Gimme Some Truth

John Lennon | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 5, 2010)
• Original Release Date: 2010
• Number of Discs: 4
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B003Y8YXF8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,171 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

2010 four CD collection, released to coincide with what would have been his 70th birthday. Gimme Some Truth presents 72 of Lennon's solo recordings on four themed CDs: `Roots' (John's Rock `n' Roll roots and influences), `Working Class Hero' (John's socio-political songs), `Woman' (John's love songs) and `Borrowed Time' (John's songs about life). All titles digitally remastered and restored to John's original audio mixes spanning his solo career.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best value purchase of all the current Lennon releases! October 8, 2010

By Leonard Huang

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are looking for most of John Lennon's 2010 remastered albums but can't quite part with $150 for the Signature Box Set, then this is the perfect package for you! For only $30, you get 72 lushly remastered tracks packed onto four thematically assembled discs. The compilers have been generous--PLASTIC ONO BAND & ROCK & ROLL are included in their entirety, while IMAGINE, WALLS & BRIDGES, DOUBLE FANTASY and MILK & HONEY are missing just a track or two each (It's So Hard/Going Down On Love & YaYa original/Dear Yoko/(Forgive Me) My Flower Princess & Grow Old original respectively). Personally, the themes are fine--but with a few extra downloads and some playlisting, you can have most of the Signature box set at pretty amazing price. BUY GIMME SOME TRUTH!

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Of all the new JL collections, the best value for the money October 11, 2010

By steve_manassas

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

This four-CD, 72-track collection is a long-overdue replacement for the 50th-anniversary 1990 LENNON four-CD set, which, interestly, had 73 songs. The major difference between the two sets is that LENNON (compiled by Mark Lewisohn) was in strictly chronological order, starting with "Give Peace A Chance," and ending with "Grow Old With Me"; GIMME SOME TRUTH, like THE JOHN LENNON ANTHOLOGY, assigns a theme to each CD: Disc 1, "Working Class Hero," features John's political songs; Disc 2, "Woman," contains love songs and "relationship" songs about the women in John's life; Disc 3, "Borrowed Time," showcases John's songs about life; and Disc 4, "Roots," goes back to John's rock 'n' roll days, and features all 13 tracks from 1975's ROCK 'N' ROLL album.

There are 55 songs common to both LENNON and GIMME SOME TRUTH. The 18 songs on LENNON that are not on GST include: "Blue Suede Shoes," "Money," and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (all from LIVE PEACE IN TORONTO 1969), "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)" (from LIVE JAM), "It's So Hard," "John Sinclair," "Come Together" (LIVE IN NYC), "Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)," "One Day (At A Time)," "Going Down On Love," "Angel Baby," "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night," "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," and "I Saw Her Standing There" (all live with the Elton John Band), "Dear Yoko," Forgive Me (My Little Flower Princess)," "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" (the Lennon-sung version), and "Grow Old With Me" (the original demo from MILK AND HONEY).

The 17 songs from GST that are not on LENNON include: "I Don't Want To Be A Soldier Mama (I Don't Wanna Die)," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Tight A$," "Only People," "You Are Here," "Meat City," "What You Got," "Beef Jerky," "Be-Bop-A-Lula," "Rip It Up/Ready Teddy," "You Can't Catch Me," "Peggy Sue," "Bring It On Home To Me/Send Me Some Lovin'," "Bony Moronie," "Ya Ya," "Here We Go Again," and "Grow Old With Me" (the George Martin-orchestrated JOHN LENNON ANTHOLOGY version).

The only thing I would have done differently with this set (aside from a few of the track selections) would have been to add a fifth disc featuring John's Beatle songs, perhaps titled "Come Together." While I realize that the focus of this collection is on JL's solo career, including some of his Beatle songs would have enabled his fans to do a "compare and contrast" between the Beatle and solo material.

This superb sounding-set is the best value for money of all of the new Lennon releases and is definitely worth purchasing.

52 of 62 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars John Lennon - Nobody told me there would be days like these. October 5, 2010

By Red on Black TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

For the average Beatles fan the past 18 months have echoed the words of the English Poet William Wordsworth "Bliss was it that dawn to be alive". Last years complete box set showed that the Fabs music had hidden dimensions amongst the already taken for granted brilliance and at last the recording quality was something to admire than fret about. Now a year later a further smorgasbord of Beatles, Apple and solo releases are about to follow (detailed in a great list by Mark Berry on Amazon). Coinciding with what would have been his 70th birthday probably none are more special than the remastering of the albums of Dr Winston O Boogie, Mr John Lennon himself supported in parts by the Yoko Ono, the Plastic Ono Band, Elton John and a cast of thousands.

There is little point here partaking again in that interminable debate about which Beatle had the best solo career. Neither do I particularly want to get into the discussion about what is or is not included. What is important is the chance to reassess this music in light of the remastering and ascertain whether this themed approach to presenting Lennon's music works over the 4 CDs of this mini box set which to be fair is excellently packaged, with a beautifully annotated booklet and card sleeves. The 4 themes contained here are - Working Class Hero (politics and controversy), Woman (love), Borrowed time (life episodes) and Roots (Rock n Roll)

The themes do broadly fit and such an approach has been applied to other major artists in the past but obviously in the last analysis it's the songs that are the clincher. What is fascinating about the remastering is how the underrated parts of Lennon's canon come to the fore. "Mind Games" which is the precursor to his infamous "lost weekend" always seemed to this reviewer to be "the bridesmaid but never the bride" in the evaluation of Lennon's work. This was not assisted by the fact that the production was shrouded in dense Dartmoor style fog. Listening therefore to the title track, "Out of the blue" "Intuition" and a viciously pristine "Cold Turkey" with Lennon's concluding detox agonies more pronounced than ever makes you realise what great songs they are. The choices here also stress a careful if pointed balance. Thus selections from the album length left wing harangue that was "Somewhere in New York City" are thankfully at a minimum although the absence of "John Sinclair" is a shame. Alternatively Lennon's masterpiece the troubled and unashamedly in your face the "Plastic Ono Band" is well represented. Lennon grappling with the demons of his youth is nowhere more apparent on "Mother" which remains a cruel heartbreaking lament; "Love" is so strong it could have happily appeared on any of the post 1968 Beatles albums and his list of "don't believes" in "God" are continuing evidence of the mans sheer audacity and bravery as he announces that the Beatles "dream is over".

The "Imagine" album selections needs no significant comment here other than the fact that Lennon's time in Ascot did represent a purple patch in terms of classic song writing up there with his Beatle years. Ironically despite all the album's idealism "How do you sleep" remains a scathing attack on McCartney and the vicious pun contained in the line "the only thing you done was yesterday" remains one of Lennon's most witheringly contemptuous comments. Finally let us tip a nod to the underrated "Rock n Roll" album where Lennon's cover of "Stand by Me" stands as one of the finest vocals of the rock canon by a man who almost single handed invented the genre, while "Just because" despite all the post Beatles angst remains priceless with its touching greeting to his Paul, George and Ringo.

The "Gimme some truth" campaign is fascinating and timely. Yoko Ono should be massively praised for her efforts not least in the role she has played in producing the stripped down version of "Double Fantasy". Lennon may have died 30 years ago but he remains in death one of the most intriguing cultural figures of the 20th century and on the massive evidence of all this remastered material one of the most vibrant and relevant recording artists of the 21st century.