Double Fantasy Stripped

I just listened to DOUBLE FANTASY STRIPPED DOWN, by John & Yoko, a 2010 re-release that takes away a lot of the production of the original album. As John might have cheekily said, it's a religious fucking experience. The sound washes over you, leaving you starry-eyed. Original producer Jack Douglas worked with Yoko on this. Back in 80', Jack was dismissed for the production of MILK & HONEY, even though he oversaw the recording (one can only hope that he gets to work on a re-release of that one, too). Most notably gone on STRIPPED are the double-tracked lead vocals, because John was insecure about his voice. The album is more acoustic, but the changes can be unpredictable. They didn't just pare away the originals, they often started from different takes entirely. Harmonies and instrumentations disappear, sometimes leaving you singing the missing sound. Altogether different harmonies and instrumentations appear. Surprisingly, Yoko's tracks are even more altered than John's, particularly "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him" and "Hard Times are Over", which now play essentially as duets between the two, a beautiful way to end the album.
It's bizarre, the relationship one has with Yoko's songs. It's always been easy to dismiss them entirely...indeed, my baby brothers didn't even know until they were adults that Yoko had songs on the album, so deft was i at lifting and replacing the needle perfectly. Yet i had played her songs enough so that i knew them intimately...and as the years went by, i began to grow a certain affection for them. Never has that been so true as during this first listen of STRIPPED DOWN. I'm not saying i'll never again skip her tracks, but...as a conceptual whole, the album stands, something i'd never granted before. How much was John propping her up, musically? Did he co-write her songs? I don't know. To what extent was the album an honest portrayal of their lives? It's fascinating to read an insider's portrayal, like that of John's assistant Fred Seaman, to ponder what may have been missing from the lyrics. Was John preparing to leave her for good? A question that fortunately doesn't need to be answered, to love the album for what it is. A grownup Beatle and wife, making an album about grownup life. I'm honestly not sure which version will end up being my preferred, over time. STRIPPED DOWN is that good.