John Lennon Anthology Boxed set of 4 CDs plus Book. Capitol. £41.95.

The words of Freemason ‘Chevalier’ Ramsay: “The world is nothing but a huge republic of which every nation is a family and every individual a child” (deriving from his mystical mentor François de Lamotte Fénelon 1651-1715) have in our time been echoed by many idealists, none of whom could claim to have had the influence on young people endured and enjoyed by John Lennon. Before the Iron Curtain was finally torn asunder, small groups of brave Muscovites gathered to sing Imagine on the anniversary of his assassination: a song asking us simply to entertain a personal vision of global brother/sisterhood beyond religious and social differences. If only post-war Masonry had had such energy at its disposal as John Lennon gathered for the cause! Morality without spiritual energy is dead letter, while the fiery energy of the living word is evident in every one of the 90-plus tracks of this skilfully produced Anthology.
    The collection treats us to an insider’s look at the latterday troubadour’s creative processes from the time of the Beatles’ collapse in 1969 to Lennon’s last sparkling year of life (1980). We hear home-recordings of piano and guitar sketches as well as generous lashings of vibrant studio rehearsals and out-takes. The sound quality is excellent, and in the case of the Milk and Honey out-takes, better than the released recordings. The four CDs (all over an hour in length) are accompanied by an illuminating book (by Yoko Ono and Anthony deCurtis) and a proper review of the Anthology’s contents could doubtless fill another.
    The reception of music and poetry is of course a personal matter and John Lennon has left as many cold as he has warmed with his terse insight, gnostic spirituality and uncompromising desire to expose his deepest feelings. For much of the time the listener is in the position of a lucky priest receiving searing confessions and personal revelations – with the grill removed. Lennon preferred to redeem himself, often with humour, swinging from misery to joy with equal intensity: his public/private Hail Marys (or Hail Yokos), inscribed in harsh rock or lush melody frequently timeless. He could be very funny indeed, but his paradoxical shyness ensured that his richest humour was reserved for close friends and family. My favourite track is a monologue (sent to a friend), read in a marvellously accurate rendering of the verbal style of the Dalai Lama and entitled The Great Wok: a spoof guru articulating the inarticulate like a new age ‘spiritual guidance’ tape produced in a back-street studio in Darjeeling. Anyone who thought Lennon had been ‘taken in’ by his open-minded approach to oriental wisdom teachers and not-so-wise teachers should give this hilarious track a listen. He knew what he was doing (“The Great Wok must be done”). The book concludes that “we shall not see his like again”. Out of sight but not out of mind.
    In 1738 (the year in which the first papal Bull against Freemasonry was published), there appeared in London Fénelon’s Dissertation on Pure Love. John Lennon would have understood.
    Tobias Churton