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 Anniversaries can be tricky things when referencing the life's work of a creative colossus. Saturday, October 7, marks what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday were it not for another milestone that hits us in two months: the 30th anniversary of Lennon's senseless shooting death.
The birthday celebration, however, serves as the catalyst for a reissue campaign of nearly all of Lennon's post-Beatles recordings - specifically, the albums that span from "Plastic Ono Band'' to the posthumous "Milk and Honey.''
It's a lesson in redundancy, to be sure - as most reissue campaigns are. That's especially true here, as most of these recordings were already remastered as recently as six years ago. If you own those editions, I can assure you an upgrade isn't necessary. The audio differences between the 2004-05 remasters and these new collections are minimal at best. Both sound spectacular.
There are, however, curious additions. 1980's "Double Fantasy'' now includes an alternate version of the entire album (''Double Fantasy Stripped Down'') with comparatively meager, demo-style production. The Beatles' swan-song album, "Let It Be,'' underwent a similar reduction a few years back. But the trouble with "Double Fantasy'' has never been its sleek production. Actually, the sound of such later Lennon works as "Watching the Wheels'' underscored the jubilance of Lennon's return to a creative life after a six-year sabbatical. What stymies the old and new editions is the ridiculously sub-par Yoko Ono material interspersed throughout the album. Still, the "Stripped Down'' disc is a bonus and an insight.
The series also boasts two new anthologies. "Power to the People: The Hits'' is an anthology of Lennon's better-known solo tunes that comes recommended simply because several of them (''Give Peace Me a Chance,'' "Cold Turkey'' and the title song) were issued initially only as singles. "Gimme Some Truth'' is the reverse, a sampler of "misses'' - great album tracks and sleeper tunes. Both sets are fine initiations for novice Lennonites.
That leaves us with the Lennon albums that should be considered essential listening. 1970's "Plastic Ono Band'' remains a harrowing, anti-pop rant - a sparse, deconstructionist reflection. 1971's "Imagine'' was the true hit. But the whole album is rock-solid, from the Zen-like barrelhouse roll of "Crippled Inside'' to dark, post-psychedelic meditations on war (''I Don't Want to Be a Soldier'') and Beatlemania (''How Do You Sleep?''). Finally, there's the 1974 sleeper "Walls and Bridges,'' a more mainstream document of pure pop solace. Recorded while estranged from Ono, it's a postcard from the abyss of stardom that - like much of Lennon's storied career - sounds alternately defiant, celebratory and troubled.
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