John Lennon "Compositions" Vigotone VT--191 Piano Demo fall 1970 Excellent sound! RESEED-OFFENDING TRACKS OMITTED.

RESEED NOTE: Tracks 1 & 22 are on the John Lennon Anthology in edited form. They were on the disc associated with the Mind Games LP, even though these recordings were made a few years earlier. That's why I hadn't caught it and omitted them before. My apologies to those who had to start downloading again. Here it is with those tracks omitted. Enjoy...


There's been requests for more Lennon, so here's some great fly-on-the-wall stuff: John Lennon working out songs alone at the piano in preparation for what would become the Imagine LP. The sound is great. If you're a Beatle fan, you need this.

The flacs were made from my original copy of Vigotone's "Compostions" which was released as a CD-R (as all Vigotones were at the time). Over the top packaging leads me to believe this is an original, not a knock off.

The original liner notes describe the tape better than I could, so here they are:


After the emotionally exhausting Plastic Ono Band writing and recording sessions, it was time for John to exhibit a lighter compositional touch. Perhaps showing the strain from the amount of single-minded effort that went into that LP, John in contrast seemed to be all over the place with this batch of songs an noodlings recorded in the late fall of 1970 at Tittenhurst Park estate. A rare glimpse into a single Lennon piano demo session, Compositions reveals an artist trying to find his way to what would eventually become the Imagine LP. While John's not in the best voice of his career, it's still a fascination listening experience, and has never before appeared in its entirety.

The tape begins with "Make Love Not War." This song did not appear in the next LP Imagine, but in rewritten form as the title track of 1973's Mind Games, after being combined with a song heard later on the tape, "I Promise." Both of these sound much better than the versions released officially on The John Lennon Anthology in 1998. "I'm the Greatest" also emerged in '73, but not as a Lennon track; it was the leadoff song on Ringo Starr's Ringo LP. At this point in 1970, the song was in embryonic form and had more John-oriented references than it would later have upon being handed over to the ringed one.

The next three songs all showed up the next year on Imagine. "How?" is featured as a false start, then with a complete run-through. The first pass here is a very tentative attempt with John singing in the plural. "Child of Nature" was on its way to being "Jealous Guy," but it still held on to its 1968 "Beatles in India" origins at this point. There are three false starts prior to the full performance. Next comes "Oh Yoko!" On Imagine, it is a song of joy to his wife. Here, it sounds more like a dirge in the vein of "Mother." More confident takes appear later in the tape.

Following these three eventually issued tunes, the next two songs went unreleased in John's lifetime. A track usually give the title "Sally and Billy" is up first in this duo, featured in a series of breakdowns; John never really gets the song down in this try, but he'll give it another attempt at the Dakota in 1976. Next is "Rock and Roll People," a song not released by John until the posthumous Menlove Ave. compilation in 1986, for good reason!

A highlight of this tape is the reworking of "Help!," in a much slower version than the 1965 Beatles arrangement. Around this time, John was exploring the possibility of rerecording some of his more personal Beatles' songs. This might have been an attempt to work up a new arrangement. In any event, he abandons the effort after not being able to work out the chords for the chorus. An amusing moment occurs when Yoko makes a comment and John answers, "I don't care how you want to sing it dear, I'm singing it meself at the moment..." This is followed by an improvisation that didn't exactly go anywhere, but eventually turned into a christmas message which appears in part on Vigotone's The Ultimate Beatles Christmas Collection; two takes of the message are featured here in their entirety. Next, The Impressions' spiritual call "People Get Ready" leads into a second pass of "How?" now sung in the familiar first person singular. Over and over he repeats what he's written until the final structure of the song is arrived at: a series of searching questions aimed at himself.

By this time, Yoko has made her presence know, and is heard in the background during yet another lengthy run-through of "How?." Don't worry, you'll hear more from her later. The next song, a fifties-style rocker a-la Fats Domino is unnamed but possibly titled "My Heart is in Your Hands." It's featured in a false start and a complete attempt. Too bad he never finished it, as it has some potential. John does however quickly move on to a song familiar to anyone who's bought the Beatles' Anthology 3. "Mailman Bring Me No More Blues," issued as the flip side of Buddy Holly's first solo single, "Words of Love."

Next, in the fifties vein of "Oh Darling!" comes "I Promise," the kind of apologetic ode to Yoko that he was still writing until his final days. Finally, we come to the most difficult titles to enjoy: an untitled track by John with the line "You Know How Hard it Is" being a likely title to the song (and hard indeed it is to listen to!). The tape ends with two passes at a song apparently titled "I'll Make You Happy." Yoko recorded an answer song which can be heard on Bag's Lost Lennon vol. 30. Only the truly masochistic need apply.

...and so we come to the end of this particular demo session. John and Yoko would go on the make their individual LP's Imagine and Fly, the next year and would move to New York leaving Tittenhurst and England behind for good. This piano tape is an excellent example of the post-Beatle days of Ascot creativity and some of the last home recordings John made in his native land.

Track List

1-Make Love Not War
2-I'm the Greatest
3-I'm the Greatest
4-How?
5-Child of Nature
6-Child of Nature
7-Oh Yoko!
8-Sally and Billy
9-Sally and Billy
10-Rock and Roll People
11-Oh Yoko!
12-Oh Yoko!
13-Help!
14-instrumental
15-Happy Christmas
16-Happy Christmas
17-People Get Ready/How?
18-How?
19-How?
20-My Heart is in Your Hands
21-Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues
22-I Promise
23-You Know How Hard it Is
24-I'll Make You Happy
25-I'll Make You Happy