Lennon Legend

iTunes Review

There’s no doubt that John Lennon deserves the title: “Legend.” Distilling a legend’s career into a short, inclusive collection, however, requires tough decision making — though this 21-song collection has it a little easier since it focuses mainly on his post-Beatle work. It begins with his first solo etchings while still a member of the group (“Cold Turkey,” “Give Peace a Chance”) and features several powerful and cathartic numbers from his first solo album, 1970’s Plastic Ono Band (a single edit of the primal scream-based “Mother,” the beautiful simplicity of “Love,” the scalding social commentary of “Working Class Hero”). It also includes the essential heartbreakers from his milder and more stylized second solo album 1971’s Imagine (the title track and “Jealous Guy”) and key tracks from his vigorous return in 1980 with Double Fantasy. “Watching the Wheels” and “(Just Like) Starting Over” are perfect capsules of Lennon’s unerring ability to take the personal and make it universal. The posthumous tracks, “Nobody Told Me” and “Borrowed Time,” show a man who had re-found his muse and obviously had much to say with an always unique way of saying it.