Update: Sigh… Live by the Internet sword, die by the Internet sword. Since I wrote and posted this blog, Apple has updated the iTunes Store to include eight additional Lennon albums including Milk and Honey, Anthology, Double Fantasy, Acoustic, Live Peace in Toronto, 1969, Menlove Ave., and John Lennon – Live in New York City. Still missing are the early Lennon/Ono albums and such Ono albums as Season of Glass, but the addition of those Lennon albums nicely fills out the collection with most of the material you’re going to want to hear.
For the sake of history, the original post follows.
As reported earlier today, John Lennon’s catalog has come to iTunes. That catalog is available in both the once-standard copy-protected FairPlay, $.99 a track format or in the DRM-free iTunes Plus, $1.29 per track format.
If you’re interested in owning entire albums, the iTunes Plus version is definitely the way to go. Not only will you get unprotected versions with ostensibly higher audio quality, but when you buy the album, you save money and get additional content that you can’t buy individually. Regardless of which version you choose, it’s $9.99 per album. And these albums contain bonus material that wasn’t on the original releases—live recordings, out-takes, interviews, and videos.
But the collection isn’t complete. Any album billed as a Lennon/Ono collaboration is missing. Granted, few are going to mourn the lack of Two Virgins , Unfinished Music #2: Life With the Lions , and Wedding Album , but also missing are the far-more-listenable Lennon/Ono collaborations Double Fantasy , Milk and Honey , and Shaved Fish . Live albums including Live in New York City and Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 are also not present. And the Lennon boxed set from a few years ago? Nowhere, man.
As someone who doesn’t buy into the cult of Yoko as Devil I don’t see this as an Ono plot to withhold anything she participated in. Although a couple of her more recent efforts can be found on the iTunes Store such worthwhile efforts as Season of Glass haven’t made it to The Store.
I hope that whatever contractual obligations keep Season of Glass from iTunes will also apply to the Lennon/Ono oeuvre as well. Not all of it is great, but Lennon was an important enough figure that we deserve to sample all of his work.