THE LENNON LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS or JUST LIKE STARTING OVER

"Lennon's on sale again..."

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Far be it from me-a genuine John Lennon believer since the age of 8, circa 1964- to call a turn on the House of Lennon, but how many times can one (re)release the same JL stuff?

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Apparently, the answer is ad infinite.

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Or at least until Mz. Yoko Ono is no longer with us.
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Yes, of course, we Lennonites knew that October 2010 would be a
big year for JL product, and as usual, we have to take the good with the not so good.

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The best news is that we will be getting a disc of "rarities"

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The bad news is that we will have to purchase a box set of all the remastered Lennon albums to get the good stuff. And at this point, don't even know what the "good stuff" is.

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Hardly the Lennon Anthology 2.0.
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The not-bad news is the re-issue of Double Fantasy in a deluxe 2 disc format, with a stripped down mix of the album, and the regular one, remastered. But, evidently, none of the Cheap
Trick assisted sessions or other possible worthies.

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We also could have used a double of Live in New York City with both the aft and eve shows, but will get the single, regular (aft) version instead.

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(After all, YO has to leave goodies for the future.)

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And some fans are even questioning whether the original Lennon catalogue-which has seen copious "greatest hits" and themed reissued released over the past 5 years needs a remastering.

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Will have to hold judgement on that until we hear the new ones, but there has been some significant improvements in analogue to digital transfer in the past 10 years and many original analogue recordings are sounding better on the CD format.

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But also Remember, that remastering involves fiddling with balances, tone, and sound stage, something that John no longer has a say in.

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So the new remasters may sound "better," but are they really faithful?

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Finally, as one Beatle freek I know complained, why not a box set of Lost Lennon Tapes?

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It seems that much of what ran on the radio 20 years ago appeared in truncated form, so a complete rendering would be excellent.

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Perhaps the next time, Lennon's on sale again...