CD Review - Heart Play: Unfinished Dialogue

CD REVIEW

John Lennon 'A Heart Play' is an unofficial recording released in 1998 featuring 48 tracks of studio sessions and home demos from 1979-80 recorded for the albums 'Double Fantasy' & 'Milk and Honey'.

A substantial amount of the material is sourced from the amazing 'Lost Lennon Tapes' collection although that doesn't detract from the enjoyment of this release.

CD1 - The Studio Sessions contains different mixes of all the songs on 'Double Fantasy' & 'Milk and Honey' 'Grow Old with Me' excepted, each song featuring a different vocal to that officially released.

The CD begins with Take 1 of 'Stepping Out' and ends with Take 2 of the same song but in between the compilers of 'Heart Play' are a bit vague with track information using terms such as early mix, dry mix and rock mix to describe songs although John can be quite clearly heard exchanging studio banter with fellow musicians in the studio.

The highlights of CD1 are 'Beatle' John talking about 'Woman', an early mix of 'Watching the Wheels', the Rock mix of 'I Don't Wanna Face It' and an early take of '(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess', it's also wonderful hearing John so relaxed in the studio.

The sound quality is excellent only faltering on the alternate take of 'I'm Losing You' with Cheap Trick and John's cover versions of 'Dream Lover/Stay' although John's lead vocals can be clearly heard on both tracks.

​CD2​ features home demos from 1979-80 including eight songs from the infamous 'Bermuda Tapes' plus assorted home demos, the evolution of 'Starting Over', Dylan parodies and a new song 'Howling at the Moon' I've heard a few of these tracks on the 'Dr Winston O'Boogie' release and various volumes of the 'Lost Lennon Tapes' but never in this quality.

'A Heart Play' is a nice collection of home demos, studio-outtakes and rough mixes from 'Double Fantasy' & 'Milk and Honey' and deserves a place in your collection.

TRACK LISTING

CD1: STUDIO SESSIONS

1. I'm Stepping Out - Take 1 2. I'm Losing You - Alternate take 3. Clean-up Time - Rehearsal 4. Clean-up Time - Early take 5. Clean-up Time 6. Starting Over (Just Like) - Studio talk 7. Starting Over (Just Like)-Dry mix 8. Beautiful Boy-Sweet mix 9. Dear Yoko-Full mix with additional overdubs 10. Watching The Wheels-Early mix 11. I Am The Walrus-Dylanesque parody, 12. Woman-Studio Talk 13. Woman-Mix 1 14. Dream Lover / Stay-Unreleased 15. My Little Flower Princess (Forgive Me)-Early take 16. Nobody Told Me-Early take 17. I Don't Wanna Face it-Rock mix 18. Borrowed Time Rough mix 04:06 19. Woman-Mix 2 20. I'm Stepping Out-take 2

CD2: HOME DEMO'S​

1. The Great Wok 2. Watching The Wheels-Piano version 3. Watching The Wheels-Blues version 4. Corinna, Corinna-Blues version 5. Watching The Wheels-Folk version 6. I Don't Wanna Face It-Early demo 7. Welcome To The Bermudas Spoken 8. I Don't Wanna Face It-Bermuda demo 9. Woman-Bermuda demo 10. I'm Stepping Out-Bermuda demo 11. Everybody's Talkin'-Version of "Nobody Told Me" 12. Nobody Told Me-Bermuda demo 13. Beautiful Boy-Bermuda demo 14. Borrowed Time-Bermuda Demo 15. Dear Yoko-Bermuda demo 16. Too Much Monkey Business/Subterranean Homesick Blues-Short versions 1:17 17. Clean-up Time-Piano demo 18. Stranger's Room-Early version of "I'm Losing You" 19. I'm Losing You-Piano demo 20. I'm Losing You-Acoustic version 21 Howling At The Moon-Unreleased demo 22. I`m A Man-Blues parody Tracks 23-27 - The Making of Starting Over (Just Like) 23 I Watch Your Face 24 My Life-Acoustic demo Take 3 25 Don't Be Crazy, 26 The Worst Is Over 27 Starting Over (Just Like)-The finished song 28 The Best Things In Life Are Free-Dylan parody, followed by a couple of minutes of John and Sean playing.