A 12' UK Apple acetate of alternate versions of songs from John Lennon's album, 'Imagine.' This one-sided disc features 5 unreleased basic tracks of Lennon songs, before they were overdubbed, sweetened and mixed by Phil Spector. Lennon recorded the basic tracks for 'Imagine' in his home studio, Ascot Sound, in Tittenhurst Park, England. Extensive footage of these sessions appears in the DVD documentary 'Gimmie Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine.' Later, Lennon, Yoko Ono and Spector traveled to New York's Record Plant Studios, where they overdubbed strings and additional instrumental and vocal tracks, and mixed the album.(br)This acetate contains unmixed, mono basic tracks from the UK sessions for the songs 'How Do You Sleep,' 'Oh Yoko,' 'Jealous Guy,' and two versions of 'Crippled Inside.'(br)'How Do You Sleep' appears here as a radically different mono version—more raw, like the Plastic Ono Band LP. It is the same track, but without strings or overdubs at all—just compressed guitar, bass, drums and vocal, without the string melody on the released version. At 6:41, it is nearly a minute and a half longer than the released version. This song was Lennon's shot at former partner Paul McCartney, and contains the lines "The only thing you done was yesterday/And since you've gone you're just another day" (there is a great wikipedia article on it.) The slight to McCartney was compounded in that George Harrison plays guitar on the track.(br)'Oh Yoko' too uses the same basic track, but sounds entirely different from the released version. The piano and guitar are much more prominent, the mono mix is more 'open', there is no doubling of vocals on 'Oh Yoko' and 'your love it turns me on', and no harmonica solo nor the harmonica ending. Because it lacks the harmonica ending, it times in at 3:45 instead of the released version's 4:14.(br)'Jealous Guy' too is a radically different version–the same track, but a more 'open' mono mix. There are no 'real' strings or percussion overdubs, but synthesized strings and more piano. Because there are no strings behind Lennon's whistling or during the rest of the song, the effect is very different from the version we know and love.(br)The two mono mixes of 'Crippled Inside,' titled RS1 and RS2 on the acetate label, are also very different versions from the released track. These again use the same basic track, but there is a two note false start at the beginning, different piano and guitar levels (George Harrison on Dobro,) a more open mix and a rougher, very different sound. Both mixes here are similar, but on RS2 the vocal is more back in the mix.(br)This extremely rare disc, in EX condition and with unreleased versions of Lennon classics, is extremely desirable.(br)(Note: the versions of 'How Do You Sleep' and 'Jealous Guy' are entirely different from the alternate versions released on the 'Lennon Anthology' album.)