Ticket 2 Ride

I’m a little late to the party here, this Imagine box set was released in 2018. I’m listening to it in advance of the upcoming box set of John Lennon’s Mind Games, which will get the same sort of treatment.

Imagine was released in a number of formats, I’m listening to the various mixes available across four CDs, but not the Blu-ray Discs with the 5.1 or stereo 24-96 mixes.

The set I found had the CDs only, which is fine with me and what I heard is amazing.

First of all, Imagine has the strongest set of Lennon solo songs. The Plastic Ono Band included John Lennon (vocals, piano, guitar, percussion) Nicky Hopkins and John Tout (piano), George Harrison (guitar, dobro), Klaus Voormann, Steve Brendell (bass), Alan White, Jim Gordon and Jim Keltner (drums), Pete Ham, Joey Molland, Andy Davis, Ted Turner and Rod Linton acoustic guitars, John Barham (harmonium), King Curtis (sax), Mike Pinder (percussion). It was produced by Lennon, Yoko Ono and Phil Spector. Jack Douglas engineered.

Disc one, The Ultimate Mixes, includes the original album remixed in stereo 16-44.1, whatever that means. In addition to the original ten album tracks, single releases and B sides are included in remixes.

I would say the biggest overall change is greater separation and clarity of the instruments and vocals. True to the original album, Lennon’s voice is clearer, but still heavily processed as he recorded it.

Of particular interest, the pianos and electric guitars have punch and grit. Nicky Hopkins and George Harrison are the most to benefit from this remix.

Disc two, includes Element Mixes, also in stereo 16-44.1, which are working versions of four of the album tracks. These songs have only isolated instruments or vocals, without anything else. For example, the strings on “Imagine” are quite nice.

“Jealous Guy” is an instrumental. “Oh, My Love” is Lennon’s vocal tracks only. He is truly one of the most genuine and lovely voices in music. “How?” is one of the most beautiful songs and the isolated strings verify that.

Also on Disc two are outtakes of all of the album tracks. The two versions of “Crippled Inside” have wonderful Harrison slide guitar solos. The songs are not much different from the album version except for feeling rougher and looser.

And finally, there are outtakes of the single releases and B-sides.

Disc three are the Raw Studio Mixes, in stereo 16-44.1, these are extended versions of the album tracks, different working versions, and additional outtakes.

One thing I immediately noticed was Lennon’s vocals were more clear and less buried in echo and whatever else he preferred using. These versions remind me of his White Album songs: raw and his vocals looser and more immediate. George Harrison’s slide guitar, dobro and lead guitar is amazing on these versions. It’s great to hear his grit and use of distortion, something he seemed to abandon after All Things Must Pass.

The long version of “I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier” is killer (no pun intended). The band is on fire.

“Gimme Some Truth” is slower and more powerful than the original album version. Less polished and more rocking.

“Oh My Love” is even better than the original. Again, Lennon’s voice is warmer and more genuine without the processing.

“How Do You Sleep?” has clearer, earthier sounding guitars.

Overall, the extended album versions were better than the outtakes, which were more tentative and less formed.

To change things up, I started with disc four, which is called the Evolution Documentary of the tracks on the original album. Each of the album tracks are presented through various stages of work, from studio chatter, demos, studio run-throughs and more conversation between Lennon and musicians. These were assembled by Sam Gannon who used snippets of each song’s history or evolution. At first, I thought these were needed, but I quickly warmed up to them. It was interesting to hear the different ideas and creativity at work. Worth a listen.

Okay, this set is only for devoted fans, although even casual fans will enjoy a trip through a creative process of a classic album.