Post by yerblues1968 on Jul 28, 2008 0:32:25 GMT -5
John Lennon photographs
IMAGINE
From the album IMAGINE
Recorded: 1971
Released:
October 11, 1971 US
October 24, 1975 UK
Writer: John Lennon
Producer(s): Phil Spector, John Lennon, Adam McCabe, Yoko Ono
Imagine is a song by John Lennon, which appears on his 1971 album, IMAGINE.
The song was produced by Phil Spector. It was released as a single in the same year, and reached number three in the U.S. Billboard charts, and number six in the United Kingdom.
The Imagine Piano used in the "Imagine" video.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine voted Imagine the third greatest song of all time. Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said, "In many countries around the world — my wife and I have visited about 125 countries — you hear John Lennon's song Imagine used almost equally with national anthems."
The original John Lennon "Imagine" piano shown courtesy by the Goss-Michael Foundation.
In the book Lennon in America, written by Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon commented that the song was an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted. Lennon also described it as virtually the Communist Manifesto.
The lyrics were thought to be inspired by Lennon's hopes for a more peaceful world, though their origins are not known for certain. In 1963 Lennon penned the lyrics to I'll Get You with an opening verse of, Imagine I'm in love with you, it's easy cause I know. The first verse of Imagine would seem to be a reworking of this. But the song's refrain may have been partly inspired by Yoko Ono's poetry, in reaction to her childhood in Japan during World War II. According to The Guardian, primordial versions of the song's refrain can be found in her 1965 book Grapefruit, where she penned lines such as, imagine a raindrop and imagine the clouds dripping.
COMPOSITION AND LYRICAL INTENT
The following is a quote by John Lennon on the message of Imagine, interviewed by David Sheff for Playboy magazine in 1980:
SHEFF: On a new album, you close with Hard Times Are Over (For a While). Why?
LENNON: It's not a new message: Give Peace a Chance — we're not being unreasonable, just saying, Give it a chance. With Imagine, we're saying, Can you imagine a world without countries or religions? It's the same message over and over. And it's positive.
Yoko Ono said that the lyrical content of Imagine was just what John believed — that we are all one country, one world, one people. He wanted to get that idea out.
CRITICISM
Despite its popularity, Imagine has received critiques over the years, some of which have perceived the lyrics in a negative light, typically in response to how ironic or even hypocritical it is that such a rich man as Lennon would write Imagine.
Journalist and broadcaster Robert Elms said Imagine was written by a multi-millionaire with one temperature-controlled room in his Manhattan mansion just to store his fur coats. Elvis Costello also commented satirically on the song in The Other Side of Summer, wherein he asks the question, Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine no possessions'?
Lennon, during an interview with Playboy magazine, was criticized on a similar note for his wealth, and defended himself by pointing out how difficult it is to leave a materialist world behind once you are caught up in it, comparing this to leaving the Beatles:
PLAYBOY: Why does anyone need $150,000,000? Couldn't you be perfectly content with $100,000,000? Or $1,000,000?
LENNON: What would you suggest I do? Give everything away and walk the streets? The Buddhist says, Get rid of the possessions of the mind. Walking away from all the money would not accomplish that. It's like the Beatles. I couldn't walk away from the Beatles. That's one possession that's still tagging along, right? If I walk away from one house or 400 houses, I'm not gonna escape it.
Some have been critical of the song's anti-religion stance, and some artists have even changed the line and no religion too into and one religion too in their cover versions (the change itself has faced criticism from people who agree with the anti-religious message or who think Lennon's vision should be respected).
ACCOLADES
* In 1999, BMI named Imagine as one of the top 100 most performed songs of the 20th century.
* Lennon's original recording of Imagine appears 23rd in the list of best-selling singles in the UK issued in 2002.
* In November 2004, ranked 3rd on Rolling Stone's list of the RS 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
* On 1 January 2005, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named Imagine the greatest song in the past 100 years, as voted by listeners, on the show 50 Tracks.
* The song ranked #30 on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of the 365 Songs of the Century bearing the most historical significance.
* Virgin Radio conducted a UK favourite song survey in December 2005, and Imagine was voted into top spot, beating Beatles songs Hey Jude and Let It Be.
* The song was voted the Greatest Song of All Time by the Nine Network's 20 to 1 countdown show in Australia on September 12, 2006.
CULTURAL LEGACY
* The song is referenced in George Harrison's song All Those Years Ago. One of the lines is You were the one who imagined it all, all those years ago.
* The song was used in the last sequence of the 1984 film The Killing Fields.
* The song was performed during a show commemorating the 30th anniversary of Star Trek.
* In 1990, the song was featured in the Quantum Leap episode "The Leap Home" and is also on the soundtrack of the series. This version, however is performed by the show's star, Scott Bakula.
* The lyrics to the song were featured in an episode of WKRP dealing with censorship.
* When the Liverpool airport was named after Lennon, a phrase from the song, above us only sky, was painted on the ceiling of the terminal. When commenting on this, the panel of Have I Got News for You joked that the baggage handlers' motto was taken from the same song: Imagine no possessions.
* A mosaic was constructed as a part of the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, New York City, near Lennon's final home, in memory of the singer. In the centre of the mosaic is the word IMAGINE.
* Imagine is the official song of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
* A humorous telling of this song's origin appears in Forrest Gump. The main character, Forrest, is a guest on The Dick Cavett Show alongside John Lennon. Forrest recounts his experiences playing ping pong in China; he claims that the Chinese do not have much stuff ("no possessions") and, unlike him, do not go to church every Sunday (which Lennon interprets as "no religion too"), to which Dick Cavett responds, "It's hard to imagine", and Lennon says, "Well it's easy if you try".
* Imagine and other songs by John Lennon were used in the 1995 movie Mr. Holland's Opus.
* On January 30, 2003, the song was played to wake up the astronauts on the Space Shuttle Columbia during its ill-fated mission.
* In 2005, post-hardcore band Thrice released a b-side from their album Vheissu called Lullaby. The song is a response to Imagine. Though Thrice lyricist Dustin Kensrue is an admitted fan of Lennon, he has stated that he disagrees with the message of the song because it doesn't offer any realistic solutions to world problems.
* The song was WABC-AM 's final song before switching to its current News Talk Radio format.
* The song was included in the list of songs deemed inappropriate by Clear Channel following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
President Bill Clinton and singer Liel singing "Imagine." (4:23 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCMBeQ2Dw1Q
* In 2003, Bill Clinton joined Liel and 40 Jewish and 40 Arab children at the 80th birthday of Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv to sing Imagine.
* In the Iranian left movement, the song usually relates to Mansoor Hekmat and his party, the Worker-Communist Party of Iran. The WPI plays the song in all of its meetings and demonstrations, and in its TV channel. Within Iran, the song is sometimes sung in protests and symbolizes the left movement, especially the WPI.
* George Galloway quoted the line I'm Not the Only One for the title of his autobiography.
* On November 18, 2006, UFC fighter and known anarchist Jeff Monson used Imagine as his walk in/entrance song for his heavyweight title fight against Tim Sylvia at UFC 65: Bad Intentions in Sacramento, California.
John Lennon's "Imagine" played at New York City's Time Square on New Year's Eve 2007. (5:59 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu0x8D3Cvpo
* On New Years Eve at the start of 2006, 2007 and 2008, Imagine was played in Times Square, New York City in the minutes before the clock struck midnight.
* The song is a popular choice for students learning the piano.
* Some artists, disagreeing with the song's anti-religion stance, have changed the line "and no religion too" into "and one religion too" in their cover versions.
* Ozzy Osbourne's song Dreamer may reference this and other songs by Lennon, most notably the title, which seems to echo the line, "You may say I'm a dreamer".
* Aviv Geffen's song "Shir Tikva" ("Hope Song"), also known as "Bo'u Nitz'ad LaHalom" ("Let's Walk Towards the Dream") is considered "The Israeli Imagine".
* Sometimes Bill Hicks used to say at the end of certain skits, "I'm a dreamer, man, a fookin' dreamer, but I'm not the only one," obviously interpreting a British dialect.
Ben & Jerry's "Imagine Whirled Peace" ice cream.
Ben & Jerry's Imagine Whirled Peace "Bed-In" in New York Times Square.
* Ben & Jerry's offers a brand of ice cream called "Imagine Whirled Peace," which contains chocolate peace symbols.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29
LYRICS
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one...
Imagine 1971 movie of John Lennon and Yoko Ono (3:03 minutes)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mHFZFWOPNI
John Lennon singing "Imagine" live. (3:20 minutes)
youtube.com/watch?v=QloxDv6JYso
John Lennon "Imagine" video (3:54 minutes)
youtube.com/watch?v=LEQ-_TtqcHI
John Lennon singing "Imagine" salute to Sir Lew in 1975. (3:03 minutes)
youtube.com/watch?v=b2jwnkQsVC4
John Lennon singing "Imagine" live acoustic. (2:58 minutes)
i.ytimg.com/vi/H7_6Vzj7Rng/default.jpg
John Lennon and Yoko Ono singing "Imagine" at Madison Square Garden, NY in 1972 (3:14 minutes)
youtube.com/watch?v=9Q0Eyw3l3XM