John Lennon Shaved Fish CD

Personnel includes: John Lennon (vocals, guitar, piano); Geroge Harrison (guitar, piano); Eddie Mottau, Hugh McCracken (acoustic guitar); Eric Clapton, Wayne "Tex" Gabriel, Jesse Ed Davis. David Spinozza (guitar); Yoko Ono (winds, drums, background vocals); Bobby Keys (tenor saxophone); Stan Bronstein (saxophone); Ken Ascher (piano, organ, Mellotron); Elton John (piano, organ, background vocals); Klaus Voorman (piano, bass); Alan White (piano, drums); Nicky Hopkins (electric piano); Billy Preston (organ); Gary Van Scyoc, Gordon Edwards (bass); Richard Frank, Jr. (drums, percussion); Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner (drums); Tommy Smothers, Timothy Leary, Murry The K., Stevie Wonder, Sha-Na-Na, Roberta Flack (background vocals).
Producers: John Lennon, Phil Spector, Yoko Ono.
Recorded between 1969 & 1974.
Recorded in Montreal, Canada.
At the time of its release, Shaved Fish didn't attract as much attention as any compilation of John Lennon's work would have either a few years before or a few years after. Lennon had just issued the somewhat disappointing genre album, Rock 'n' Roll, and was only a year from Walls and Bridges, not one of his strongest albums, and had also grown somewhat stale as a public figure. Drawing on his singles up to that point in his career, it shows a punkier, more defiant vision of Lennon's work than subsequent compilations, which would dwell on a broader cross section of his output. "Happy Christmas" and "Imagine" are moments of peace in the company of artifacts from his political/agitprop ("Power to the People") and primal scream ("Mother") periods, and his attempts at topical songwriting ("Woman Is the Nigger of the World"), and "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," which was unique to this LP, was a better piece of mainstream rock & roll than any of the late-'50s numbers that he ground out for Rock 'n' Roll. This collection, which was the last LP release to come from Lennon in any form until Double Fantasy five years later, was the only compilation of his work released in Lennon's own lifetime, and has since been supplanted by various posthumous assemblies of his music. ~ Bruce Eder
Although there have been subsequent Lennon compilations as well as 1990's formidable LENNON box set, SHAVED FISH is the granddaddy of all such collections highlighting the singer's solo career. SHAVED FISH spanned a spectrum of the ex-Beatle's singles and B-sides through 1974's WALLS AND BRIDGES. Although SHAVED FISH eschews some of Lennon's edgier, more controversial tracks like "Working Class Hero," "God" or "Gimme Some Truth," the collection still acknowledges some of the riskier chances Lennon took in his tumultuous solo forays. The full range of his political, spiritual and social restlessness is represented--from the enraged "Woman Is The Nigger of the World" to the heartbreaking beauty of "Happy Xmas (Give Peace a Chance)"
SHAVED FISH also mirrors Lennon's complicated creative relationship with Ono, from the primal shriek of "Mother" to the mesmerizing murmur of "#9 Dream," recorded during Lennon's "lost years" of the mid-'70s during the couple's temporary separation. Unlike later collections which usually feature work from DOUBLE FANTASY and the posthumous MILK AND HONEY, SHAVED FISH doesn't carry the same weight of tragic consequence (nor of domestic bliss) as those retrospectives. Rather, it celebrates the singer at the living, breathing and still defiant apex of his solo career.Q - Recommended