John Lennon Gets Reissued, Cinematized

While never regarded as Lennon's best albums, the records have both been carefully restored by Yoko Ono, with a number of enhancements over previous CD pressings-- featuring remixed and/or remastered audio, altered tracklists, and a number of bonus cuts-- making the new discs worth the retail reevaluation for longtime fans.

Credited to both Lennon and Ono and produced by Phil Spector, Sometime in New York was originally released in 1972, and was Lennon's third official post-Beatles release, following the previous year's Imagine. Featuring a set of fiercely political songs covering such topics as feminism, black activism and unrest in Northern Ireland, the album was poorly received at the time for its lyrical heavy-handedness. But removed from the era, the album now offers an interesting window into Lennon's longtime activism and venom.

In a surprising move, considering how bloated most archival releases can be, the upcoming reissue of the disc has actually been pared down from its original two-record set (the second disc being a live concert disc titled Live Jam) to a single CD, cutting out the three extended experimental tracks "Jamrag", "Scumbag", and "Au" that were taken from Lennon's set alongside Frank Zappa at a June '71 concert at the Fillmore East. The 1971 single "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" and its b-side, "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" have now been tacked onto the end of the disc as replacements.

Speaking of the new reissue in a recent label press release, Yoko Ono revealed her decision to condense the album's original running order: "I decided that the Fillmore performance should end without going into the long avant-garde improvisation. I wanted John to have the last voice on the album, spreading his childhood over us. If you miss the 'freak out' part...just put a microphone to the many battlefields in the world. You will hear everything - children crying, guys shouting, and the occasional silence created by the dead."

>>Sometime in New York City tracklist:

01 Woman is the Nigger of the World
02 Sisters O Sisters
03 Attica State
04 Born in a Prison
05 New York City
06 Sunday Bloody Sunday
07 The Luck of the Irish
08 John Sinclair
09 Angela
10 We're All Water
11 Cold Turkey (Live at the Lyceum Ballroom, 1969)
12 Don't Worry Kyoko (Live at the Lyceum Ballroom, 1969)
13 Well (Baby Please Don't Go) (Live at the Fillmore East, 1971)
14 Listen, The Snow Is Falling
15 Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

On the opposite end of the Lennon reissue spectrum is Walls and Bridges, originally released in 1974 during his famous year-and-a-half-long "lost weekend" of rock star excess. A markedly perkier listen than New York, the album features a handful of Lennon's better pop material, including his first solo #1 hit, "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" (a collaboration with Elton John), and the gorgeous "#9 Dream".

This new reissue features three bonus tracks: a live version of "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night", a previously unreleased acoustic take of "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)", and a Lennon interview recorded in L.A. that was included as a b-side on a special version of the "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night" single. Most notable for fans is the live track, which was recorded during Lennon's guest spot alongside Elton John at a Madison Square Garden concert on November 28, 1974. It marks the rock legend's last recorded live performance.

>>Walls and Bridges soundtrack:

01 Going Down on Love
02 Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
03 Old Dirt Road
04 What You Got
05 Bless You
06 Scared
07 #9 Dream
08 Surprise Surprise
09 Steel and Glass
10 Beef Jerky
11 Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out)
12 Ya Ya
13 Whatever Gets You Thru the Night (Live at Madison Square Garden, 1974)
14 Nobody Loves You (When You're Down and Out) (acoustic)
15 John Interviewed by Bob Mercer

In more depressing Lennon news, it seems that Hollywood has finally crossed the unspoken Lennon taboo line, as plans are currently in motion for a film about Mark David Chapman and the days leading up to his 1980 murder of the rock icon. Variety reports that the project, titled Chapter 27 (a reference to the copy of Catcher in the Rye that Chapman was carrying at the time of the murder), is being helmed by writer/director Jarrett Schaeffer, with Jared Leto starring as Chapman. And as if good taste wasn't already being pushed, none other than Lindsay Lohan has also been cast for the film, playing a Beatles fan who befriends Chapman days before the murder. Imagine there's no...respect.

And finally, NBC's newsmagazine Dateline has cobbled together a two-hour documentary to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the rock icon's tragic death. Set to feature previously-unheard audio recordings of Lennon's killer discussing the murder of the artist and his reasoning behind it, the show will air this Friday, November 18 at 8:00pm EST. On top of the sweeps-grabbing stabs at poor taste, fans can also expect the usual musical/biographical retrospective fodder, as the show chronicles his path from Liverpudlian to Beatle to solo artist and father in handy timeline form.

Kind of makes you yearn for the quaint days of Bob Woodward and Kitty Kelly tell-alls, doesn't it?