John Lennon - The Ultimate Mind Games Anthology (Bootleg)

Size: 461 MB
Bitrate: 320
mp3
Found in OuterSpace
Some Artwork Included
Excellent Sound Quality

The “mountain” on the cover of John Lennon’s 1973 Mind Games album is the face of his wife, Yoko Ono. Lennon had designed the cover himself. It is seen by many as symbolism for John walking away from Ono’s huge influence on him. The Lennon’s had split up in mid-1973, around the time the recording sessions for Mind Games was to begin. Their separation was to last 18-months before they reconciled.

Mind Games is John Lennon's fourth album, and was recorded at Record Plant Studios in summer 1973, and released in November of that year. The album was Lennon's first self-produced recording without help from Phil Spector. Like his previous album, the politically topical and somewhat abrasive Some Time in New York City, Mind Games was poorly received by some music critics upon release, but its reissue has been met with more favourable reviews. It reached number 13 in the UK and number 9 in the US, where it was certified gold.

The album was recorded while Lennon was having difficulties with US immigration and at the beginning of his 18-month separation from Yoko Ono. The title track was released as a single at the same time as the album. The album itself was later reissued several times throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Background:
By the start of 1973, John Lennon began distancing himself from the political and social issues he had embraced in the previous 18 months. It was also around this time that he and his wife, Yoko Ono, were going through marital problems. As Ono was completing her fourth album, Feeling the Space, Lennon decided he also wanted to record a new album, and liked the studio musicians that their assistant and production coordinator May Pang had assembled for Ono's album. Shortly thereafter, he asked Pang to book them for his sessions. Wanting to produce an album that would be more accepted than his previous politically charged commercial flop Some Time in New York City, Lennon began writing and demoing a few songs for Mind Games in his Greenwich Village apartment. He began composing after a period of almost a year of not writing any material.

Amid frequent court appearances battling to stay in the US, Lennon became stressed, a situation that was only worsened by constant surveillance by the FBI, due to his political activism. Lennon said "I just couldn't function, you know? I was so paranoid from them tappin' the phone and followin' me." All this combined made Lennon begin to feel emotionally withdrawn. Lennon put his suffering aside to write the songs for Mind Games, writing all the songs for it in a week.

John Lennon - Mind Games - UK Single 1973

Under the moniker of "The Plastic U.F.Ono Band", Lennon engaged the services of session drummer Jim Keltner, guitarist David Spinozza, Gordon Edwards on bass, Arthur Jenkins on percussion, Michael Brecker on saxophone, Ken Ascher on piano and organ, and the vocal backing of a group called Something Different. Difficulties between Lennon and Ono became more and more noticeable around this time. Just as the sessions were to get under way in June at New York's Record Plant Studios, John and Yoko separated. At Ono's urging, Pang became Lennon's companion and lover in what would become an 18-month relationship later renowned as Lennon's 'lost weekend'.

Mind Games was recorded between July and August 1973 in Lennon's characteristic quick fashion, and was mixed over a two-week period. Lennon produced the album by himself, following after a previous two-year partnership with Phil Spector. When the album was remixed in 2002, many audio anomalies hidden in the original mixing were uncovered. Some rough mixes appear on bootlegs and on 1997's John Lennon Anthology. The album continues Lennon's previous attempts to chronicle his life through his songs. The tone of this album is a range of mixed feelings from sombre and melodic songs directed to Ono ("Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)", "One Day (At a Time)", "Out the Blue", and "You Are Here"), to more light-hearted and optimistic tracks ("Intuition", "Only People") and a few that indulge Lennon's affinity for pure rock 'n' roll ("Tight A$" and "Meat City").

The title track (with its "love is the answer" refrain and call to "make love not war") was begun during the Beatles' Get Back sessions under the name "Make Love, Not War", Lennon recorded demos of the re-titled "Mind Games" on 28 and 29 December 1970 at his home studio, Ascot Sound Studios. "Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)", "Only People" and the three-second silent "Nutopian International Anthem" were the only political tracks on the album. 

The latter referred to "Nutopia: The Country of Peace", a conceptual country which the Lennons had announced at a press conference in New York City on April Fool's Day 1973. "I Know (I Know)" features lyrics in which Lennon apologises for his thoughtlessness and discusses the causes of his insecurity. On some of the rough mixes that have appeared on bootlegs, the time-consuming overdubbing on the song is apparent, as Lennon gradually refined the arrangement. The Mind Games closer, "Meat City", contains a Lennon curse, "Fuck a pig!", sped up and backwards, while the mix used on the "Mind Games" single B-side gives the same treatment to the phrase "Check the album!".

"Rock and Roll People" was also recorded during the album's sessions and given to Johnny Winter for his John Dawson Winter III album. Lennon's version wasn't released until 1986's posthumous Menlove Ave. album.

Release, reception and aftermath:
Tony King, vice president of Apple Records in Los Angeles at the time, convinced Lennon to promote Mind Games, arranging interviews for Lennon with Billboard and Record World.[6] He also persuaded Lennon to do a television commercial in which King dressed up as the Queen of England and waltzed with Lennon (the commercial session can be seen in the 1988 film Imagine: John Lennon). King reprised his role as the Queen for several radio spots.

The title track was released as a single on Apple Records on 29 October and 16 November 1973, in the US and UK respectively. The single reached number 26 in the UK, and peaked in the US at number 18. The album was released on 2 November and 16 November 1973, in the US and UK respectively, around the same time as Ono's Feeling the Space. The album charted at number 13 in the UK, while in the US it peaked at number 9. The album sold better than Lennon's previous album, Some Time in New York City.

John Lennon - Mind Games - France Single 1973

Lennon created the Mind Games album cover himself, hand-cutting the photos. The front and back covers are similar; on the back sleeve Lennon is more toward the foreground, representing his symbolic walking away from Ono and her apparent mountainous influence on him.

Rolling Stone magazine assessed the album as "his worst writing yet" and found Lennon to be "helplessly trying to impose his own gargantuan ego upon an audience ... waiting hopefully for him to chart a new course". Writing for Allmusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album: "While the best numbers are among Lennon's finest, there's only a handful of them, and the remainder of the record is simply pleasant."

The album was reissued in the US on Capitol Records in 1978 and 1980, with the latter being a budget reissue. In the UK, the album was reissued on EMI's budget label, Music for Pleasure (MFP), on 28 November 1980, featuring a different album cover. 

John Lennon - Mind Games - Japan Single 1973

After Lennon's death in December 1980, the album, along with seven other Lennon albums, was reissued by EMI as part of a box set, which was released in the UK on 15 June 1981. 

It was first issued on CD on 3 August 1987, this time on the Parlophone label, and several months later on 22 March 1988 in the US on the Capitol label. In 2002, a remixing of Mind Games for its remastered reissue, containing three previously unreleased demo recordings, was overseen by Allan Rouse, which was released on 21 October 2002 in the UK, and almost a month later in the US, on 5 November 2002. It was reissued again by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in 2004 on CD and LP. 

In 2010, the original mix was remastered as part of the re-release of the entire John Lennon catalogue, the album was available separately or as part of the John Lennon Signature Box.

The Original UK album : (Not included in this Bootleg):
01. "Mind Games" – 4:13
02. "Tight A$" – 3:37
03. "Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)" – 4:44
04. "One Day (At a Time)" – 3:09
05. "Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)" – 4:12
06. "Nutopian International Anthem" – 0:03
07. "Intuition" – 3:08
08. "Out the Blue" – 3:23
09. "Only People" – 3:23
10. "I Know (I Know)" – 3:49
11. "You Are Here" – 4:08
12. "Meat City" – 2:45

Disc 1: The Alternate Album 
01. Mind Games  04:11
02. Tight A$  04:25  
03. Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)  04:43  
04. One Day (At A Time)  03:20
05. Bring On The Lucie (Freda People)  04:16
06. Nutopian International Anthem  00:04
07. Intuition  02:52
08. Out The Blue  04:12
09. Only People  03:05  
10. I Know (I Know)  03:46
11. You Are Here  04:39
12. Meat City  02:34
13. Radio Spot 1  00:59
14. Radio Spot 2  00:46

The Sessions:
15. Rock'n'Roll People  04:22
16. Rock'n'Roll People  03:09
17. Rock'n'Roll People  06:03
18. Rock'n'Roll People  02:44
19. Rock'n'Roll People  02:59

Disc 2: The Alternates
01. Tight A$  04:44
02. Tight A$  04:14
03. Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)  04:45
04. One Day (At A Time)  03:15
05. Out The Blue  04:13
06. Out The Blue  03:21
07. Only People  02:51
08. I Know (I Know)  03:42
09. I Know (I Know)  03:49
10. I Know (I Know)  01:00
11. I Know (I Know)  03:42
12. Meat City  02:54

The Demos:
13. I Promise  01:56
14. Make Love, Not War  03:31
15. Rock'n'Roll People  03:40
16. Call My Name  05:19
17. Call My Name  04:33
18. Call My Name  05:18

Disc 3: The Demos Continue
01. Shoeshine
02. Free The People
03. Meat City
04. Meat City
05. Rock'n'Roll People
06. Tight A$
07. Intuition
08. Intuition
09. Here We Go Again
10. I Know (I Know)
11. I Know (I Know)
12. I Know (I Know)
13. I Know (I Know)
14. I Know (I Know)
15. I Know (I Know)
16. I Know (I Know)
17. I Know (I Know)
18. I Know (I Know)
19. Just Because
20. Just Because
21. Just Because
22. Steel And Glass

Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
Part 3: Link
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Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
Part 3: Link
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Mind Games Poster 1973