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GIMME SOME TRUTH.
‘John was a brilliant man with a great sense of humour and understanding. He believed in being truthful and that the power of the people will change the world. And it will. All of us have the responsibility to visualize a better world for ourselves and our children. The truth is what we create. It’s in our hands.’
– Yoko Ono Lennon, 2020
John Lennon
Produced by Sean Ono Lennon
Track Listing
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JOHN LENNON.
GIMME SOME TRUTH.
THE ULTIMATE MIXES.
THE BEST OF JOHN LENNON.
COMPLETELY REMIXED
FROM THE ORIGINAL
MULTITRACKS.
In everything he did, John Lennon spoke his truth and questioned the truth. An incomparable and uncompromising artist who strove for honesty and directness in his music, he laid bare his heart, mind and soul in his songs, seeing them as snapshots of his current emotions, thoughts and world view.
Believing the one quality demanded of himself as an artist was to be completely honest, he did not disguise what he had to say or conform his messages to be more in line with what he felt others thought they should be. Love, heartbreak, peace, politics, truth, lies, the media, racism, feminism, religion, mental well-being, marriage, fatherhood – he sang about it all, and one just needs to listen to the songs of John Lennon to know how he felt, what he cherished, what he believed in, and what he stood for.
On October 9th, 2020, John Lennon’s 80th Birthday, ‘GIMME SOME TRUTH.’, a collection of some of the most vital and best loved songs from his solo career, was released in celebration of his remarkable life.
Executive Produced by Yoko Ono Lennon and Produced by Sean Ono Lennon, these thirty-six songs, handpicked by Yoko and Sean, were all completely remixed from scratch, radically upgrading their sonic quality and presenting them as never-before.
Mixed and engineered by multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Paul Hicks with assistance from engineer Sam Gannon, the songs were completely remixed using brand new transfers of the original multi-tracks, cleaned up to the highest possible sonic quality.
After weeks of painstaking preparation, the final mixes and effects were completed using only vintage analog equipment and effects at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles (formerly A&M Studios, where John had recorded some of the Rock ‘n’ Roll album), and then mastered in analog at Abbey Road Studios by Alex Wharton in order to ensure the most beautiful and authentic sound quality possible.
GIMME SOME TRUTH. – named for Lennon’s 1971 excoriating rebuke of deceptive politicians, hypocrisy and war, a sentiment as relevant as ever in our post-truth era of fake news, is available in a variety of formats including as a Deluxe Edition Box Set that offers several different ways to listen to this engrossing 36-track collection with stunning new mixes across two CDs alongside a Blu-ray audio disc containing the Ultimate Mixes in Studio Quality 24 bit/96 kHz HD Stereo, immersive 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos.
‘I’m sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
I’ve had enough of reading things by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth, just give me some truth’– John Lennon, 1971
GIMME SOME TRUTH. traces the arc of Lennon’s post-Beatles life and career, bringing together songs from all of his revered solo albums including John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), Imagine (1971), Some Time In New York City (1972), Mind Games (1973), Walls and Bridges (1974), Rock ‘n’ Roll (1975), Double Fantasy (1980) and 1984’s posthumous Milk and Honey.
The collection is bookended with his early non-album singles, kicking off with the one-two punch of ‘Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)‘, Lennon’s exuberant exhortation about the karmic forces of action/reaction and equality (‘we all shine on like the moon and the stars and the sun’) and the electrifying addiction-themed ‘Cold Turkey‘, culminating with the holiday classic ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)‘ and the anti-war protest anthem ‘Give Peace A Chance‘, with its ubiquitous, titular call to action: ‘All we are saying is Give Peace A Chance.’
Sequenced in chronological order by album they were released on, songs on the 36-track version include all of Lennon’s biggest hits and showcase his thoughts, beliefs and convictions about everything from peace (‘Imagine’, ‘Give Peace A Chance’, ‘Happy Xmas (War Is Over)’), religion (‘God’), politics (‘Power To The People’, ‘Working Class Hero’), lying politicians (‘Gimme Some Truth’), racism (‘Angela’), equality (‘Woman’), love and marriage (‘Love’, ‘Oh Yoko!’, ‘Dear Yoko’, ‘Mind Games’, ‘Out The Blue’, ‘Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him’, ‘Grow Old With Me’), fatherhood (‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’), loneliness (‘Isolation’) and much more.
Some of the many other highlights include the sonically sumptuous ‘Jealous Guy’ and ‘#9 Dream’, the acerbic ‘How Do You Sleep?’, the breezy, carefree ‘Watching The Wheels’, a rollicking live recording of ‘Come Together’ that he had originally recorded with The Beatles, the rapturous Elton John collaboration ‘Whatever Gets You Thru The Night’, and the jubilant, bittersweet ‘I’m Stepping Out’.
When listened to in sequence, GIMME SOME TRUTH. plays both like one of the greatest-ever live Lennon concerts, and an emotional telling of his life story from just after the breakup of The Beatles, to falling in love and marrying Yoko, his peace activism, personal soul-searching, inspiration, celebration, confusion, reunion, fatherhood, his five-year break from music while raising Sean, and his triumphant return into the ‘80s with two new albums.
Throughout these incredible, timeless songs we experience the many facets of John Lennon: the songwriter, the revolutionary, the musician, the husband, the truth-teller, the dad, the provocateur, the peace activist, the artist, the icon.
GIMME SOME TRUTH. → Limited Edition WHITEOUT Box Set for Record Store Day 2023
For Record Store Day 2023, GIMME SOME TRUTH. was stylishly reformatted in a Deluxe WHITEOUT Box Set Edition comprising 9 white vinyl 10″ 45rpm audiophile EP discs (4 tracks per disc), mastered & recut by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios, sleeved and slipcased with unique Whiteout versions of the booklet, poster, postcards and bumper sticker.
John Lennon was a man who never separated his strong beliefs from his creative output and his public persona – something that is more relevant in a world beset by politics, celebrities afraid to speak out and a time where it feels all the more urgent than ever that we fight for what we believe in.
For the album cover, the Song/Album title has been turned into a statement and the arrow pointing directly into Lennon’s ear from this. The title ‘GIMME SOME TRUTH.’ is really what we all ask from art, music, anything creative – that you show the right way, that you speak as honestly as you can and you express truth about living as a human being.
The arrow into the ear is a reference to music generally but more that Lennon was inspired by music and words to tell his truth, so this can be a way to inspire us all too from his music that is full of the truth and honesty we want to hear.
As long-standing supporters of Independent Record Stores around the world, the John Lennon Estate are excited and proud to be able to join the spirit of Record Store Day with this new, exclusive, limited edition release and re-imagining of GIMME SOME TRUTH.
