Tuesday, November 11, 2008

JL - Roots

PW: Henry's Archive

6 comments:

: said...

The rarest album in John Lennon's solo canon, Roots was originally conceived in settlement of a copyright case lodged against the singer by publisher Morris Levy, following Lennon's use of a Chuck Berry lyric in the Beatles' "Come Together." Lennon agreed to record three songs published by Levy as part of his next album, and conceived a collection of covers paying tribute to his own 1950s roots -- the hijacked Berry number, "You Can't Catch Me," amusingly, among them. The project was delayed following the abandonment of the original recording sessions with producer Phil Spector, but Lennon finally presented Levy with a 15-song reference tape of the recordings in late 1974. Just weeks later, in February 1975, Levy's Adam VIII label began running television commercials promoting Roots, a mail-order album subtitled, indeed, John Lennon Sings the Great Rock & Roll Hits. Capitol, Lennon's regular label, immediately issued their own revised version of the same LP, Rock 'n' Roll, simultaneously initiating legal action against Adam VIII. Roots was withdrawn and, following three years of litigation, all unsold copies of the LP were delivered to Lennon (presumably for destruction) in 1977. Among fans and collectors, however, there is no question as to which version of the album is superior. Not only does Roots feature substantially different, and much rawer, mixes of the Rock 'n' Roll material, it also includes two songs omitted from the Capitol set -- a tremendous version of "Be My Baby" and a shimmering "Angel Baby." Both have since been released on sundry posthumous Lennon releases, but you really cannot beat hearing them in context. ~ All Music Guide

01. Be-Bop-A-Lula
02. Ain't That A Shame
03. Stand By Me
04. Sweet Little Sixteen
05. Rip It Up
06. Angel Baby
07. Do You Want To Dance
08. You Can't Catch Me
09. Bony Maronie
10. Peggy Sue
11. Bring It On Home To Me
12. Slippin' & Slidin'
13. Be My Baby
14. Ya Ya
15. Just Because
16. Here We Go Again
17. Since My Baby Left Me
18. To Know Her Is To Love
19. Do You Want To Dance 2
20. Be My Baby 2
21. Just Because 2
22. Be My Baby 3

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately Lennon Roots link is unavailable. Will you fix it, please?
gtorzecki@wp.pl

: said...

patience, this will take some time.
henry

: said...

New link,there you go

Anonymous said...

Hi Henry,
Thanks for Lennon but in future I think you should not be so straightforward in naming your files - they should not be recognizable on the first glance.
Many, many others blogers don't do it due to the obvious reasons.
Greg

: said...

you're so right