Imagine if John Lennon

Had Lived to Celebrate His 70th Birthday

There would have been, among other things, an all-star knees up, surely. Something at Madison Square Garden, perhaps, New York, Lennon's home by now for the last 40 years, with guests galore and a great band - Ringo and Jim Keltner on drums, Klaus Voormann on bass, Elton and Leon Russell on keyboards, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards on guitars, cameos from Bowie, Bono and Neil Young, a medley with Paul McCartney on the kind of rock'n'roll classics The Beatles used to play at the Star Club and The Cavern, a duet with Dylan on "Norwegian Wood" that makes them both laugh when Bob slips in an unrehearsed verse from "4th Time Around".

There would have been, too, no doubt, a prayer for George, Yoko in a bag, everyone on stage at the end for "Give Peace A Chance", a cake wheeled on stage by Barack and Michelle, the offer of a few congratulatory words on behalf of the UK from David Cameron via a video link from Downing Street less-than-politely turned down. There would have been a lot of TV action, too, Lennon, approaching 70, doing a round of chat shows- Letterman, Oprah, a great interview with Larry King on CNN and an even better one with Elvis Costello for a BBC 4 special, plus the premier on HBO of Martin Scorsese's two-part Lennon documentary, Gimme Some Truth.

Maybe, on the other hand, music for Lennon at 70 would be something that belonged to his past, a part of himself he'd long ago lost interest in, although you'd like to think not. If this however was the case, just having him still around, for a lot of people, would be good enough, the knowing that he was there at least much better than its alternative, which would be his absence from our world.

Since the latter, sadly, is the fact of things, there'll be no show at Madison Square Garden, all-star or otherwise, no TV appearances or Scorsese documentary, not even a quiet evening in at the Dakota with Yoko. The most conspicuous commemoration of his birthday in the circumstances is the release in early October of digitally remastered versions, unheard at this writing, of eight of his solo albums, plus a greatest hits collection and a four-disc anthology. The remastered solo albums include John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, Some Time In New York City, Mind Games, Walls And Bridges, Rock'N'Roll, a new 'stripped down' version of his final album, Double Fantasy, and the posthumous Milk And Honey.

These are all among the albums that command our attention here, in the third of Uncuts Ultimate Music Guides, in which we individually re-visit all of Lennon's solo recordings- starting earlier than the forthcoming reissue programme with Unfinished Music No 1 and 2 and the Wedding Album, the experimental albums he recorded with Yoko while he was still, officially, a Beatie, and Live Peace In Toronto, the raw 1969 document of his first live show since The Beatles quit touring in 1966.

In addition to the fresh looks we take at Lennon's solo work, we've also delved, as they say, into the archives of Melody Maker and NME and come up with some frankly amazing stuff. Lennon famously had the UK music weeklies flown out to him in New York, read them avidly and was prone to firing offletters to MM especially, usually about the persistent rumours of a Beatles reunion that more than anything annoyed him, although he was inclined to pass comment on anything, really, that caught his attention.

More than this, Lennon frequently entertained writers from both Melody Maker and NME and throughout the 70s allowed them unique access to recording sessions and his Dakota apartment and talked to them at length about just about anything they wanted to know, nothing ever especially off-limits, John with opinions on everything and not afraid of expressing them. These archive gems offer a priceless insight into Lennon, his life and music, and as a coda we re-print from Uncut our 2003 Ballad Of John & Yoko cover story, in which Yoko recalled in extraordinary detail her life with John - in her memorable description a 'beautiful miracle' - the memory of it something solid inside her and the thought if it or John's music ever fading one thing that neither she or anyone else could ever imagine.