (1988)
Lennon (1990)
Legend (The Very Best Of John Lennon) (2003)

Sweet Toronto (2002)
Legend (The Very Best Of John Lennon) (DVD) (2003)

Genre: Rock

Origin UK

Added: February 9th 2004
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: johnlennon.com
Hits: 2771
Language: english