Double Fantasy (Stripped Down)

It's Double Fantasy. It’s John and Yoko singing to each other about being in love, period. I can’t think of another record quite like it. It’s somewhere between concept album and ‘the collected letters’. It’s an ode to their marriage, and their son, and their love for each other. It’s about no one but themselves. It was released less than a month before John was shot, which makes it a time capsule of sorts in rock and roll’s emotional history.

This “stripped down” mix, spearheaded by Yoko, follows the tradition of the “Let It Be... Naked” re-release, plumbing the master tapes and editing out a lot of the backing vox and instrumentals to bring Lennon’s vocals to the forefront.

The original recording is also reproduced in its entirety on Disk 2. I haven’t written separate track-by-tracks for the original.

try: 1, 5, 3, 14
no FCCs

*1. spoken intro. slow note-at-a-time strummed chords and upfront vox --> honky strutty piano-rooted high times. lennon referred to this as his elvis/orbison track.
2. vaguely french-trip-hoppity. quick-beat, repeated single-syllable lyrics. cutesy, yet mildly horrifying. like a kid's halloween special.
*3. pompy groovy funky electric guitar and pop-bass. supa-fat. for an identical backing riff, see bowie's "fame". (weirdly, lennon is listed in the songwriting creds for 'fame'... but not for that reason.)
4. chirpity sharp cuckoo-cluck j-pop. some santana-inspired electric guitar.
*5. cool jazzy downer. killer descending bass. great jam.
6. guns in with a clapton riff. smooth, cool. yoko vox.
7. ~4 sec spoken intro. slow gentle handdrums/bells/sitar-or-somesuch. going for the tearoom vibe here. ends with some noodling after the spoken goodnight.
8. light piano balladry two clicks away from 'imagine'.
9. polite ballroom music box yoko vox. like a tongue-in-cheek version of heart and soul. or... dear god, 'i feel pretty'. there's some 'tra la la' action in there.
10. brief spoken intro. kicks off like free fallin'. light strummed acoustic and wavery sweet vox.
11. dark spanish guitar, flute, creepy bells. eerie operatic yoko vox.
12. a few seconds of spoken intro. jammity roadhouse harmonica / fiddle / banjo / handclaps.
13. slow ambient synthy ethereal. keys, bells, echoes. john + yoko vox.
*14. slow pump bass drum and xmasy tambourine, piano, hymnal 'ooh's. ever so slight gospel uplift.