I've been seeing a few other attempts at constructing a John Lennon solo album out of John and Yoko's Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey albums. I've tried this myself on several occasions but was never really happy with the results. Inspired by the others I decided to take another try and see what happens. What I came up with is a box set of three albums, one for John, one for Yoko and a disc of my favorite demos from the project.Early on I came to the conclusion that the best approach was a hybrid of official versions and alternate mixes and remixed versions. For some of John's songs I had up to ten different versions ranging from demos to the finished product. While the demo disc comes from a variety of sources the two albums are derived from five sources. The two official albums, Double Fantasy Stripped Down, John Lennon's Anthology box and a bootleg called Double Fantasy [Working Version] which contained early mixes of John's Milk and Honey Tracks.
The version of each song was chosen simply because that was the one I liked best and felt would best blend with the other tracks. My biggest issues with John's Milk and Honey tracks have always been the mixes. They put way too much reverb and other effects on John's vocals. John's voice has always sounded best mostly dry with a touch of chorus or flange if not actually double tracked so it was nice to have some early alternate mixes to fall back on. That said I did default to the official versions more often than alternate versions.
John Lennon - Watching The Wheels
Side One
01 (Just Like) Starting Over *
02 Cleanup Time ***
03 I'm Stepping Out +
04 Nobody Told Me **
05 Dear Yoko ***
06 I Don't Wanna Face It **
07 Watching The Wheels *
Side Two
01 Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) */***
02 I'm Losing You ***
03 Borrowed Time **
04 Woman *
05 (Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess +++
06 Grow Old With Me +
Reality Notes
I was really surprised at how much more I could connect this John with pre-househusband John. For some reason my mind has always compartmentalized Double Fantasy John as a unique and separate entity from even Walls and Bridges John.
For Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) I edited the intro and outro of the official version onto the Stripped Down version. I preferred the Stripped Down version but I missed the intro and outro from the Double Fantasy version which give it a bit more polish. I also edited out most of the count ins and studio chatter.
The cover features a self reflecting John watching a sunset.
Side One
01 Walking On Thin Ice +++
02 Don't Be Scared **
03 Sleepless Night **
04 O' Sanity **
05 Beautiful Boys *
06 Your Hands **
07 Kiss Kiss Kiss *
Side Two
01 Yes, I'm Your Angel *
02 Give Me Something *
03 I'm Moving On +++
04 You're The One **
05 Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him *
06 Hard Times Are Over *
Reality Notes
Everyone always seems to ignore or throw away Yoko's side of this project. While I can't call myself a fan, I have never been in the anti-Yoko camp. I proudly admit to listening to and enjoying Yoko's Plastic Ono album on more than one occasion.
Walking on Thin Ice is an early mix and is half the length of the released single version. I toyed with swapping them out but I stuck with this version. While I passed on the Cheap Trick version of John's I'm Losing You, I did use the Cheap Trick version of Yoko's I'm Moving On.
For the cover I reconstructed (to my liking) the cover for Yoko's best of compilation of the same name.
01 Borrowed Time [DT] ###
02 Beautiful Boy [DT] ###
03 Dear Yoko [DT] ###
04 Watching the Wheels +
05 I Don't Wanna Face It [DT] ###
06 I'm Losing You [DT 2] ###
07 Let Me Count The Ways (Yoko) **
08 (Just like) starting over #
09 I'm Stepping Out [TT] ###
10 Nobody Told Me [DT] ###
11 Woman [DT 2] ###
12 My Little Flower Princess [take 3] ###
13 Grow Old With Me **
Home Demos '75-'80
14 The News Of The Day ##
15 Serve yourself ##
16 Gone From This Place ##
17 Whatever Happened To [take 2] ###
18 One Of The Boys [take 2 edit] ###
19 Life Begins At 40 ###
20 The Happy Rishikesh Song ###
21 Real Love ##
22 Dear John [edit] ###
23 I Don't Know Why (Yoko) ++
Reality Notes
I've gathered the demos into two groups. Tracks 1-13 are all related to Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey. Tracks 7 and 13 were released on the Milk and Honey album as they appear here.
Tracks 14-22 were all recorded during John's househusband days from '75 - '80. Track 23 was recorded by Yoko the day after John was taken from us.
If this were a vinyl box both groups will fit on separate albums with the first LP splitting between tracks seven and eight and the second group having five songs per side. Both groups will fit on one CD.
Editing for the most part was limited to trimming the beginnings and endings taking out count ins, intros and chatter. One Of The Boys and Dear John received multiple internal edits to trim redundant verses and stumble points to create smoother tracks.
For the cover I added text to a print of one of John's drawings.
Sources
* Double Fantasy
** Milk and Honey
*** Double Fantasy Stripped Down
+ John Lennon Anthology
++ Season Of Glass (Yoko)
+++ Double Fantasy [Working Version] (bootleg)
# Double Fantasy [Alternate Version] (bootleg)
## Complete Lost Lennon Tapes (bootleg)
### Complete Home Recordings 75-80 (bootleg)
