Showing posts with label Imagine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imagine. Show all posts

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Imagine: The Album

There are many Beatles facts for John Lennon's Imagine, but the most important is that it is his most popular solo project owing to the title track (and also because it was recorded for its potential commercial value as opposed to Lennon's more avant-garde material before and after). It was recorded from June to July of 1971 and released on the Apple label on September 9, 1971 and October 8, 1971 in the U.S. and UK respectively. Production credits are assigned to John Lennon, Phil Spector, and Yoko Ono. The album is listed as number seventy-six on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Many of the basic tracks for Imagine were laid down at Lennon's home studio at Tittenhurst Park, with overdubs added at New York City's The Record Plant. Footage of several of the album's sessions was released on the documentary Gimme Some Truth.

One of the more popular tracks on the LP is "Jealous Guy," which was composed during the Beatles visit with the Maharishi in India in 1968. "Oh Yoko" has also remained one of Lennon's more popular songs, an upbeat homage to his wife. "How Do You Sleep?" is generally considered to be addressed to Paul McCartney. Its sarcastic tone was considered to be in bad taste by Ringo Starr, although George Harrison played on this track (and a few others on the album). The song "How?" is a reflection of Lennon's Primal Scream Therapy. The most popular ballad on the album is the very gentle "Oh My Love."

Session musicians for Imagine included Alan White (drums), Klaus Voorman (bass), George Harrison (electric and slide guitars and dobro), The Flux Fiddlers (strings), King Curtis (sax), Andy Davis, (acoustic guitar), Nicky Hopkins (piano), and Mike Pinder (of the Moody Blues--tambourine). Some sources also add Joey Molland, Rod Linton, Ted Turner, and Tom Evans on acoustic guitars.

Lennon provided vocals and played piano, acoustic and electric guitars, and harmonica.

Under the supervision of Yoko One, the album was remixed and remastered for a 2003 reissue.

The tracks include:

Imagine
Crippled Inside
Jealous Guy
It's So Hard
I Don't Want to Be a Soldier
Gimme Some Truth
Oh My Love
How Do You Sleep?
How?
Oh Yoko.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Lennon Song: Imagine

This post-Beatles song by John Lennon has many interesting facts associated with its long history. It was recorded on June 23, 1971 and released on Imagine on September 9, 1971 in the U.S. and on October 8, 1971 in the UK. Its origin is in dispute. Some have claimed that Lennon's use of the word "Imagine" in "I'll Get You" spurred the composition. Others say that the word "imagine" appeared frequently in Yoko's poetry (her book Grapefruit). It is the A Side to "It's So Hard."

Lennon acknowledged that the song was intended to criticize capitalism, religion, and nationalism. Despite it's verse on imagining "no heaven," the song transcended any original criticism of the song and has become Lennon's unofficial anthem and is widely played all around the world and is considered an anthem, above all, for peace. The song was also the inspiration for Lennon's imaginary country of peace--Nutopia--where anyone could claim citizenship regardless of where he or she lived.

Besides the controversy over the song's sentiment about religion, it has been criticized frequently for advocating the abandonment of possessions even though its author was worth over a hundred million dollars. Lennon responded by saying that he was advocating an abandonment of mental possessions and outmoded ways of thinking. This criticism seems overtly trivial since Lennon was obviously making a philosophical statement and merely suggesting that people try to envision a world with different values.

Lennon's opening piano chords have become famous and recognizable in hundreds of cultures. The song was produced on the Apple label by Phil Spector, with suggestions from Yoko Ono.

Several dozen artists have covered the song since it was first recorded. Among the many are Ray Charles, Joan Baez, Diana Ross, Jefferson Starship, Dolly Parton, Blues Traveler, and Avril Lavigne. The song is frequently featured in movies and television shows.

The word "Imagine" is written in the middle of the Strawberry Fields monument in Central Park in New York City, about a hundred yards from the Dakota Building, where John and Yoko lived at the time of his death.

The promotional video made for this song in the early 1970s shows John and Yoko, dressed in white, in an all-white room as John plays a white piano while Yoko opens one window shudder at a time, allowing more and more light into the room to symbolize the dawn of hope.

Rolling Stone named the song as #3 on its all-time list of greatest songs.

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