Shaved Fish

Did You Know?

• The album title originates from the Japanese food katsuobushi, a kind of dried fish.
• Roy Kohara was the art director, and illustrations were made by Michael Bryan; the cover is divided into twelve rectangles, one for each of the eleven songs and one for the album title.

Content

Shaved Fish gathers John Lennon’s biggest solo hits as they originally appeared on 45 rpm singles. Five tracks—"Cold Turkey," "Instant Karma!," "Power to the People," "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," and "Give Peace a Chance"—were making their album debut. A shortened version of "Give Peace a Chance" starts side one, while a live excerpt of the same song finishes side two. Eight of the singles had reached the Billboard Top 40, including the number-one hit "Whatever Gets You thru the Night"; five had made the UK top ten. "Imagine," never before a UK single, was released as one alongside this album.

Release

Shaved Fish was released on 20 October 1975 in the US and 24 October in the UK, less than three weeks after the resolution of Lennon's immigration dispute and the birth of Sean Lennon. Several master tapes were unavailable, so dubs from 45 rpm records were used; the first CD release in May 1987 suffered from poor sound quality and was remastered in December 1987, restoring full fadeouts shortened on the original. In February 1976, Lennon's recording contract expired, and he was uninterested in re-signing with EMI/Capitol.

Reception

Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called the album "eleven shots in the dark from the weirdest major rock and roller of the early '70s" and said only "Instant Karma" and "#9 Dream" were great cuts among those not on must-own albums. Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone praised the inclusion of non-album songs like "Instant Karma!", calling it "Lennon's best solo track", but deemed the compilation "so diffuse that it probably does present an accurate overview of Lennon's confused career since leaving the Beatles" and evidence "not only of John Lennon's genius but of his continuing career difficulty."

Charles Shaar Murray of the NME called Shaved Fish "as nifty a Greatest Hits album as you could expect from anybody who hasn't already put one out" and found the performances "stunning throughout", though he felt the track selection was "a little off whack", particularly the inclusion of "Mother", which he considered unfair to both artist and public on such an album. A Creem magazine reader's poll in 1975 placed the album fourth among the top five "Best Reissues" of 1975, behind two Rolling Stones compilations and Bob Dylan's The Basement Tapes.

The album peaked at number 8 in the UK; the single "Imagine", backed with "Working Class Hero", was released on the same day in the UK, charting at number 6 and becoming Lennon's last Apple single. The album re-charted in the UK on 17 January 1981 at number 11.