MIND GAMES

Anchored by the buoyant peace-and-love anthem, ‘Mind Games’, John Lennon’s fourth album of the same name, was surprisingly written and recorded during an incredibly tumultuous time in the rock legend’s life. In 1973, at age 33, John found himself in personal and political upheaval. A years-long deportation battle with U.S. immigration continued to rage on while his high-profile anti-Nixon campaigning, anti-Vietnam war activism, as well as the overtly political messages on his polarizing 1972 album, Sometime in New York City, made him a target of a newly elected Richard Nixon, leading to surveillance by the FBI.

This was the dramatic backdrop as John entered NYC’s Record Plant in August ’73 with a select band of world-class session musicians, jokingly named The Plastic U.F.Ono Band, to make his fourth post-Beatles solo album in just three years. John would channel this period of extraordinary activity to make a deeply personal and engrossing album of self-reflection that explored themes of love, heartbreak, peace, spirituality and social injustice, giving us yet another window into his life and soul, and some of his best solo songs, on Mind Games.

Released on October 29, 1973 in the U.S. and November 16 in the U.K., John Lennon’s fourth solo album, Mind Games, was recorded at the Record Plant in New York with the same musicians that played on Yoko Ono’s Feeling The Space record. With her songs having become more sophisticated, Yoko enlisted a group of experienced session musicians to help realize them, in place of the looser, jammier band Elephant Memory that played on John and Yoko’s Sometime In New York City the year prior. As a result of dipping into Yoko’s sessions with this amazing band of musicians, John became inspired to record a more commercial album with the same team. Humorously named the Plastic U.F.Ono Band, the group was a who’s who of New York’s elite session musicians, including guitarist David Spinozza, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummers Jim Keltner and Rick Marotta, pianist Ken Ascher, pedal-steel player “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow, saxophonist Michael Brecker, and was rounded out with beautiful, soulful backing vocals by Something Different, featuring Angel Coakley, Christine Wiltshire, Jocelyn Brown, and Kathy Mull.

Writing for Mind Games was nearly as quick as its recording with John writing and working out a handful of new songs the week of July 16, 1973, just two weeks before going into the studio. Recorded commenced August 1 and wrapped August 5 with overdubs taking place August 6-16, mixing August 21-September 18 and master tape assembly September 19-21. The album was self-produced by John, with production help from Yoko, and marked his first solo effort without Phil Spector at the helm. It was engineered by Roy Cicala and Dan Barbiero, with some studio assistance by a young Jimmy Iovine who started at the studio as an assistant towards the end of the sessions.

Despite most of the songs being written just before they were recorded, the title track, “Mind Games,” dates back to 1970 when it had the working title of “Make Love, Not War.” John was inspired to complete the soaring pop song after reading the 1972 book “Mind Games: The Guide to Inner Space,” written by Robert Masters and Jean Houston, which stressed the tapping of our mental potential to effect global change. In the tradition of Yoko’s “Imagine” poems, it was suggesting, “mind games” as a positive and creative idea.

Many of the tracks on Mind Games feature John chronicling his own life and the rocky relationship he was experiencing with Yoko at the time. The melancholic waltz “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)” (“Aisumimasen” is Japanese for “I’m sorry”), is John at his most vulnerable, reflecting on his relationship and the remorse for the emotional pain he’s inflicted. Standout “Out The Blue” sees John expressing his doubts over the couple’s separation as the song begins with just John and a gently strummed acoustic guitar, resembling his work with The Beatles, before the band and backing singers kick in and the song builds to a soaring climax with John singing: “Like a U.F.O., you came to me/And blew away life’s misery/Out the blue life’s energy/Out the blue you came to me.”

The lilting “One Day (At A Time),” sung by John in a rare falsetto and featuring a classic sax solo from Michael Breckeron one of his earliest sessions, is a song about enjoying the here and now and reminding that “one day at a time is all we do,” while “Tight A$” is an innuendo-laden, rollicking country rocker with the band firing on all cylinders, including some brilliant pedal steel playing by “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow. John’s politics are showcased on tracks “Bring On The Lucie (Freda People)” and “Only People,” but in a much lighter and wittier way.

At the center of Mind Games lies the “Nutopian National Anthem,” a brief, silent three-second repose. Nutopia is the imaginary country created by John and Yoko in 1973 during their immigration woes – a conceptual nation that exists only in one’s mind, without borders, founded on love and open to everyone.

Upon its original release Mind Games sold reasonably well, peaking in the U.S. at No. 9 on Billboard and No. 13 in the U.K. The track “Mind Games”, the only single released from the record, hit No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 26 in the UK. Although the album received mixed reviews in 1973, over the last 50 years it has become something of a cult classic among fans and positively reassessed by critics. Renowned music writer Anthony DeCurtis gave four-stars in Rolling Stone to the 2002 reissue while NME ranked it as John’s third best solo album, writing “there’s a Beatledelic vivacity to ‘I Know (I Know)’ and the glam-friendly ‘Only People’ that Lennon would rarely capture on record again.” Most recently, Rolling Stone chose “Mind Games” as #5 on their exhaustive list of “The 100 Best Beatles Solo Songs,” declaring, “John brings all his cosmic benevolence to ‘Mind Games’, his peace-and-love anthem. ‘Mind Games’ is John at his most unfiltered: his boyish excitement, his slide guitar, his madcap humor, his spiritual yearning, his walrus-adjacent poetry, adding, “If you ever doubt John’s genius as a singer, hear the way he stretches the word ‘mind’ out to ten syllables without letting it slip. He pushes it all way too far on ‘Mind Games.’ But that’s what makes him John Lennon.”

On 12 July 2024, The John Lennon Estate & Universal Music Recordings celebrate John Lennon’s pivotal and intensely personal 1973 album MIND GAMES with a suite of completely newly remixed and expanded Ultimate Collection editions, offering an immersive, Deep Listening experience and in-depth exploration of this classic, yet underappreciated record.

Fully authorized by Yoko Ono Lennon and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, who oversaw the production and creative direction, the Ultimate Collection is from the same audio team that worked on the critically acclaimed Imagine and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Ultimate Collections, including triple GRAMMY®-Award winning mixer/engineer Paul Hicks, mixers/engineer Sam Gannon and mixer Rob Stevens.

The definitive Ultimate Collection puts listeners in the center of the studio and explores the album’s 1973 recording sessions at the Record Plant in New York City, from inception to the final master, through scores of unreleased outtakes, unadulterated versions, instrumentals, stripped down mixes, studio chatter and more, revealing how these fan favorite songs evolved and came to life.

Yoko Ono Lennon says: ‘John was trying to convey the message that we all play mind games. But if we can play mind games, why not make a positive future with it – to be a positive mind game? ‘Mind Games’ is such an incredibly strong song. At the time, people didn’t quite get the message because this was before its time. Now, people would understand it. I don’t think in those days people knew they were playing mind games anyway.’

MIND GAMES – The Ultimate Collection

Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection offers six different unique listening experiences that are at once immersive and intimate.

THE ULTIMATE MIXES
The original Mind Games album has been faithfully remixed from the ground up by producer Sean Ono Lennon, working with triple GRAMMY-Award winning mixer and engineer Paul Hicks with additional engineering by Sam Gannon. They utilized high-definition 24 bit-192kHz audio transfers of the original first-generation multitrack recordings by Matthew Cocker at Abbey Road Studios to create the best possible recreations of the originals. The result is these new Ultimate Mixes now reveal whole new levels of sonic depth, definition and clarity, especially in 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos.

THE ELEMENTAL MIXES 
A new set created especially for the Mind Games – Ultimate Collection, The Elemental Mixes, mixed by Hicks, inhabit a world between the minimalism of the Elements Mixes and the Ultimate Mixes. Simpler stripped-back, lean-back arrangements, erring towards the acoustic, with John’s voice to the fore, and without drums.

THE ELEMENTS MIXES
The Elements Mixes, mixed by Sam Gannon, reduce the songs to the minimum amount of instruments possible. At most, only three instruments are heard at any one time. With the focus taken away from John’s vocal, the delicacy and nuance of these performers is allowed to shine through. Instrumental selections were made on a song-by-song basis – which instruments and performances should be highlighted and what other instruments would they work well together with to maintain an engaging listening experience with such a sparse arrangement. These range from just Ken Ascher’spiano and organ on “Mind Games” and “Out The Blue,” allowing one to hear his beautiful, melodic playing, to Sneaky Pete Kleinlow’s isolated rollicking pedal steel guitar on “Tight A$” to John’s electric piano and Gordon Edwards’ bass on “One Day (At A Time).”

THE EVOLUTION DOCUMENTARY
Edited, mixed and engineered by Sam Gannon, the Evolution Mixes are mini audio documentaries that explore the development of each song from their very first demo state through to the fully formed master take via in-studio development, chat and out-takes. Edited down from the original 16-track multitrack tapes, demo cassettes and other source tapes, generally each Evolution Documentary runs through the song’s sessions chronologically, starting with demos or early takes and ending with an exploration of the master take and its overdubs; highlighting different, and sometimes hidden, parts of the multitrack while including all the best method, madness, and magic heard during the creation and development of the songs. These mixes put the listener into the center of the studio with John Lennon and The Plastic U.F.Ono Band in order to hear a deep-dive into his creative process.

THE RAW STUDIO MIXES
Mixed by Rob Stevens, the Raw Studio Mixes transport listeners to the center of the Record Plant to hear exactly what was recorded during the sessions. The songs have been mixed with minimum effects, tape delays or reverbs, recreating as close to possible what these performances sounded like, raw and live. The Raw Studio Mixes stand on their own to provide an alternative listening experience, stripping away the effects, especially on John’s vocals, that were used in the production of the original album.

THE OUT-TAKES
Having reviewed all the takes from the entire recording sessions, the best alternate take of every song on the album is presented.

THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION includes previously unreleased out-takes and stems plus additional never-heard-before audio from archive ¼” reel-to-reels, cassettes, and videotapes.

All of the tracks have been completely remixed from scratch from the 15 original two-inch multitrack session tapes using brand new 192-24 digital transfers.

An array of listening options, including High-Definition, studio quality 192kHz/24bit audio in stereo and enveloping 5.1 Surround and Dolby Atmos mixes, are available on Blu-ray.

Mind Games – The Ultimate Collection releases is available in a variety or formats, ranging from digital and 2CD and 2LP versions to a Deluxe box set featuring 6CDs and 2 Blu-ray discs. The pièce de résistance is a Super Deluxe Edition, a Limited Edition of only 1100 copies worldwide.

SUPER DELUXE EDITION

The John Lennon Estate and Universal Music Recordings are very pleased to present this unique Collector’s Edition Super Deluxe Box Set, Strictly Numbered, Limited Edition of only 1100 pieces. This all-encompassing Time Capsule of the JOHN LENNON MIND GAMES album sessions and era contains two Limited Edition Reproduction Artworks by John Lennon & Yoko Ono with Certificates of Authenticity as well as a Hologram-Engraved EP, 9LPs (including 2 Zoetrope Picture Discs), 6CDs, 2 Blu-Rays, 2 Books, 4 posters, 6 postcards, 2 maps, 3 badges, Word Puzzle, Bespoke I-Ching Coins, Declaration of Nutopia replica, Nutopian Flag, Nutopian Seal Stamp and Nutopian Embassy replica plaque.

Truly a work of art and in a class of its own, the SUPER DELUXE EDITION Box Set is, in essence, a time capsule into John and Yoko’s world around the writing and recording of Mind Games, including the times leading up to and after its release in 1973.

As innovative as it is elaborate, the Super Deluxe box set is presented in a 13-inch cube, a perspex reproduction of Yoko’s 1966 artwork “Danger Box.” Once lifted, four sides, featuring artwork from Mind Games on shiny mirror board fall to reveal nine individual boxes of various shapes and sizes interlocked together, each with its own look and focus.

Hidden throughout the comprehensive and creative set are many Easter Eggs, some of which can only be revealed by using other items in the box to see them, along with loads of other hidden secrets, surprises, puzzles, and “mind games”. The box is housed inside a striking 13” packing container cube adorned with custom art.

THE SUPER DELUXE EDITION includes:

THE STANDARD DELUXE EDITION BOX

The Deluxe Edition presents Mind Games in a 10” x 10” box, identical in size and shape to the Gimme Some Truth, Imagine – The Ultimate Collection and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The Ultimate Collection boxes, and features 72 tracks across six CDs and two High-Definition Blu-ray Audio discs for more than seven hours of music for the most definitive listening experience. A number of hidden audio and video tracks, along with secret messages and other Easter Eggs are spread across the set.

6 CDs – including the Ultimate Mixes, Elemental Mixes, Elements Mixes, Evolution Documentary, Out-takes and Raw Studio Mixes.

2 Blu-Ray HD Audio discs – including High Definition 24-96 stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos versions of all the mixes plus the 2024 remastered “Mind Games” music video and “You Are Here” (additional out-take) tape boxes video.

136 page Glossy hardback coffee-table Book – designed and edited by Simon Hilton, the Compilation Producer and Production Manager of The Ultimate Collection series – tells the story behind each of the songs and the making of the album in the words of John & Yoko (taken from hundreds of hours of archive interviews), and the words of those who worked alongside them, through archival and brand new interviews with all the musicians and engineers. With exclusive never-before-seen photographs by Bob Gruen and exclusive photos, lyrics, letters, original tape boxes and memorabilia from the John Lennon & Yoko Ono Lennon Archives.

Triptych Poster – a reproduction of the original triptych marketing poster for the album

2 Postcards – postcard-sized reproductions of artworks made for the marketing of the album in 1973

Citizen of Nutopia ID Card – individually numbered with a QR code and word puzzle

MIND GAMES – THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION – 7x LP BOX

4 x Gatefold LPs comprising 12 Tracks each of The Ultimate Mixes, Elemental Mixes, Elements Mixes, Evolution Documentary, Out-takes and Raw Studio Mixes with 8-Page Booklet, 7 Bespoke Inner Sleeves, 2 Posters and 2 Postcards.

‘MIND GAMES’/’MEAT CITY’ – Hologram-engraved Vinyl EP

Exclusive ‘Karmic Wheel’ hologram-engraved picture disc enclosed in a reproduction of John Lennon’s Build Around It, 1968 artwork.

MIND GAMES – MAGIC BOX

The Ultimate Mixes and Out-takes on 2LP colour picture vinyl discs, visually reimagined by Zoetrope animation artist Drew Tetz with bar animation cover art and poster, 2 postcards and additional zoetrope and bar animation elements.

MIND GAMES – JOHN LENNON & YOKO ONO – 288 PAGE BOOK FROM THAMES AND HUDSON

Deep-dive coffee-table hardback book on the events of John & Yoko’s lives in 1973 including the making of the Mind Games album and all the events around it in the words of John & Yoko and the people who were there, featuring brand-new interviews with all the musicians and engineers, exclusive never-before-seen photographs by Bob Gruen, Michael Brennan, Tom Zimberov, Koh Hasabe and David Gahr and exclusive photos, lyrics, letters, original tape boxes and memorabilia from the John Lennon & Yoko Ono Lennon Archives. Unique print run in special slipcase available as part of the Super Deluxe Box Set from July 12.

Also available for OUT NOW.

NUTOPIA BOX

Declaration of Nutopia replica, Nutopian Flag, Nutopian Embassy Plaque replica, Great Seal of Nutopia stamp, You Are Here, YinYang fishes and Not Insane badges. Exclusive Reproduction Memorabilia from the Estates of John Lennon & Yoko Ono Lennon.

MAPS – JOHN LENNON’S LIVERPOOL, YOKO ONO’S TOKYO

Exclusively designed by map portrait artist Ed Fairburn, these exclusive portrait fold-out 46-inch-square maps of Liverpool (John) and Tokyo (Yoko) contain over 700 locations of interest, highlighted in Ultraviolet ink, with every location detailed in accompanying booklets.

YOKO ONO DANGER BOX, 1966 – Limited Edition Artwork Reproduction

13-inch cube perspex reproduction of Yoko Ono’s 1966 artwork with engraved plates and Certificate of Authenticity, housing the nine boxes that comprise the set.

JOHN LENNON YOU ARE HERE, 1968 – Limited Edition Canvas Artwork Reproduction

12-inch circular canvas reproduction of John Lennon’s 1968 artwork with Certificate of Authenticity.

I-CHING BOX

Bespoke John & Yoko I-Ching coins and poster.

PERSPEX WORD PUZZLE BOX

BESPOKE CARDBOARD SHIPPING CONTAINER

Featuring ‘Tenmon Bun’ya no zu’ Map of the Heavens.