John Lennon’s legendary debut solo album John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band from 1970 is receiving a huge Ultimate Collection box set. The set will be released on April 16 (via Capitol / UMe) and includes outtakes, demos, impromptu jam sessions and the full live recording of Yoko Ono’s backing album Yoko Ono / Plastic Ono Band, and much more on eight discs. The collection includes six CDs, two Blu-ray audio discs, a 132-page book and a “War Is Over!” Poster and two postcards. The extensive tracklist contains 87 previously unreleased recordings. Find an unboxing video and listen to the new mix of “mom” below.
Ono oversaw the production and creative direction of the new edition. It was led by the same audio team that worked on the 2018 remake of Imagine, including engineer Paul Hicks and mixer / engineers Rob Stevens and Sam Gannon.
The Plastic Ono Band was Lennon’s first album after the Beatles split up. Produced by Phil Spector, it was a minimal recording with Ringo Starr on drums and Klaus Voorman on bass. The album includes “Isolation”, “Working Class Hero”, “God”, “Hold On” and “Well Well Well”.
“With the Plastic Ono Band albums, John and I liked the idea of this really raw, basic, truthful reality that we were going to give the world,” wrote Yoko Ono in the book’s foreword. “We influenced other artists, encouraged them and dignified a certain style of vulnerability and strength that was not accepted in society at the time. It was a revolution for a Beatle to say, “Listen, I am human, I am real.” It took a lot of courage to do it. “
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