Sean Ono Lennon is really work to cement his parents’ legacy, especially John’s post-Beatles.
He’s put together a massive box set called “Power to the People” with 12 discs covering the couple’s anti-Vietnam war period.
The central part is a whole remixed “One to One” concerts, with spanking new versions of the two main shows, and a hybrid of the two shows.
There’s a lot to unpack in this box for Lennon-Ono fanatics. “The One To One concert was our effort in Grassroots Politics,” writes Yoko Ono Lennon in the Preface to Power To The People. “It embodied what John and I strongly believed in – Rock for Peace and Enlightenment. And this one in Madison Square Garden turned out to be the last concert John and I did together. Imagine Peace. Peace is Power. Power To The People!”
(It was indeed the last concert John and Yoko did together as he left her shortly thereafter for May Pang, and recorded big hits over an infamous 18 month period.)
The package includes a 204-page deeply researched hardback book designed and edited by Simon Hilton featuring an oral history about all the included music through the words of John & Yoko and those involved sourced from both archival and new interviews. The book is illustrated with unseen photos, lyrics, drawings, tape boxes and memorabilia. Additionally, the set includes a newspaper print poster, sticker sheets and a VIP envelope containing replica concert tickets, backstage and aftershow passes that “have all been uniquely reproduced with textured, archival materials.”
OK, cool. I’m more interested in the dozens of unreleased home studio and demo tracks, especially the ones recorded at the St. Regis Hotel, and four tracks recorded with folk great Phil Ochs in Michigan.
Again, there’s a lot here, and if you’re interested in a graduate class in John & Yoko’s peace work, it sounds like the gift of a lifetime. The whole thing is outlined in painstaking detail at www.johnlennon.com.
Here’s the newly remixed, sparked up “Come Together” from the “One on One” concert.
