50th Anniversary 180g Vinyl 2LP Reissue Completely Remixed from the Original Multitracks at Abbey Road Studios by Engineer Paul Hicks and Mastered at Half-Speed with Second LP of Unreleased Stereo Outtakes for Each Song!

From the haunting, funereal bells and emotional wails of opening track "Mother," it was immediate – John Lennon's first solo studio album was unlike anything he had made before. Recorded in 1970, shortly after the demise of The Beatles, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band saw John stripping away the artifice and ornamentation for a visceral artistic exorcism that was confessional, raw, painfully honest, and revelatory.

Inspired by the primal scream psychotherapy he and wife Yoko Ono had been practicing with Dr. Arthur Janov, John, joined by the minimalist Plastic Ono Band - Ringo Starr on drums and Klaus Voorman on bass, and producer Phil Spector – confronted his demons, professed his love for his wife, railed against false idols and declared the dream was over on his most personal album. Today it stands as the towering achievement of his solo career – the moment the biggest rock star in the world bared his soul for all to hear – as real as it was revolutionary.

In April 2021, Yoko Ono Lennon and Capitol/UMe celebrate 50 years of John's transformational and influential masterpiece with this gatefold 180g vinyl 2LP reissue which was completely remixed from the original multitracks at Abbey Road Studios by triple Grammy Award winning engineer Paul Hicks, overseen by producer Yoko Ono Lennon. The reissue also includes a second LP of outtakes. All of the tracks were mastered at half-speed. An accompanying booklet and a War Is Over! poster round out the package.

The unreleased stereo outtakes of each song were mixed with a balance and EQ more akin to the original album mixes, with a little bit of additional effects – in the style of a "rough listening mix" that John & Yoko and Spector would have used to play them back at Abbey Road. Highlights include "Mother" (Take 61) which removes the opening bell and has the drums mixed in mono, "Love" (Take 6) with John performing the song on acoustic guitar without the aid of Spector on piano and the first rehearsal of "Remember" (Rehearsal 1), which started off as a slower, more subdued, song than the rollicking one it evolved into, "Well Well Well" (Take 2) which ends with an instrumental jam, and the alternate clawhammer strumming on "Look At Me" (Take 2).