Cleanup Time – Remixing Double Fantasy

Yoko Ono has released a new remix of Double Fantasy, the album she and John Lennon released less than a month before his death, called Double Fantasy Stripped Down.   Normally I’m opposed to these kinds of revisions.  Even when the remixes sound fine — what’s the point?    Is someone going to re-cut Casablanca so that Rick and Ilsa go off together and Captain Renault and Victor Laszlo set up housekeeping in Tangier?

And what Yoko has done with this is pretty extreme.   To me, this remix feels like someone who has removed 30 layers of paint from an old table to reveal a magnificent piece of craftsmanship beneath.  She has stripped off  layers and layers of overdubs.  Gone is the chorus of voices in (Just Like) Starting Over that, to be honest, always bugged me.  I am persuaded to think that the overdubs stemmed from some insecurity, that he was self-consciously burying his voice in the mix.