Customer Reviews

Acoustic

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Lennon was often at his best when his music was stripped down to the bare essentials. "Acoustic" certainly lives up to its stark title; we get 16 tracks that Lennon recorded either as demos or as guide tracks to help the backing musicians to learn a particular song. All of it is drawn from Lennon's solo years and the bulk of this has been released before on "The John Lennon Anthology". The seven tracks that haven't been released before include a stunning acoustic version of "Cold Turkey", an acoustic guitar version of The Beatles reunion track "Real Love" (which saw release on "Anthology" in its piano/vocal version sans overdubs), "Watching the Wheels" Lennon's explanation of his retirement from the circus of rock'n'roll. The most interesting tracks, though, stem from the time of "Plastic Ono Band" with Lennon creating acoustic demo versions of the key tracks from that classic album.

Yoko tries to cover Lennon's entire solo career with selections that appeared on every solo album (with the exception of "Mind Games" and the posthumous "Milk & Honey"). The most dated are the protest songs "John Sinclair" and "Woman is the Nigger of the World". "Luck of the Irish" and "John Sinclair" were recorded live for a political rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1971 while the stunning version of "Imagine" comes from his appearence at the Apollo Theater in 1971. "God" is clearly a home demo (as is "Well Well Well") with probably the worst sound of any of the songs on the CD. Nevertheless, fans will want to have this even if the sound isn't always stellar. Yoko and engineer Rob Stevens have cleaned these up without polishing them with additional overdubs as much as possible. "What You Got" which originally appeared on "Walls & Bridges" is different from the version that appeared on "Anthology" and, with its unfinished temporary lyrics, sounds quite a bit different from the final polished product. It's informed much more by the blues than the version that was released before. "Dear Yoko" has some particularly nice playing by Lennon and his unaffected vocal creates an intimacy missing from the version on "Double Fantasy". One can imagine Lennon having just finished writing the song trying it on for size for the first time. "God" with its slightly different lyrics and "Look at Me" both certainly belong here as both sound terrific have just enough of a variation to make the performances interesting.


The booklet includes guitar tabs for all the songs, lyrics and some rare photos.For Beatles/Lennon fans that didn't want to spring for the "Anthology" boxed set, this disc and the "Wonsaponatime" single disc distillation will nicely fill out their Lennon discography. As for me, it's a treat to hear Lennon perform in such a relaxed environment.

I got this CD today because I'm a major, major John Lennon fan. Truth is, you don't really need to get this album if you have his box set, because a lot of the tracks on here are on that- but not all of them. And still I'm glad I bought it. The sound quality is excellent, and many times its like hearing him right there in the room with you. I don't even need to get into the songs because this is John Lennon and his music is absolutely beautiful. I mean, these are many of his demos I'm talking about! The man was just something else.

Anyway, I really adore the version of Dear Yoko on here. The song could be a little hokey on "Double Fantasy" but is sounds much more gentle and beautiful on here. The live version of Imagine is amazing. The version of God on here is not the same as the one on the Anthology box, and the intro is hillarious. Maybe I'm just biased but I love everything on here plain and simple. Its just so direct and so inspiring. In my opinion, John was really writing some of his best stuff towards the end of his life, and things like Watching the Wheels and Real Love are testaments to that. So sad...

The booklet has all the lyrics and guitar tabs for each song as well. Nice pictures. Wish there were more. Of course, with John, I always wish there was more, more, more...

I've been a Lennon fan ever since I can remember...John was always my favorite Beatle and his solo work was phenomenal..After his death I began collecting his catalog and practically have everything he has released and was eagerly anticipating the release of this CD. I picked it up this today at Border's and have been listening to it all afternoon and love it! It's John stripped down to his guitar and listening to classic songs like Imagine, Love and God was very cool indeed! I especially like The Luck of the Irish..which sounds fresh and new! I think for anyone who admired John and his music this will be a treat! As for some of the previous negative reviews..all I can say is, for me..the music speaks for itself..I don't look at it as being cast off demos..etc..the music is great and sung with sincerity and as Yoko put it in the liner notes, from his heart...John was a genius who gave the world his talent and musicianship..God knows we can use a little bit of inspiration now...Give Peace a Chance!!

I looked forward to the release of this CD and was not disappointed when I bought it. It gives us a look at a different side of John Lennon. Most Lennon/Beatle fans are familiar with his work on electric guitar and piano, but this is a nice collection of songs done solely on acoustic guitar. Many of the versions of songs on this CD probably were not intended by John for release since they are mostly home recordings, rehearsals, demos, etc. Ironically, he often felt insecure about his singing and preferred to use studio sound effects to enhance/disguise his voice. This CD is very refreshing because it features John Lennon relaxed and singing primarily for personal enjoyment, not public consumption. Overall the vocals are very good and the guitar work is impressive and refreshing. However, I did not give it 5 stars because in some points the vocals sound mechanical as if over digitalized.

I recommend this CD, especially for fans who want an intimate, gentle look at a fascinating figure in music history.

Oh how I wanted to like this album. I love John Lennon so maybe I was expecting too much. Regardless, Acoustic is a bit of a disppointment to me.

The Bad: Too many of the songs are very poor quality home demo's which were recorded on a cheap cassette recorder. Then, it sounds like they tried to clean up the recordings digitally, but that just made them worse. The result is a weird cancer-kazoo quality to some of the vocals, very hard to listen to.

I was also disappointed by the lack of liner notes. Printing the lyrics with guitar chords is a cool idea, but it would also be nice know when and where the demos were recorded.

The Good: The live performances are wonderful. The "unplugged" version of "Imagine" is absolutely stunning, I fought back tears when I first heard it. "John Sinclair" is well done and may be the only recorded song which features John playing bottle neck slide. The demo for "Watching the Wheels" is wonderful, better in many ways than the single. And the demo of "Working class hero" is also as good or better than the studio recording.

These days you're lucky if you find 3 good songs on a CD, so I gave Acoustic 3 stars. Otherwise, if you have the money, you may want to skip this one and buy the Lennon box set.

Tsk, tsk on all of the previous reviews placing this 'album' (I am using their words) in the ranking of 3 stars or less. This is not an album, but more of a look into the creative mind of the most influential personality of modern time. Pureness of voice and melody merged, as if being the birth of a child, could not have been more natural than of what is given to the fan here. Close your eyes and he is within your domain, sharing of his talent with a few close friends. Any addition or dubbing of this raw material would be like drawing a moustache on the Mona Lisa.
I feel sorrow for those of the younger generations sniffling over the fact that it is unfinished, unpolished, bland to their ears. Lennon's later solo work was never intended to be commercial but was intended to be messages from himself about himself, his mate, his life and our world. This presentation is a cool breeze on a hot summers day.
Thank you Yoko for this excellent gift.

O.K. these are demos, and John Lennon would have never had released em' had he lived. Some of these tracks sound like they were recorded under 12 feet of water & some of the songs featured are incomplete and unfinished as well. BUT...I sure am glad somebody out there let us hear them...Nobody is gonna force you to buy this, but, i'm glad to own it...it's, Raw John, But, like most of his work, it's timeless and worth a listen...4 STARS...

This is not only a very good album, but also a very interesting album. Working Class Hero, Imagine, and Look At Me are especially great. The live acoustic recording of Imagine is worth the whole album. Real Love with the different words is also very interesting. My only complaint is that the version of God on this album is not my favorite. It is much better on Wonsaponatime in my opinion. The sound quality is poor on Cold Turkey, but you can really feel his pain more then on the electric version. The combination of John Lennon's voice and acoustic guitar is very intimate on this CD. This CD shows John Lennon fans how great a song writer and poet he was.

Yes, I'll tell you: I worship John Lennon and I love John Lennon. Who couldn't? After all, his kind of talent only comes along once in a billion years or so! I only wish I had met him or experienced him in concert. This CD is a worthy consolation prize, however; it is a fine collection of pure John simply being John: singing from the heart and playing the guitar on his own.

The listener does get three songs of Lennon during two of his live performances in 1971; "The Luck Of The Irish" and "John Sinclair" were performed live in Ann Arbor, Michigan and "Imagine" was recorded during a live performance John gave at The Apollo Theater in the same year. John's rapport with his audiences was excellent; you can tell by the recordings here that they hung on every word he said and sang. Incredible!
Other great songs on this CD include "Dear Yoko," an upbeat love ballad to Yoko Ono; "Well Well Well," "Watching The Wheels," and "Working Class Hero." Indeed, it's impossible to find a song on this CD that isn't great! John's unique ability to perform brought a special type of life and meaning into each and every song and this CD is the proof of this. The listener can sense the remarkable paradox: by avoiding anything fancy in the way of embellishments and presenting his work on this CD in a comparatively plain fashion (just him singing as he plays guitar), John actually succeeded yet again in making his music all the more powerful, compelling and appealing to multitudes of people globally. (Yoko does join John for just one song, "The Luck Of The Irish.")

The quality of the sound is excellent; although Yoko (who produced this album) dedicates this album "to the future guitarists" there is very little in the way of actual liner notes. On the other hand, there are complete lyrics and the actual chords he played on the guitar all the way through each song are written here-a rare and wonderful plus! Chord diagrams are even included. There are wonderful photos of John in both black and white as well as color. Some of John's artwork is reprinted along with a picture of a guitar that Yoko designed for John as a present.

Obviously this CD is a must have for any Lennon fan; and almost certainly the same is true for any Beatles fan. I highly recommend this CD; it's worth much more than the five stars Amazon allows me to give it. Buy it, treasure it, and play it over and over again-John lives on through his music.

This acoustic collection assembled and produced by Yoko Ono is more of insight into the music making process than an album of songs. Judging from the quality of the recordings, i would guess that a majority are demos, probably even home recordings. The opener, Working Class Hero, benefits from a clear studio sound and is also one of the stronger compositions on the CD. The live tracks (Luck of the Irish, John Sinclair, and Imagine) are all very good versions and exemplify John's performing strengths.

Some of the other tracks are sung much closer to the chest and appear to be works in progress, recorded for John's own benefit. As a songwriter myself, I dont know how I would feel if some of my early demos were released to the public but somehow I feel that John, whereever he is, wouldnt mind. His spirit does come through on the recordings even if the technical quality, and performances are somewhat lackluster.

That said, I cannot give the album a 5 star rating due to the fact the songs themselves do, oftentimes, fall short of what he accomplished earlier in his career with Beatles. The songs 'Love' and 'God' seem to suffer from a lack of willpower and confidence that some less self-consciously "message oriented" tracks do not.

The negative reviews on Amazon seem to often to be judgements made towards Yoko Ono's involvement in this project. I dont find the production to be contrary to the esthetics that John seemed to favor and therefor I would say that it is well produced. Also, it seems to me like Yoko had exclusive access to alot of this material and the fact that she released these tracks is of no less or more consequence than had they been released by a record company, in my opinion.