A very good album

A lot of the time live albums are not good because they sound thin, and/or the studio versions of the songs are just better. With this album the performances of the songs do not sound thin and the quality of the recording is excellent. The songs sound neither better nor worse than the versions that appear on the studio albums, they just sound different. Most of the songs are tinged with a saxophone, which works well. The saxophone in "Imagine" sounds especially cool. The backup band, The Plastic Ono Elephants Memory Band gels with Lennon and plays everything fine. The song selection is good, with highlights from Lennon's first three post Beatles albums, "Plastic Ono Band", "Imagine", and "Sometime in New York City". There is also a cool version of "Hound Dog." Lennon's singing on this album has been criticized. I think that he sounds very good live. He may not sound as smooth as he does on his studio albums, be he still can carry all of the songs fine live. My only complaint with this album is its length. It could have been a bit longer. Perhaps bonus tracks from other shows could have been added. Still, it's a strong album nonetheless and most fans of Lennon will dig it. There are also cool pictures and liner notes by Yoko Ono that are in the booklet.

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these two concerts were not recorded with the intention of a major release...just a famously famous man recording for posterity. John had been rehearsing a good bit in the few days before the concerts and his voice was a bit ragged by this point. Again, just a couple shows for charity, not a planned release. If you want John at his best live, listen to "Live Jam" for "Cold Turkey" and "Baby Please Don't Go", or watch the Mike Douglas Shows. As it is, we get to hear John performing "Hound Dog" much as he would have on a drunken Hamburg night at the Kaiserkeller...just passion.