‘John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’ Gets Massive 50th-Anniversary Reissue

Yoko Ono Lennon and Capitol/UMe will celebrate the 50th anniversary of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band with a massive reissue, out April 16th.

The super deluxe edition boasts 159 tracks — 87 of which have never been released — across six CDs and two Blu-ray discs. It contains unreleased demos, rehearsals, outtakes, jams, and studio conversations. The project was overseen by Ono, using the same audio team that worked on the 2018 Imagine box set (engineers Paul Hicks, Rob Stevens, and Sam Gannon). The announcement is accompanied by a new mix of “Mother,” which you can hear above.

The super deluxe version also includes a 132-page book detailing the songs with new and archival interviews, as well as a poster of “War is over! (If you want it) Love and Peace from John & Yoko,” and two postcards.

The reissue is also paired down to smaller editions, from a single CD to a two-LP set (tracklist below), the latter of which is pressed on 180-gram vinyl and released with an eight-page booklet. It’s currently available for preorder here.

“With the Plastic Ono Band albums, John and I liked the idea of this really raw, basic, truthful reality that we were going to be giving to the world,” Ono writes in the book’s preface. “We were influencing other artists, giving them courage, giving dignity to a certain style of vulnerability and strength that was not accepted in society at the time. It was a revolution for a Beatle to say, ‘Listen: I’m human, I’m real.’ It took a lot of courage for him to do it.”

The reissue follows the book John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band, as well as the box set Gimme Some Truth. The Ultimate Mixes — released on what would have been Lennon’s 80th birthday. It was produced by Sean Ono Lennon, who spoke about his father’s solo work with Rolling Stone last fall.

 

 

John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band – The Ultimate Collection 2LP Tracklist

Side A: The Ultimate Mixes

1. Mother
2. Hold On
3. I Found Out
4. Working Class Hero 5. Isolation

Side B: The Ultimate Boxes

1. Remember
2. Love
3. Well Well Well
4. Look At Me
5. God
6. My Mummy’s Dead

Side C: The Ultimate Mixes/Outtakes

1. Mother/Take 61
2. Hold On/Take 2
3. I Found Out/Take 1
4. Working Class Hero/Take 1 5. Isolation/Take 23

Side D: The Ultimate Mixes/Outtakes

1. Remember/Rehearsal 1 2. Love/Take 8
3. Well Well Well/Take 2
4. Look At Me/Take 2
5. God/Take 27
6. My Mummy’s Dead/Take 2