Great overview (Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon - John Lennon)

Member Name: sean82uk

Product:	Lennon Legend: The Very Best Of John Lennon - John Lennon
Date:	26/09/06 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Most of the highlights

Disadvantages: No w.t.n.o.t.w, edited version of Mother lacking those primal screams

It's important to summarise his career and decide just how representative this Greatest Hits set is...
Firstly Lennon had 2 masterpiece's. The dark John Lennon-Plastic Ono Band (70) and it's slightly more commercial follow-up Imagine (71), there would be a heavy argument for these both being better then The Beatles, there genius. As well as that you have the singles around the time (instant karma, cold turkey) which were equally great.
There was Sometime In New York (72) which showed him failing (and badly at it) to become a outright protest singer in the vain of Dylan, though it did produce the great Women is the Nigger Of The World.
His early-mid-70's work Mind Games (73), Walls and Bridges (74) and Rock N' Roll (75) are often described as his 'Macca phase', because he made music just for the sake of 'making music' (unlike healing his pain, politics etc..). These years are commercial, got the 'hits' rolling in but extremely average, Lennon's weakest point in songwriting.
He then made a comeback with Double Fantasy (80), Yoko tracks aside the material was commercial, uplifting and reflected his new found love of life.
Unfortunately we all know what happened soon after.

This isn't the 1st hits set around, shaved fish (75), The Lennon Collection (82) being others but on 1st glance it makes a solid intro to this great mans Back Catalogue.
It lacks 3 songs from 1982's Lennon Collection (Dear Yoko, Move over Ms L, I'm Losing You) and gains two (Nobody told Me and Working Class Hero), The raw I'm Losing You is a sad omission. Nobody Told Me is a decent song but it doesn't equal this, but Working Class hero is a essential track so the trade off makes both sets pretty equal, both are much better then 75's Shaved Fish (though that had 'Women is the Nigger Of The World').

Ultimately you can debate over a pub table for hours what to put or leave on, despite Imagine, Jealous Guy being amazing tunes these hits albums are always going to lack so many terrific songs, especially from the 1st 2 albums God, Gimme Some Truth spring to mind. The record Co. has strike a balance of giving the listener enough without giving too much a way, and he hasn't got that many solo albums.

The tracks on there are amazing...
The early phase is there in abundance as is the pre-Beatles split singles Instant Karma and Give Peace a chance.
The raw Cold Turkey, with Clapton on guitar.
What more can be said for Imagine? as well as Jealous Guy, Mother, Working Class Hero. Lennon at his peak.
The hit singles from the middle years (Mind Games, Whatever gets you though the night, #9 Dream and stand by me) are there.
Double Fantasy gets a healthy airing. The inclusion of 2 songs from the posthumous album Milk And Honey (84) is perhaps the most suprise move, this is a good move as the album wasn't that great to begin with and this offers the creme de la creme off a otherwise patchy album.

The only real faults are the non-appearance of Women Is The Nigger Of The World. Though his outright protest days were unsuccessful both in quality and success that period was certainly interesting and does deserve a airing of this great track.
Also the edited Single version of Mother is here instead of the album version. This is a glaring fault as it misses the primal screams at the end.
Perhaps God wouldn't have gone amiss though maybe that's the big Plastic Ono Band fan talking in me.
Those minor niggles aside this makes a great introduction to his work for those who don't already own anything else.

Summary: Must buy if you can't afford to splash out on the albums