Lennon Legend [DVD]

Many of the songs are accompanied by complete videos (e.g. "Imagine" - the famous John & Yoko walkabout around their estate and "Instant Karma" an interesting mimed Top Of The Pops Performance)whilst many more are accompanied by haphazard scatterbombing of moving image focussing on key phases of Lennon's life - police arrest,the long haired eccentricity, his love for Yoko, New York politicism, the contented bread making family man, his untimely death and his hero worship directly afterwards. Credit must go to Yoko for allowing such an open account to be made commercially available for the fan. Overall Lennon's life, though cut short, appeared to be a personal triumph moving from the insecure and confused Beatle to the contented mature adult.

The highlight from the main package was the newly made "Irish" video that accompanied "Just Like Starting Over" clearly produced by the same stable that made the Beatles "Free As A Bird". If there is criticism to be levelled the "Power To The People" images were a little hectoring (as is the song of course)and the home video of Sean for "Beautiful Boy" may have been too personal?

DVD extras include his cartoon animations,a picture gallery tastefully set to the instrumental behind "Imagine" and most impressively a video clip from Lennon's last live performance.

1. Nice to see the OTHER version of the TOTP 'Instant Karma'. The one on the DVD is the black polo neck version. The one on the 'John Lennon Video Collection' was the flowery shirt/denim jacket version.

2. REALLY annoyed to see that for 'Cold Turkey' they've overdubbed the single version on to of the live version footage from 'Live In NYC'. The video made for the single is GREAT. Why substitute this??

3. The video for 'Mind Games' is so lovely to see. John wandering around surrounded by people who are obviously surprised and pleased to see him. Imagine wandering around NY (im not sure thats where it is , having never been , but I presume it is) and seeing JOHN LENNON! What GREAT footage and it saddens me watching it when you realise that was it was this ability, for him to wander around and not get TOO hassled, that ultimately killed him. Fantastic film but also, the saddest on the whole of the DVD. Made me cry in fact! I so wish I could wander about outside and bump into the late great Winston O'Boogie! I look at all those people in the video and think 'You lucky baskets!' :(

4. Loads of the videos have had stuff added in and/or taken away so that means in order to still have the originals we need to hold on to our vidoes of the 'John Lennon Video Collection'. For example 'Give Peace A chance' has been changed, there's lots of footage missing of the bed in recording with footage of war and conflict and marches added in. I would have prefered to have the ORIGINAL promo made in the 60's for the promotion of the single AT THE TIME. Lots of the 84 videos have also been tampered with. 'Nobody Told Me' includes a false start, but with footage from 1972 on the
screen and they've tried to make it look like we are seeing the recording of this song but we're not (cos we know!). The song also ends and doesnt fade and they've grabbed clips of John where he COULD be saying what we're hearing but we aren't. While it looks ok and we can pretend, I'm not sure if I like it.

5. Oh, and why exactly did John and Yoko wander around New York with stethoscopes, sticking them on every one and everything? What was that all originally filmed for?

6. I DO like how a lot of the songs don't fade and you get to hear how they really ended. ('Give Peace A Chance' and 'Nobody Told Me' being 2 that I remember)

7. I wonder why alot of re-editing of videos was done? The beginning of the original 'Nobody Told Me' has gone (the whispering bit), many bits have been moved about or taken out competely. I don't get it.

Anyway I see I've waffled on a lot. I'm not moaning, just making comment. It's a great DVD but I thought I'd be able to get rid of my old video. I can't. A lot of stuff isn't here.

One thing i forgot to mention was the new video to 'Starting Over'. It is truly SO sad!! It starts off with Johns quote about being 64 years old and living off the coast of Ireland with Yoko looking at their scrapbook of madness. It then goes on to show what could have been John and Yokos retirement home, filmed off the coast of Ireland (by the same bloke who did 'Free As A Bird'?). We get to see in the house, Johns old guitars and amps, old writings and set out on the table, all old photos, as if John's putting together his aforementioned scrapbook. Then a wind come along, blows away all the old photos and we end up flying around the sky with the photos. A cartoon drawing of John and Yoko then flys around for a bit before disapearing in a puff of cartoon smoke. The camera pans back down to earth and the IMAGINE memorial in Central Park and we see the Dakota, and then youcome back to earth and are reminded that John didn't get to 64 and all what we just saw was what we all wish HAD of been. It's VERY moving.

This reminds me, at the end of too many of the videos we are reminded what happened on Dec 8th 1980. Makes for depressing watching when a lot of the videos make you remember constantly that John was taken away!!

Regards
Mark Jones

I must mention the video to "Starting Over" as it is one of the best on the DVD. I get really nostalgic when watching it and I find myself wondering 'what would he be like today' as this video is really touching. It's just all the little bits in the corner of the screen you have to look out for....

Plus as its a DVD there's all the extras on it as well. It's nice to see John Lennon in 2003 and may he long keep reappearing in our lives.