FEATURE:
Above Us Only Sky
John Lennon’s Imagine at Fifty
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THERE are albums turning fifty this year…
IN THIS PHOTO: John Lennon, Imagine 1971 by The Vincent Vigil Collection
that are hugely important and have touched so many people. There are few albums from 1971, in my view, that are as vital as John Lennon’s Imagine. Of course, the title track is one of the finest releases ever. A song that is as beautiful and moving now as it has ever been. The Imagine album was released on 9th September, 1971. I am going to bring in a review for the album, in addition to a feature regarding its recording. First of all, here is some overview regarding Lennon’s Imagine:
“Imagine is the second studio album by English musician John Lennon, released on 9 September 1971 by Apple Records. Co-produced by Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono and Phil Spector, the album's lush sound contrasts the basic, small-group arrangements of his first album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970), while the opening title track is widely considered to be his signature song.
Lennon recorded the album from early to mid-1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, Abbey Road Studios and the Record Plant in New York City, with supporting musicians that included his ex-Beatles bandmate George Harrison, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummers Alan White and Jim Keltner. Its lyrics reflect peace, love, politics, Lennon's experience with primal scream therapy, and, following a period of high personal tensions, an attack on his former writing partner Paul McCartney in "How Do You Sleep?" Extensive footage from the sessions was recorded for a scrapped documentary; parts were released on the documentary film Imagine: John Lennon (1988). The documentary John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky, based on that footage, was released in 2018”.
I guess it would be unfair to call Imagine a John Lennon solo album, as Yoko Ono was such a big contributor. In fact, there is an Ultimate Collection that Ono was instrumental in bringing together. It provides outtakes and rarities that offers a greater insight into the making of one of the best albums ever. I will come to the positives of the album. I think that the fact there was bitterness between John Lennon and Paul McCartney in 1971 leads to some rather acidic moments. Some say that Jealous Guy is about McCartney (although many feel it is about Yoko Ono). The notorious song, How Do You Sleep?, is about McCartney for sure! One wonders what Imagine would have sounded like were there not the acrimony between the former Beatles members. George Harrison also appears on Imagine. Whilst there are a lot of sweeter songs on the album, there are some more pointed ones. Despite Lennon harbouring anger – not just towards McCartney -, Imagine is an album with very few weaknesses. Imagine, Jealous Guy and Gimme Some Truth are three of his greatest songs. The musicianship throughout is exceptional. Lennon and Yoko produced Imagine with Phil Spector. Whilst the late, disgraced producer helped to ruin The Beatles Let It Be in 1970, his production on Imagine is tasteful and decent. I wonder what Lennon would make of Imagine turning fifty were he still alive? I also wonder whether his former Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will mark the anniversary.
I want to bring in an article that highlights an album where Lennon’s wit and gift for hooks was at its peak. To me, Imagine is John Lennon’s finest solo album:
“Powerful, poignant, important and beautiful are all words that describe Imagine – both the title song and the LP that was John Lennon’s second solo album release, in the autumn of 1971. One song does not make a great album, even when it is as seminal and defining as Imagine… and make no mistake this is a great album, full of brilliant songs, with great hooks, but with John’s acerbic wit ever-present to avoid it from becoming the kind of music that John found irrelevant and meaningless.
“The concept of positive prayer … If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion—not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing—then it can be true.” – John Lennon
John began work on the album that was to become Imagine a little over three months after finishing John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Recording his new album was done in three separate stages, the first between 11 and 16 February, followed by another from 24 to 28 May, before some final overdubs and mixing in New York over the 4th of July weekend. The earlier sessions were at Abbey Road and the May sessions were at the Lennon’s home studio at Tittenhurst Park, the New York sessions in July were at the Record Plant.
Imagine is a very different album from the one that went before it, as John told David Sheff in 1980, “The album Imagine was after Plastic Ono. I call it Plastic Ono with chocolate coating.” From the stark, but brilliant John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band this record is more instantly accessible, but let not that fool you into thinking John had gone soft. And like his previous album, Imagine has Yoko Ono’s influence all over it and no more so than in the brilliant title song.
Yoko’s poetry, included in her 1964 book Grapefruit, helped inspire John’s lyrics for ‘Imagine’, and also influenced the cover of the album. In Yoko’s poem, ‘Cloud Piece’ it includes “Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in.” John later said ‘Imagine’, “Should be credited to Lennon/Ono. A lot of it—the lyric and the concept—came from Yoko, but in those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted her contribution, but it was right out of Grapefruit.”
“The World Church called me once and asked, “Can we use the lyrics to ‘Imagine’ and just change it to ‘Imagine one religion’?” That showed [me] they didn’t understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea.” – John Lennon
Just what is it that makes ‘Imagine’ such a perfect recording? From the opening bars of John playing the piano the song stakes its claim on our senses. The clever way the track is produced, to move the seemingly distant piano from the centre to the full stereo pan helps to accentuate John’s plaintive, and vulnerable, vocal. The subtly beautiful strings, scored by Torrie Zito, play their part in making this song the very creative peak of John and Yoko’s working together.
The earlier sessions, at Abbey Road, took place during the recording of the single, ‘Power To The People’ and because Ringo was unavailable, Jim Gordon from Derek and the Dominos was drafted in to play drums, along with Klaus Voormann on bass. ‘It’s So Hard’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier’, were begun at the February sessions, with King Curtis adding his saxophone to the former in New York in July, while the latter song was substantially reworked at the May sessions. At Abbey Road, they also recorded Yoko’s, ‘Open Your Box’ that became the b-side of ‘Power To The People’.
‘Jealous Guy’ has become one of John’s best-known songs, helped in no small part by it having been covered by Roxy Music in early 1981 and taken to No.1 on the UK charts. But it is a song that is ‘so John’, and its one that had its beginnings in India in 1968 before its full flowering when John rewrote its original lyrics that capture the feelings of a man in a love relationship or possibly it gives another view as to how John felt over the break up of the Beatles. Whatever, it is about, this is consummate songwriting as John tackles a subject that most of us would prefer to keep under wraps.
Acerbic and political, ‘Gimme Some Truth’ highlights John’s way with words and succinctly sums up so much of what made John tick. John, always ahead of his time tackles the question of political leadership – just as relevant today as in 1971 – and this song acts as the bridge to what would follow in John’s songwriting over the coming years”.
I am looking forward to seeing the reaction gets on Imagine’s fiftieth anniversary on 9th September. Before I wrap up, Classic Rock Review gave their take on the 1971 classic in 2011:
“Imagine, the second full post-Beatles album by John Lennon, kicks off with an idyllic song envisioning a utopian world where there is no conflict and everyone agrees. Sounds pretty good on the surface, but this is where the art of making a album comes into play. The title song taken on it’s own may lead the listener to believe that this is how Lennon wished the world would be some day. But listening to the album as a whole completes the picture of how Lennon really seemed to view his world.
In many ways, the album was a musical continuation of Lennon’s 1970 debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which also featured Phil Spector as producer and a heavy presence by Klaus Voormann on the bass guitar. Many songs from Imagine (especially those on the “second side”) feel like they could have been left over from that previous album. However, there is a clear and distinct departure on Imagine towards a more cerebral and measured approach to these deep, inner subjects as opposed to the raw “primal scream” method on Plastic Ono Band”.
IN THIS PHOTO: John Lennon and Yoko Ono, N.Y.C., 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Gruen
“Gimme Some Truth” is the best song on this album. It is a rant expressing John’s frustration with the general bullshit of life and society. It features scathing lyrics delivered in a syncopated rhythm against a background heavy with bass and drums –
“I’m sick to death of seeing things from tight-lipped, condescending, mama’s little chauvinists All I want is the truth Just gimme some truth now I’ve had enough of watching scenes of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas”
It is a precise statement about politicians lying and propagandizing – cut the crap and just tell the truth.
Although the album features Beatles band mate George Harrison as lead guitarist, he does not shine too brightly at any one moment. Pianist Nicky Hopkins, however, provides some great virtuoso and memorable playing, especially on “Crippled Inside”, “Jealous Guy”, and the upbeat pop song, “Oh Yoko!”. Alan White takes over for Ringo on drums and there are many guest musicians, including several members of the band Badfinger”
On Imagine, John Lennon slides from themes of love, life, political idealism, to raw emotion. Honesty is an ongoing theme in his lyrics, especially after he descends from the polyanic vision of the theme song. It settles on the more realistic theme of life is not perfect, but if one lives honestly, loves fully and rises above the conflicts, it’s pretty close”.
Although some critics in 1971 (and many since) dismissed Imagine because it is quite commercial and it lacks the experimental nature of previous albums from John Lennon and Yoko Ono, I like that there are more tender moments – from a songwriter who rarely showed it during his time with The Beatles. There are sour and more angry moments. I think the only track to ignore is How Do You Sleep? Musically, it is a good track, though the lyrics really do put you off. Apart from that, the album is phenomenal. In 1971, Paul McCartney (with Linda McCartney) put out Ram. In some ways, there was this war between the two. Whilst they did build bridges before Lennon’s death in 1980, one cannot help but feel the scars of The Beatles’ break-up on Imagine. Take that away, and what you have is one of the greatest albums of the 1970s. Possessing so many beautiful songs and some of John Lennon’s best lyrics, a happy fiftieth anniversary to…
THE stunning Imagine.