Last year’s Lennon box set, ‘Mind Games’ took the original album as a starting point and went full deep dive, turning it into a cross between furniture, lifestyle choice and unending mental puzzle.
This year’s box set saw Sean and Yoko take a different approach. Instead of expanding Lennon’s ‘Some Time in New York City’ album, they chose to explore the entire era that it came from and, as a result, we got something that defines the idea of ‘immersive entertainment’.
Much has been made about which tracks have been included and – more to the point – which ones have been left off. But we’ll leave Beatles connoisseurs like John Heaton. What we do know is that all the best box sets reinvent and re-explore, rather than repeat. And the Lennon Estate set the template for that after all, starting with 1990’s four-CD ‘Lennon’ set, followed by 1996’s ‘John Lennon Anthology’, with its four era-themed discs, ‘Ascot’, ‘New York City’, ‘The Lost Weekend’ and ‘Dakota’.
But before we go further, what does the Long Live Vinyl ‘bronze label’ signify? It means that you really have to give whoever or whatever we’ve awarded it to your attention. It’s by no means a runner-up or terribly lacking in any way; it’s important and would be a valuable addition to your vinyl collection or vinyl lifestyle. In short, it’s more than a maybe!
Lennon longreads: John Solo – Six of the Best on Vinyl
Here’s some more, via johnlennon.com… 31 live tracks from John & Yoko’s two historic sets at the One To One Concert at Madison Square Garden, New York City on 30 August 1972. They were John Lennon’s only full-length concerts after leaving The Beatles and the last two full-length concerts that John & Yoko performed together.
Produced by Sean Ono Lennon and his 5 x GRAMMY® Award-winning Ultimate Mixes team. Mixed and engineered by Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios. Art Direction by Sean Ono Lennon, Simon Hilton and Liz Hirsch.
Lennon longreads: John & Yoko’s Life With The Lions – in depth
This 180g Audiophile 4LP Deluxe Collector’s Edition is housed in a lift-off-lid box, featuring a lenticular cover of John & Yoko’s faces with a layered, dynamic 3D effect. Inside, a rigid clear O-card encases 4 x 180g black vinyl records and an 8 page booklet. The set includes a twelve-inch square 8 page book, 2 postcards, 2 sticker sheets, newsprint poster and a VIP envelope with replicas of 2 concert tickets, backstage pass and an aftershow pass.