Ahead of the upcoming release of the Mind Games Ultimate Edition, the John Lennon Estate has shared archival footage of John and Yoko Ono in the video for the newly mixed version of “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry).”
The music video pairs intimately captured, never-before-seen home video footage of the couple with the vulnerable track. Aisumasen, means ‘I’m sorry’ in Japanese — albeit not accurately. The song is John’s apology to Yoko ahead of the couple’s roughly two-year separation, which John would later call his “lost weekend.”
The footage was captured inside the couple’s apartment on West 72nd Street in New York City, which had a high-rise view of the area of Central Park that would later be dedicated to John and named Strawberry Fields, home of the famous “Imagine” circle mosaic. The video showcases multiple frames of footage at the same time, shot entirely by John on an early Sony Portapak camera and reel-to-reel recorder. The black and white footage sees John filming himself in a mirror in the bedroom, playing in the Music Room with a transistor radio, Yoko giving press interviews on the phone for her Approximately Infinite Universe album, and more glimpses of their life.
John’s recordings are a window into quiet moments during a chaotic time for the couple. Yoko’s daughter, Kyoko, had been abducted by her father, Tony Cox, and John’s years-long deportation battle with the U.S. continued to rage on while his high-profile anti-Nixon campaigning, anti-Vietnam war activism made him a target of a newly elected Richard Nixon, leading to surveillance by the FBI. He would eventually win the landmark immigration case, paving the way for many more creative people to legally work in the country.
This new mix of “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)” has been produced by the couple’s son Sean Ono Lennon with triple Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer Paul Hicks and engineered by Sam Gannon. Fully authorized by Yoko and produced by Sean—who oversaw the production and creative direction—the Ultimate Collection is from the same audio team that worked on the acclaimed Imagine and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Ultimate Collections.
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