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NINE SONGS OF JOHN LENNON

Collage

Neo-Prog


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Collage Nine Songs Of John Lennon album cover
2.66 | 62 ratings | 6 reviews | 8% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 1993

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Power To The People (3:15)
2. Tomorrow Never Knows (4:11)
3. Woman (5:38)
4. God (7:22)
5. Well Well Well (1:43)
6. Imagine (6:05)
7. Give Peace A Chance (6:58)
8. There's A Place (3:48)
9. Cold Turkey (5:44)

Total Time: 41:00

Bonus Video clip on 2004 Ars Mundi Enhanced-CD:
10. Video1 - Safe

Line-up / Musicians

- Robert Amirian / lead vocals, guitar solo (9), backing vocals
- Mirek Gil / electric & acoustic guitars, backing vocals
- Krzysztof Palczewski / keyboards, backing vocals
- Piotr Mintay Witkowski / bass guitar, backing vocals
- Wojtek Szadkowski / drums, percussion, backing vocals

Releases information

CD SPV Poland ‎- SPV 084-150032 (1993, Poland)
CD Ars Mundi ‎- AMS 004R (2004, Poland) Remastered by Grzegorz Piwkowski w/ 1 bonus Video

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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COLLAGE Nine Songs Of John Lennon ratings distribution


2.66
(62 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(8%)
8%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(18%)
18%
Good, but non-essential (44%)
44%
Collectors/fans only (23%)
23%
Poor. Only for completionists (8%)
8%

COLLAGE Nine Songs Of John Lennon reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Prog-jester
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars COLLAGE is always COLLAGE. Even when they play Lennon's songs! My favourite Mirek Gil's soloing , Krysz' keyboards and awesome Woitek drumming - all is here!!! Recorded as a test for Robert, new COLLAGE's singer, Songs fall to become a collector's rare item as they are not usual COLLAGE-type recording (despite what I said in the beginning). Anyway there are some nice versions like God (a blues?), Imagine and Give Peace a Chance. CD also has video to SAFE ballad from 1996 album, and it's pleasant bonus! Recommended mostly for collectors , but it's a good record = 3 stars as a whole
Review by silvertree
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Album made up of John Lennon covers. No original material... at least that's what you may think. John Lennon's songs are nearly unrecognisable. They are drenched in Collage's typical sound. I read in another review that this album was made as a test for their new singer. As far as I'm concerned, he failed. Everything is great except the voice unfortunately. They really should've stuck with their first singer. Anyway, I didn't know John Lennon's songs could sound progressive !!! Collage may be the best neo-progressive band after Marillion. Definitely recommended. 3 stars and a half if they hadn't changed the singer.
Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
2 stars Nine Songs Of John Lennon is Polish band Collageīs second album. As the title suggests itīs made up of 9 interpretations of John Lennon songs. With albums that solely consists of cover songs two things have to be in place to fully enjoy the experience. First and most importantly you have to like the band who is playing the songs which means in this case Collage. To this I can say Yes. The second thing that has to be in place is that you have to like the original artist at least to some degree. To this I can only say partly and therefore this is a mixed experience for me.

The music is a strange mix of the original vocal lines from John Lennon songs like Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, Cold Turkey and The Beatles tune Tomorrow Never Knows and neo progressive arrangements with lots of melodic guitar leads and solos. I think the neo progressive style is great when itīs played by Collage. They really understand how to play this style but the John Lennon sections are not especially to my liking and that is because I never really liked the originals. Yes they are pop/ rock evergreens and some of them are beautiful, but this is just not my prefered style. Another thing Iīm not too impressed with the voice of Robert Amirian which I think is a bit weak.

The instrumental musicianship and the arrangements of the songs are the two reasons for getting this album because as always Wojtek Szadkowski plays his strange anarcistic drumming style, Krzysztof Palczewski lays everything to waste ( this is a positive remark) with his monumental keyboard work and Mirek Gil plays his beautiful guitar leads inspired by such greats as Alex Lifeson, Steve Rothery and David Gilmour.

The production is a bit thin but itīs not useless though.

Iīm gonna have to give this 2 stars because there are too many things I donīt like about the album to really call it good. There are parts in every song that deserves at least a 3 star rating but overall the album gets 2.

Review by ZowieZiggy
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars "Well Well Well" is the title of the fifth track from this homage to John Lennon. That's exactly the comment I made to myself while listening to this cover album.

The art of covering needs a lot of skills, of which the most important is to improve the quality of an original like "America" by Yes, "With A Little Help" from Joe Cocker etc.

I can't say that I find these qualities here even if the band tries to add a prog angle to these "Nine Songs". One of the most achieved is the psychedelic version for "Tomorrow Never Knows". Really good and innovative. If only all of this album would have been of this caliber!

"Woman" is also pleasantly revisited. As poignant as the original, I particularly like the excellent guitar work from Mirek Gil. In this respect, a special mention as well for his sublime intro on "God". A great piece of music indeed. The combination with the spacey keyboards are another fine moment of this album. The best one of the whole.

Most of the songs are introduced with an instrumental part which does not belong to the original, this is an approach similar to "Vanilla Fudge". But more rationale, less crazy. Confirmation of this aspect? "Give Peace A Chance". Weak.

The worse though was the opening "Power to the People" which is unbearable. If ever there was one good reason to record such an album, here is the answer from Wojtek Szadkowski (drummer).

"The reason why we recorded the cover album Nine Songs From John Lennon was to save the band from splitting! If we hadn't entered the studio then, Collage would no longer exist, so thank God that we did it".

Maybe for their upcoming album, because this one is of no interest to prog fans nor to Lennon's ones. Two stars.

Review by Tarcisio Moura
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Iīve avoided this CD for years. First Iīm not really that big fan of John Lennon and to see a prog band doing an entirely album of his songs seems to be totally pointless. Even more so if the record was their second, after the promising but hardly essential Basnie. However, I had the opportunity to finally listening when a friend gave me a copy a few days ago. I was quite surprised of how good it actually was: the songs are mostly a total remake of the original, yet they preserve their essence in many ways and it is a respectful work. Looking back, it was also Collageīs first work with their classic line up of Robert Amirian on vocals, Mirek Gil (guitars), Piotr Mintay Witkowski (bass) and the genius Krzysztof Palczewski on keyboards, plus leader and drummer Wojtek Szadkowski.

Of course it is the classic case of hit and miss, but there is little double that they did a terrific job considering the iconic and legendary status of the author of the material. Imagine and Woman for instance donīt get even close to the beauty and power of the original versions. However, tracks like God (the longest and most progressive of them all), Tomorrow Never Knows, Give Peace A Chance and Cold Turkey are fine examples of how creative, bold and unique Collage was from the very start (and they understood Lennonīs message like so few actually did).

In the end, a nice homage to one of rockīs great songwriters. And they did it giving the songs the full Collage treatment that would emerge in all its power in the form of their next release, the classic Moonshine.

Rating: 3 stars. Good, but not essential.

Review by The Crow
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Second full-length album by the neo-prog polish legends Collage after their debut Basnie!

And this time they returned with a new front man, Robert Amirian. Who sadly never was a very good singer despite his passionate interpretation of lyrics. And here is sadly no exception. Along with the too noisy and sometimes out of tune solos by Mirek Gil, his singing is the weakest point of this John Lennon's cover album.

Nevertheless, fans of Collage will be pleased with the typical beautiful keyboard's layers of the band, competent drumming and the typical ethereal and airy atmospheres that this band was so good at creating.

Best songs: I especially like the version of Woman and the beautiful melodies of Imagine, part of which were used again by the band in their posterior excellent album Moonshine, specifically in the band's best song called In Your Eyes.

Conclusion: this album is a mere curiosity for Collage (or John Lennon) fans, because it did not bring nothing new or too interesting to the prog world. But like I said, there is enough beautiful melodies included here to be an enjoyable (but also forgettable) experience.

Two years later, Collage released the named Moonshine and they entered directly in the prog-rock history!

My rating: **

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