'Imagine' Album by John Lennon is DigitallyRemixed and Remastered At Abbey Road Studios in...

Entertainment Editors

NEW YORK--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2000

&uot;Gimme Some Truth - The Making Of John Lennon's `Imagine' Album&uot; documentary film set for April release on interactive DVD and VHS home

video, following BBC2 and Bravo premieres

Yoko

&uot;It was Ascot, England, early-summer, and we just kind of said, `Why not, OK, let's do it,' and we invited some friends and we had breakfast, and then we'd just go right into the studio. So it was really like home-cooking, and that's how Imagine was made. But we didn't know it was going to be that big.&uot;

- Yoko Ono, introduction to &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH&uot;

IMAGINE, the 1971 album by John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band which has become the subject of renewed interest (and increasingly brisk sales worldwide) at the dawn of the millennium, as well as the inspiration for a highly anticipated documentary film, has now been remixed and remastered at Abbey Road Studios in London, supervised by Yoko Ono, and will be reissued in a new version on vinyl, CD and cassette by Capitol Records on March 28th.

As we enter the 20th anniversary year of the ex-Beatle's death, IMAGINE is still considered by many to be the penultimate representation of John Lennon's enormous talents as an artist, singer, songwriter, musician, and producer. The reissue retains the album's original track listing: &uot;Imagine,&uot; &uot;Crippled Inside,&uot; &uot;Jealous Guy,&uot; &uot;It's So Hard,&uot; &uot;I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mamma I Don't Wanna Die,&uot; &uot;Gimme Some Truth,&uot; &uot;Oh My Love,&uot; &uot;How Do You Sleep?&uot; &uot;How?&uot; &uot;Oh Yoko!&uot; Also included is a 16 page booklet with full lyrics (including Lennon's hand-written lyrics to &uot;How Do You Sleep?&uot;) and rare photographs from the Lennon/Ono archives.

The album release coincides with the premiere of a revealing behind-the-scenes documentary, &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH - THE MAKING OF JOHN LENNON's IMAGINE ALBUM,&uot; which examines the intense creative process that took place at Lennon's home recording studio in Ascot, England during the 1971 recording sessions. The 56-minute film, produced and directed by Andrew Solt and executive produced by Yoko Ono, was edited from 16mm film footage shot by John and Yoko and hidden from public view for nearly three decades. &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH&uot; will premiere on BBC2 in England (February 13) and will be shown on Bravo in North America April 17.

Also on April 11, the extended 63-minute version of &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH,&uot; containing seven extra minutes of rare film footage, will be commercially issued by Capitol Records as an interactive DVD and VHS home video. The DVD will contain a stereo soundtrack and a 5.1. surround- sound mix plus approximately 40 minutes of unique audio/visual interview material recorded at the time of the album sessions. The DVD will employ English language subtitles for all speech and songs in the main program; will be fully chaptered for each recording; will feature its own set of production credits; and will contain an album discography to enable the listener to hear a sample of one track per album.

The IMAGINE album was produced by John and Yoko and Phil Spector during the series of sessions that began in May 1971. The album was released on Apple Records the following September, entered the Billboard Top Lps chart September 18th, was certified RIAA gold less than two weeks later on October 1st, and went to #1 the week of October 30th. The single &uot;Imagine&uot; (not issued as a 45 in the U.K. until 1975) debuted October 23, 1971, on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached #3. The album currently stands at 2x-platinum in the U.S. The original film entitled &uot;Imagine,&uot; directed, produced and performed by John and Yoko, premiered in December 1972 and was released on video in 1985. In 1988, a documentary film of John's life (and an accompanying soundtrack album) entitled &uot;Imagine: John Lennon&uot; was released, including Lennon performances and nine Beatles songs.

The essential lineup for IMAGINE in 1971, as indicated in the credits for &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH,&uot; comprise: John Lennon on piano, guitar and vocals; George Harrison on guitar; Nicky Hopkins on piano; Jim Keltner on drums; Klaus Voorman on bass and guitar; and Alan White on drums. Numerous other musicians are listed in the album track credits, including King Curtis on saxophone; Mike Pinder (Moody Blues) on tambourine; Jim Gordon on drums; Joey Molland and Tommy Evans (Badfinger) on guitars; and of course the ubiquitous presence of Phil Spector.

Tempers flair yet warm humor prevails throughout &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH,&uot; an essential aural and visual experience for both the seasoned Beatles aficionado and the casual fan. The film is a remarkable illustration of the strength of John and Yoko's relationship, how they inspired each other in the studio as well as privately. It is a reminder not just of Lennon's genius but of his playfulness, candor, idealism and acerbic wit, at a time when he was fast transcending our expectations of him as an artist. Ultimately, it is a fascinating glimpse into the spirit of two artists spearheading a whole culture, functioning creatively in a turbulent era, as the idealism of the late '60s was adapting to a new decade.

The film covers a lot of ground - from priceless demo rehearsal sessions in Ascot to a madcap bookstore autographing session for Yoko's Grapefruit; from John leading a peace march down city streets brandishing a bullhorn beneath a poster for his and Yoko's subsequent single &uot;Happy Xmas (War Is Over)&uot; to a confrontation at John's front door with a vagabond hippie who is taken in and fed; from the kitchen breakfast that started it all to a gala party at Ascot shot by noted avant garde independent film maker Jonas Mekas, capturing such notables as Jack Nicholson and Andy Warhol, while John plays basketball with Miles Davis in the driveway.

Above all, the indomitable soul of John Lennon soars. It is no wonder that public fascination with &uot;Imagine&uot; stirred up on radio and across the Internet throughout 1999; in England, the song was recently voted the best lyric of all time in a nationwide BBC poll. As far back as October 9, 1990, John's 50th birthday was celebrated with a special simulcast of &uot;Imagine&uot; on more than 1000 radio stations in over 50 countries, an initiative sponsored by the United Nations.

&uot;Imagine&uot; is perhaps, in the mind of the public, the song that is most closely linked to the feelings they share for a truly remarkable artist - for many, the greatest rock musician of the last 50 years. The IMAGINE album and &uot;GIMME SOME TRUTH&uot; provide part of the explanation why.