Interesting that you bring that up, Yoko says exactly that in the liner notes, she was in search of that old Plastic Ono sound where she found John at his truest.
I'm surprised you dislike the bass player. It's that bald EBMM NY guy with the tache, his "sticks" invention, member of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel's band and also known for his stick playing - darn I can't think of his name right now!!! Anyway, on the Stripped Down version, his bass has really come to the fore with very deep frequencies you never heard on the original. I think the guy plays supple and subtly, but quirky ideas here and there and he had me smiling a couple of times when he did overtly McCartney'esque runs, albeit through the ears of a NYC sessioneer.
Tony Levin, now I remember. I think he has a style.
With the exception of Double Fantasy (even in its old version) all Lennon solo albums were hugely ill-served by a production that sounds tinny, dated, middish, with cavernous echo and unpleasant distortion. He did not learn the lesson he should have from Phil Spector's mangling of Let it Be. In contrast, his old bass playing mate even mamage to elicit a good production from a makeshift Third World studio. Lennon did not seem to have an ear for that.
