A new Lennon box, “Gimme Some Truth, The Ultimate Mixes,” is being released on Lennon’s 80th birthday, October 9, 2020.
October 9, 2020 marks what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday. It also sadly marks four decades since he’s been gone.
That it’s been that long is hard to believe. But what is undeniable is that the power of his music hasn’t diminished at all. The music, the spirit, and the message conveyed means more now than ever.
To celebrate this milestone, a new collection called John Lennon Gimme Some Truth is being released, featuring new “ultimate” mixes of many of his most famous solo work done by Paul Hicks. These are completely new mixes done from scratch, but with much care and focus on fidelity to John’s vision.
“Yoko is very keen,” said Hicks, “that in making The Ultimate Mixes series we achieve three things: remain faithful and respectful to the originals, ensure that the sound is generally sonically clearer overall, and increase the clarity of John’s vocals. ‘It’s about John,’ she says. And she is right. His voice brings the biggest emotional impact to the songs.”
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“The combination of remixing from all the original first-generation multitrack sources,” he said, “and finishing in analog has brought a whole new level of magic, warmth and clarity to the sound, along with a more detailed dynamic range and sound stage, and we really hope you enjoy the results.”
In advance of his birthday, they are releasing the new mix of “Mind Games,” which they matched to the original film John created in the autumn of 1974 in Central Park.
“John was a brilliant man with a great sense of humour and understanding,” wrote Yoko. “He believed in being truthful and that the power of the people will change the world.
“And it will. All of us have the responsibility to visualize a better world for ourselves and our children. The truth is what we create. It’s in our hands.”
Of “Mind Games,” the title track of his 1973 album, Lennon said the following.
JOHN LENNON: [‘Mind Games’] was a fun track because the voice is in stereo and the seeming orchestra on it is just me playing three notes with slide guitar. And the middle eight is reggae.
Trying again to explain to American musicians what reggae was in 1973 was pretty hard, but it’s basically a reggae middle-eight if you listen to it.”
Trying to possess somebody makes them go away. Every time you put your finger on it, it slips away. Every time you turn the microscope’s light on, the thing changes so you can never see what it is.
As soon as you ask the question, it goes away.
Peripheral vision is what it is. There’s no looking directly at it. Try to look at the sun. You go blind, right? Now that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work on it.
Love is a flower, you gotta to let it grow.
The collection has been produced by Sean Ono Lennon. The Executive Producer is Yoko Ono Lennon.
Mixed and engineered by the award-winning engineer Paul Hicks, who also helmed the mixes for 2018’s universally acclaimed Imagine – The Ultimate Collection series, the songs were completely remixed from the ground up, using brand new transfers of the original multitracks, cleaned up to the highest possible sonic quality.
After weeks of painstaking preparation, the final mixes and effects were completed using only vintage analog equipment and effects at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and then mastered in analog at Abbey Road Studios by Alex Wharton in order to ensure the most beautiful and authentic sound quality possible.
The 124-page book included in the Deluxe Edition has been designed and edited by Simon Hilton.
The book tells the story of three dozen songs in John & Yoko’s words and the words of those who worked alongside them, through archival and brand-new interviews, accompanied by hundreds of previously unseen photographs, Polaroids, movie still frames, letters, lyric sheets, tape boxes, artworks and memorabilia from the Lennon-Ono archives.
