John Lennon - The Very Best Of John Lennon [DVD] [2003]

1. Nice to see the OTHER version of the TOTP 'Instant Karma'. The one on the DVD is the black polo neck version. The one on the 'John Lennon Video Collection' was the flowery shirt/denim jacket version.

2. REALLY annoyed to see that for 'Cold Turkey' they've overdubbed the single version on to of the live version footage from 'Live In NYC'. The video made for the single is GREAT. Why substitute this??

3. The video for 'Mind Games' is so lovely to see. John wandering around surrounded by people who are obviously surprised and pleased to see him. Imagine wandering around NY (im not sure thats where it is , having never been , but I presume it is) and seeing JOHN LENNON! What GREAT footage and it saddens me watching it when you realise that was it was this ability, for him to wander around and not get TOO hassled, that ultimately killed him. Fantastic film but also, the saddest on the whole of the DVD. Made me cry in fact! I so wish I could wander about outside and bump into the late great Winston O'Boogie! I look at all those people in the video and think 'You lucky baskets!' :(

4. Loads of the videos have had stuff added in and/or taken away so that means in order to still have the originals we need to hold on to our vidoes of the 'John Lennon Video Collection'. For example 'Give Peace A chance' has been changed, there's lots of footage missing of the bed in recording with footage of war and conflict and marches added in. I would have prefered to have the ORIGINAL promo made in the 60's for the promotion of the single AT THE TIME. Lots of the 84 videos have also been tampered with. 'Nobody Told Me' includes a false start, but with footage from 1972 on the
screen and they've tried to make it look like we are seeing the recording of this song but we're not (cos we know!). The song also ends and doesnt fade and they've grabbed clips of John where he COULD be saying what we're hearing but we aren't. While it looks ok and we can pretend, I'm not sure if I like it.

5. Oh, and why exactly did John and Yoko wander around New York with stethoscopes, sticking them on every one and everything? What was that all originally filmed for?

6. I DO like how a lot of the songs don't fade and you get to hear how they really ended. ('Give Peace A Chance' and 'Nobody Told Me' being 2 that I remember)

7. I wonder why alot of re-editing of videos was done? The beginning of the original 'Nobody Told Me' has gone (the whispering bit), many bits have been moved about or taken out competely. I don't get it.

Anyway I see I've waffled on a lot. I'm not moaning, just making comment. It's a great DVD but I thought I'd be able to get rid of my old video. I can't. A lot of stuff isn't here.

One thing i forgot to mention was the new video to 'Starting Over'. It is truly SO sad!! It starts off with Johns quote about being 64 years old and living off the coast of Ireland with Yoko looking at their scrapbook of madness. It then goes on to show what could have been John and Yokos retirement home, filmed off the coast of Ireland (by the same bloke who did 'Free As A Bird'?). We get to see in the house, Johns old guitars and amps, old writings and set out on the table, all old photos, as if John's putting together his aforementioned scrapbook. Then a wind come along, blows away all the old photos and we end up flying around the sky with the photos. A cartoon drawing of John and Yoko then flys around for a bit before disapearing in a puff of cartoon smoke. The camera pans back down to earth and the IMAGINE memorial in Central Park and we see the Dakota, and then youcome back to earth and are reminded that John didn't get to 64 and all what we just saw was what we all wish HAD of been. It's VERY moving.

This reminds me, at the end of too many of the videos we are reminded what happened on Dec 8th 1980. Makes for depressing watching when a lot of the videos make you remember constantly that John was taken away!!

Regards
Mark Jones


Too much 'filler' in the visuals   October 17, 2004
6 out of 9 found this review helpful

I'm a big Lennon fan and looked forward to this release. However I was really disappointed with it. That's not to say the music isn't great and the restored/previously unseen footage isn't riveting to watch, but for a superstar who was one of the most filmed people of his generation (and who also prided himself in being filmed ad hoc diary stile), a fair amount of these videos are newly created and don't actually feature him as such. From casual fans to fanatics, this and other aspects of this DVD will be annoying and distracting. I'll start off with the audio. On this side of things you'd think they couldn't go wrong, but they have. Some of the songs now don't fade out as they have always done previously. They continue until the song breaks down. Now for die-hards this will be a bonus - to hear a bit of the song that's never been heard before, but to the casual fan it'll be unpolished and unwelcome, certainly not the way I would expect John would've wanted his music to be presented on his 'Best Of'. The 5.1 surround mix is also pretty lame, as any audiophile will tell you is true of most surround music remixes done at Abbey Road these days. They don't make it 'surround' enough. Listen to this DVD then listen to Queens Greatest Video Hits Vol 1 and you'll know what I mean. Still on the surround mix, they've replaced a chunk of vocals on Jealous Guy with an inferior take for some unknown reason. This totally ruins the song for me. Now to my main gripe - the videos themselves. Most of them have been newly created for this set, criminally in a couple of instances replacing the original promo films with footage that tries to be in the spirit of John or interpret a facet of his personality instead of being the real deal if you know what I mean. A lot of it is slick and well filmed e.g. the video for Starting Over which signifies John's connection with Ireland, but I'm sure John's fans would've been happy with more instances of film of John, even stock footage, where an original promo film wasn't available, as long as it actually had John in it. Instead in the case of Starting Over we get some film maker's attempt to get artsy fartsy with what ends up looking more like an Irish Tourist Board advert than anything else. And this is repeated over and over again. If it wasn't for the real quality footage on the DVD such as the previously released but now restored films for Imagine and Stand By Me, the Top of the Pops Instant Karma performance and the previously unseen film which accompanies Mind Games, I'd tell you to save your money, give this blatant 'released for the Xmas market video hits compilation for an artist who didn't film many videos' a miss and buy the CD instead. There is too much filler video wise. Now onto the extras. These are mostly clips and photos that have been available before so nothing to write home about. 'Everybody's had a hard year', was in the 1988 Imagine movie albeit in an edited form but even so hardly merits the 'never before released performance' tag. Finally, the included booklet is basic, serving primarily to list the songs credits etc and that's where my last observation comes. On 'Give Peace a Chance' the song is credited as being written by John Lennon. I have the original single and it distinctly says Lennon/McCartney. I even remember a John interview when he explained why he joint credited Paul with the song. (He said it was a thank you to Paul for helping him with The Ballad of John and Yoko) Some folk will say this credit change is because of Paul's much publicised reversal of the Lennon/McCartney credit on the Beatles songs he covered on his last live album, 2003's 'Back In The World', but Paul's credit is also missing from the CD version of Lennon Legend which was released back in 1997. Is this a certain Mrs Lennon naughtily using her position as keeper of John's legacy to have a swipe at his old songwriting partner? Tut tut! If John were only here now.......