Audio CD review:
John Lennon - Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon

John Lennon - Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon

Band: John Lennon Title: Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon Rating: Release Date: 04 October, 2005 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: (Just Like) Starting Over 2: Imagine 3: Watching The Wheels 4: Jealous Guy 5: Instant Karma! 6: Stand By Me 7: Working Class Hero 8: Power To The People 9: Oh My Love 10: Oh Yoko 11: Nobody Loves You When You're Down And Out 12: Nobody Told Me 13: Bless You 14: Come Together (Live) 15: New York City 16: I'm Stepping Out 17: You Are Here 18: Borrowed Time 19: Happy Xmas (War Is Over) 20: Woman 21: Mind Games 22: Out Of The Blue 23: Whatever Gets You Thru The Night 24: Love 25: Mother 26: Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) 27: Woman Is The Nigger Of The World 28: God 29: Scared 30: #9 Dream 31: I'm Losing You (Anthology Version) 32: Isolation 33: Cold Turkey 34: Intuition 35: Gimme Some Truth 36: Give Peace A Chance 37: Real Love 38: Grow Old With Me

Editoral Review On October 9, 2005, John Lennon would have turned 65, if only. . Instead, the former Beatles leader and endlessly complex rock icon remains forever frozen in time, basking in the warm reception of his 1980 return to recording after a long, self-imposed exile from the music business. But this two-disc, 38-track collection does more than merely commemorate the landmark birthday Lennon tragically never celebrated; it's arguably the best compact overview of his often conflicted post-Fabs career. Considering he spent fully half the decade chronicled here in semi-retirement, it's a remarkably robust and diverse body of work, whether focused on sloganeering agit-prop ("Power to the People," "Woman is the Nigger of the World," "Give Peace a Chance," "Working Class Hero"), semi-autobiographical musings that ranged from the harrowing ("Cold Turkey," "Mother") to the unabashedly sentimental ("Oh Yoko!," "Watching the Wheels," "Starting Over"). "Imagine" and "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" may showcase one of the era's most wide-eyed idealists, but the range of emotions cataloged in much of his other work argue that John Lennon was a bundle of emotional and philosophical complexities. As Yoko One once noted, "People have wanted to box him in. . But he was a very human, three-dimensional person. . . Sometimes he was angry, sometimes he was sad, sometimes he was very vulnerable and sweet. All of that was going on in every period of his life. " This set never sidesteps those complications; indeed, the songs collected here thrive on them. --Jerry McCulley .. You can see a complete list of all John Lennon discography, or go back to the John Lennon tabs