A previously unreleased version of the John Lennon song “Isolation” was released along with unseen archive footage of his mansion home in 1971.

The raw studio mix forms part of the eight-disc set John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band: The Ultimate Collection, which comes out tomorrow. The accompanying video shows the private rooms used by Lennon and Yoko Ono in Tittenhurst Park, shot on July 16, 1971, under the couple’s direction.

You can watch the video below.

Views of the home include the master bedroom, a bathroom and two dressing rooms, while the piano Lennon used to write “Imagine” is seen along with a Salvador Dali painting, guitar cases, a movie projector, an Apple Corps paperweight and a record player. Meanwhile, the new mix, taken from a session at Abbey Road Studios, is described by engineer Rob Stevens as bearing an “uncanny” resemblance to the later song “Imagine” because of “the inhalation and exhalation prior to the vocal.”

“From the haunting, funereal bells and emotional wails of opening track ‘Mother,’ it was immediate – John Lennon’s first solo studio album was unlike anything he had made before,” a statement on his website notes. “Recorded … shortly after the demise of the Beatles, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band saw John stripping away the artifice and ornamentation for a visceral artistic exorcism that was confessional, raw, painfully honest and revelatory.

“Inspired by the primal scream psychotherapy he and wife Yoko Ono had been practicing with Dr. Arthur Janov, John, joined by the minimalist Plastic Ono Band – Ringo Starr on drums and Klaus Voormann on bass, and producer Phil Spector – confronted his demons, professed his love for his wife, railed against false idols and declared the dream was over on his most personal album. Today it stands as the towering achievement of his solo career – the moment the biggest rock star in the world bared his soul for all to hear – as real as it was revolutionary.”

 

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