This album offers the listener a great sampling of Lennon's entire discography. Certainly, arguments can be made about songs that should or should not have been included, but this collection represents a noble and much-appreciated effort to keep alive the memory, music, and genius of an artist struck down much too soon. Imagine what could have been, but enjoy and appreciate what was.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:

AN APPROPRIATE SOUNDTRACK TO MANY LIVES  Feb 28, 2004
By PETER XUEREB
This album has been available on CD since it's original release in 1988. It's funny reading the reviews here because they appear to be very recent and apparently written by people who've never seen the "Imagine: John Lennon" film or heard "Real Love" before the Beatles reformed & did it for their Anthology series. Why include this acoustic version you may ask instead of the "other demo"? Well watch the opening of the film and you'll hear this simple and beautiful performance as we "skim the tree tops of Ascot", England. This is the soundtrack to that film...it's not designed to be yet another Beatles/Lennon compilation but instead includes some rather amazing & influential musical highlights from the film.
The selection of Lennon's Beatles work is quite illuminating. With "Twist & Shout" as the only nod to the "Beatlemania" years, the rest of these tracks stem (mostly) from their post '65 period. John's lyrics had evolved and become personal & /or autobiographical (Help!/In My Life/Julia/Ballad Of John & Yoko/Don't Let Me Down), creative (Strawberry Field Forever/A Day In The Life) & socially conscious (Revolution).
This links very well to John's solo work which seems to concentrate on his early 1970/71 "Plastic Ono Band/Imagine" period & his later "Double Fantasy" stuff but has very little in between. In fact their isn't a more stark or dramatic contrast that between John's "God" where he excorsises his personal demons while disowning what was once important to him (Elvis, Beatles, Dylan..), and his simple but hopefully optimistic "Imagine", a song that has stood as an "ode for world peace" for the last 30+ years. The inclusion of the rehearsal version of "Imagine" is very interesting as a pointer to the finished work. "Stand By Me", from his "Rock & Roll" LP is the solitary representation of his "Peace Activism" & Lost Weekend" stages thus "Sometime In New York City", "Mind Games" & "Wall & Bridges" LP's are not represented at all. The "Double Fantasy" period features "Woman", "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)" & "(Just Like) Starting Over".
At the time there may have also been a conscious effort to keep this album down to a single CD (I think it was originally a Double vinyl LP - I might be wrong). However whatever the reason, this album is quite an enjoyable experience and highly recommended, even as an abridged intro to both The Beatles & John Lennon. At the same time it could also be the soundtrack to many of our lives..it is for mine.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

I am a beatlemaniac of 35 years  Jul 14, 2000
By Sam Sagittarius "imagik"
Well if you want insight into the man and the music of John Lennon, this is a good one CD purchase. I know most everybody has all the pieces on the CD BUT you don't have them all on one representing John's life. When I feel I need to remember this man and his work this is the CD that I put on. It also reminds what happens to a man's work that is left behind. If you listen to REAL LOVE on this CD you will understand that the remake of it for the anthology was totally off the original concept by John. I think this is a good compilation of music of his life.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

what the world could be !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mar 10, 2006
By cvairag
If anyone ever bothered to ask me who my favorite Beatle was (I'd probably have to reincarnate in a time-warp as a 14 year old girl back in 1963 for it to happen), I'd say unquestionably, John. John Lennon was the most important poet in English in the second half of the twentieth century (including Bob Dylan, Mick Jaggar, Dylan Thomas, Bukowski, Seamus Heany, whoever), hands down. His "greatest hits" collections read like synopses of every issue central to the age. No poet is more topical, deeper feeling, more essential on the things that count most. His musical genius still resonates within us - indisputably - but many of the lyrics are immortal. I've felt at times that should humanity still be around a couple of centuries hence, much of rock & roll, as a phenomenon, will be regarded as a footnote to the work of Lennon. I make this claim based of the fact that for humanity to survive, the world is, necessarily, going to have to look like what John envisages in his crowning masterpiece "Imagine". The soundtrack to the film made about him bearing the title of that wonderful song is my favorite collection in short format and belongs in every home, if not for you, then for your descendents, as a reminder of what the best of this age was, and what we could have been, had everyone been able to listen.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

Good stuff  Jan 03, 2003
By Angelsea "clz"
This album is the perfect epidemy of anything a person could ever ask for in a CD. Anything you could possibly want is on this album. Easy listening music, insightful lyrics, decent Voorman guitar, the works! It's all here! Flawless album.

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