At the time of its release, Shaved Fish didn't attract as much attention as any compilation of John Lennon's work would have either a few years before or a few years after.
Lennon had just issued the somewhat disappointing genre album, Rock 'n' Roll, and was only a year from Walls and Bridges, not one of his strongest albums, and had also grown somewhat stale as a public figure.
Drawing on his singles up to that point in his career, it shows a punkier, more defiant vision of Lennon's work than subsequent compilations, which would dwell on a broader cross section of his output.
"Happy Christmas" and "Imagine" are moments of peace in the company of artifacts from his political/agitprop ("Power to the People") and primal scream ("Mother") periods, and his attempts at topical songwriting ("Woman Is the Nigger of the World"), and "Whatever Gets You Through the Night," which was unique to this LP, was a better piece of mainstream rock & roll than any of the late-'50s numbers that he ground out for Rock 'n' Roll.
This collection, which was the last LP release to come from Lennon in any form until Double Fantasy five years later, was the only compilation of his work released in Lennon's own lifetime, and has since been supplanted by various posthumous assemblies of his music.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cold TurkeyJohn Lennon | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 05:01 | 11 MB | 24 MB |
| 2 | Instant Karma!John Lennon | John Lennon | Play | 03:20 | 7 MB | 18 MB |
| 3 | Power to the PeopleJohn Lennon | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 03:20 | 7 MB | 20 MB |
| 4 | MotherJohn Lennon | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 05:02 | 11 MB | 23 MB |
| 5 | Woman Is the Nigger of the WorldJohn Lennon, Yoko Ono | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 04:36 | 10 MB | 29 MB |
| 6 | ImagineJohn Lennon | John Lennon | Play | 03:02 | 6 MB | 14 MB |
| 7 | Whatever Gets You Thru the NightJohn Lennon | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 03:02 | 6 MB | 17 MB |
| 8 | Mind GamesJohn Lennon | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 04:12 | 9 MB | 26 MB |
| 9 | #9 DreamJohn Lennon | John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band | Play | 04:46 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 10 | Happy Xmas (War Is Over) / Give Peace A Chance | John Lennon | Play | 04:14 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 40 mins | 93 MB | |||||
| 40 mins | 233 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Bryan | Illustrations |
| 2 | Eric Clapton | Guest Artist |
| 3 | Roberta Flack | Guest Artist |
| 4 | Allen Ginsberg | Vocals |
| 5 | George Harrison | Guest Artist |
| 6 | Nicky Hopkins | Guest Artist |
| 7 | Elton John | Guest Artist |
| 8 | Roy Kohara | Art Direction, Design |
| 9 | Timothy Leary | Vocals |
| 10 | John Lennon | Arranger, Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals |
| 11 | Paul McCartney | Composer |
| 12 | Yoko Ono | Composer, Producer |
| 13 | Plastic Ono Band | Primary Artist |
| 14 | Sha Na Na | Guest Artist |
| 15 | Tom Smothers | Vocals |
| 16 | Phil Spector | Producer |
| 17 | Ringo Starr | Guest Artist |
| 18 | Derek Taylor | Vocals |
| 19 | Stevie Wonder | Guest Artist, Vocals |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |