Free as a Bird

AMG Review of Free as a Bird

Richie Unterberger
All Music Guide

Twenty-two John Lennon home recordings from 1976-1980 are assembled on this bootleg, which as a whole offers a good look at some of his more notable/impressive works-in-progress during his househusband years. As is often the case for home recordings, the arrangements on these are pretty Spartan, usually featuring little or nothing but Lennon's vocals, piano, and guitar. The fidelity might not be state-of-the-art, but it's usually clear, and always listenable. If for nothing else, this collection would be notable for including Lennon's solo demos of the two songs that were spruced up by the surviving three Beatles in the '90s for the Anthology project ("Free as a Bird," here actually presented in two versions, and "Real Love"). Also here is the third number the "Threetles" worked on, but did not finish, the sentimental piano ballad "Now and Then" (with a buzzing sound that helped impede its completion by the other Beatles). Some of the other songs, like "Grow Old with Me," would find a place on posthumous Lennon releases, and parts of a few of the other tunes would, in modified form, be incorporated into more completed compositions like "Real Love," "I'm Stepping Out," and "(Just Like) Starting Over." Yet others would apparently not be revisited, at least not in the studio. For all these reasons, this music is very important for Lennon scholars, both for gaining insight into his working methods and the ideas he was kicking around, and also (if the documentation on the CD is correct) demonstrating that he was indeed sporadically working on material during his Dakota-bound years, even if no records were coming out. More importantly, even if Lennon was not at the peak of his game as a songwriter during this era, the music itself is often tender, fetching, and of genuine quality. Most of these songs had at least some redeeming features, and some indeed seemed to be nearing a fairly finished, respectable state, like the uncharacteristically tense (for this era) "Whatever Happened To...," with its edgy acoustic guitar, or "India," which was a throwback to his gentler White Album material in tone. While the average fan would probably prefer to listen to the relatively glossy, fully produced studio tracks of his final 1980 sessions, some with specialized tastes might well prefer the starker, more personal performances and ambience on this material.