Average Rating: 
Rating:  - It's hard
It's hard to put John down, but this cd has some serious... issues. Where to start...
Firstly, Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band is comprised of a group of guys who,... They aren't well rehearsed, they aren't good playing together. The sax is all over the place! Every time he plays its just a mess! No subtlety...
John is busy screaming. He hardly sings. Its a shame, because he had such a haunting voice. Instead he's just...uck.But on the plus side, Well Well Well is pretty good, and Yoko doesnt do much. Instant Karma is such a tight song, but the drums are all over the place. Those drum breaks are just emberrasing ...John tries to be funny, but it doesnt work. John just wasn't a live artist. In the Beatles and on his own, he didnt seem to like playing live. He was a studio man. He was fantastic in the studio, he wasn't on stage. And Come Together just didnt sound right. None of the songs really sound right. He just can't seem to get into it...
Rating: - Not worth the list price...
... For a slighty-more-than-casual fan like myself, this is not an essential recording, but an interesting one.
As for sound quality, the music sounds surprisingly good considering that this was recorded in 1972. John's backing band sounds OK, but not exactly well-rehearsed. Of course, in typical John Lennon fashion, he screams each and every vocal (with the exception of "Imagine") and says goofy things between songs ("this song is from one of those albums I made since I left the Rolling Stones").
A problem with some live albums is that the songs sound too much like their original studio versions. That is not the case with this one (except for "Instant Karma," but that's not surprising considering the rawness of the original), partially due to the fact that most of the songs have a touch of saxophone in them. In "It's So Hard," the lead guitar can be heard more clearly than in the studio version, which is a plus. The somewhat excessive "Well, Well, Well" has been cut down to about four minutes here. "Mother," unfortunately, sounds absolutely horrid live. "Come Together" & the uptempo version of "Cold Turkey" are the clear highlights of this disc and are enough to make it worth buying. The cover of "Hound Dog" is pretty good, too (he makes it sound just like one of his own songs). "Give Peace A Chance" is simply the audience chanting the line over and over for about a minute, so don't expect to hear a live version of this song here.
Oh yeah, and Yoko's contributions to the concert are minimal, a HUGE plus. ;-)
Rating: - Save Your Money
I thought Lennon was supposed to be a genius. If he was, it really doesn't show in this performance. First, the CD is way too short -- is 11 songs the best they could do? Second, he doesn't sing any of the songs, the entire time John screams the lyrics. Atleast Elvis was kind enough to sing 'Hound Dog.' It almost gives me a headache to listen to him screaming out all these songs. As a matter of fact, the only song he doesn't scream on is 'Imagine.' The third problem is the last song, 'Give Peace A Chance,' is SHORTENED! The full song is 5 minutes, but on this album it fades out after 41 seconds. For shame. Thankfully, however, the complete song is available on the Imagine soundtrack. Otherwise I wouldn't know what to do. All in all, save your money and get the John Lennon Anthology.
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