Imagine

In early 1971, John & Yoko gave an interview to the radical leftist paper, Red Mole, signalling a change in direction for the Lennons, away from Peace towards political action.

Then in March 1971, Lennon released Power To The People as a single, a rousing a rousing anthemic foot-stomper with some cool, wailing sax, calling the proleteriat to action.

"...A million workers working for nothing
You better give em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town

Singing power to the people..."

Power To The People

However, with Power To The People only achieving a low Top 10 position and Paul McCartney's Beatle-like single Another Day, released only a month later (see Ram) doing considerably better around the world, the Lennon's political pronouncements seemed to evaporate* and the Imagine project began to gestate.

Like with the Plastic Ono his and her albums, they'd each make their own album once more but this time they were going to film the whole process. Oddly enough, after Lennon's much-talked about bad feeling during the filming of Let It Be, in particular, about the cameras being ever-present, Lennon went and did exactly the same thing for Imagine, albeit on a smaller scale. Go figure!

So, this Imagine review looks at both the Imagine album and Gimme Some Truth, the making of Imagine, released in 2004. Bits and pieces of the documentary had surfaced in the past in Imagine, The Movie, this was the first time that the documentary was being seen in its entirety and it makes very interesting viewing.

Gimme Some Truth: The making of John Lennon's Imagine review

Gimme Some Truth: The making of Imagine DVD

Shot mostly at Tittenhurst Park, the Lennon's then luxurious estate (formerly owned by Ringo) in which a then-state of the art recording studio had been installed, Gimme Some Truth centers on the recording of the Imagine tracks and a few in-studio sequences, starring some of the big names in pop music at that time.

Ringo Starr, who had drummed on Lennon's previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, would have been there but had prior commitments in the USA, so the basic band was:

George Harrison...guitar
Nicky Hopkins...piano
Klaus Vormann...bass
Jim Keltner...drums

...And there's plenty of studio interplay:

in particular, Lennon blowing his cool with a recording engineer for making a small mistake
Lennon playing How Do You Sleep for Harrison for the first time
some laughs
some swearing &
a pretty funny episode when a stoned American visitor pops by to see his hero, Lennon...and gets invited in for some food

...but really, what you get is a fairly honest account of the proceedings that resulted in Lennon's best-loved SOLO album, Imagine. You see Lennon, warts and all!

Gimme Some Truth - The making of Imagine DVD

"...A great video. It is amazing to see John actually recording the tracks that I had heard all these years. His charisma and charm come through clearly in this "documentary". Great footage and as you can clearly see (and hear) a great voice. A must for any music fan..." Amazon reviewer H. Makwana

"...(Only) A small amount of the footage has been seen on the 1988 theatrical release of IMAGINE, however, those parts are greatly expanded upon in this DVD. The sound is incredible to listen to in 5.1 surround sound especially with headphones on...If you don't have this DVD you are missing an important link into knowing Lennon..." Amazon reviewer D.C Freis "freis968"

"...its a tantalizing glance into the work of one of the great artists of the 20th century and the (extra) interview with John and Yoko is fantastic...it's worth the price for this alone. Here Lennon goes into the feelings and motivations behind some of his songs; for example, there's a brilliant and vulnerable description about the sentiments behind Jealous Guy..." Amazon reviewer Elmer Craven

"...This is an exceptional piece of Lennon memorabilia...See and hear...John and George at work on How Do You Sleep and Oh My Love. The respect between them as well as chemistry is still evident...The soundtrack remixed in Dolby 5.1 surround sound is music to the ears, especially John singing Gimme Some Truth and Jealous Guy Enjoy. Turn it up..." Amazon reviewer Hank W. Siffel

In some ways, Gimme Some Truth is the more powerful statement for me, than Imagine, the album, now. That's partly because it's newer but also because it seems much truer to my ideo of who John Lennon was. With the album you might believe him when he says:

"...You may say I'm a dreamer..."

With Gimme Some Truth, one is never left with that illusion. Instead, Lennon is a man, just a man, who happened to play a decisive role in 20th Century entertainment.

John Lennon: Imagine album review

John Lennon: Imagine

And so, to Imagine, the album. It's easy to see that while Lennon could still manage to write (some) good lyrics, Lennon's musical muse was certainly flagging. While his previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, had flourished in austere minimalism, Imagine, which purported to be much more, was an album...in search of a great tune. In fact, the only really memorable music is the final track, Oh Yoko! written in 1968 when Lennon was still Beatle John and which had a rather mysterious album credit of "the j&p duo". (Did McCartney help write it?)

Lennon: review of Imagine album with pig photo In comparison to Paul McCartney's Ram, which has a bounty of beautiful-sounding tunes looking for a decent lyric, Imagine sounds sluggish and uninspired, except when the Lennon-McCartney catfight is sounding from the alley way.

The tone for that fracas was set with a black and white photo of Lennon holding a pig, parodying McCartney holding a ram on the cover of Ram. Mind you, if you interpret Ram's cover (see my review) you may grasp why Lennon was holding a pig. The glossy snapshot was an insert, given away FREE with the original vinyl release of Imagine and the world was left in no doubts as to what Lennon was insinuating.

The revenge bitch-slapping gets into full swing with:

How Do You Sleep (with George Harrison's mean slide guitar)

"...You live with straights who tell you, you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was Yesterday
And since you're gone you're just Another Day*
Ah! How do you sleep at night?..."

How Do You Sleep

and continues with the less-specific but more cutting Crippled Inside

"...You can shine your shoes and wear a suit
You can comb your hair and look quite cute
You can wear a collar and a tie
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside..."

Crippled Inside

I remember, even as a young boy, that the song Imagine, seemed very powerful in those Vietnam War years but now, unfortunately, sounds less so, though to say it's trite would certainly be going too far. Imagine: John Lennon's #1 single Why is that, I wonder?

Is it that lines like "...Imagine all the people living life in peace..." seem naive or is it that they sound more like Yoko than John? Either way, the track Imagine is a classic and I don't intend to diminish it in any way.

However, there is one point to bear in mind. Ironically, though so well loved and respected, Imagine has become far less of an anthem over time than the ridiculous but vaguely amusing Give Peace A Chance.

The rest of the album proceeds on a soft Lennon / hard Lennon approach with some soppy love songs: Jealous Guy, Oh My Love & How, all of which are earnest enough but carry little of the former Lennon magic, the powerful word-play:

"...Oh my love for the first time in my life
My eyes are wide open
Oh my love for the first time in my life
My eyes can see..."
Oh My Love

Words like that, meant to be direct and hard-hitting need far more work than Lennon was obviously willing to put in.

On the other hand, the hard Lennon songs: It's So Hard, I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier, Mamma are repetitive and slightly ridiculous with the only words of any merit being in the nice'n'dirty dirge-groove Gimme Some Truth:

"...I'm sick of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted
Narrow minded hypocrites

All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth..."

Gimme Some Truth

If Lennon had been capable of turning the blow-torch on himself after the catharsis of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Imagine might have been a great album. Instead, he did two things:

1 he continued to mistake Oedipal obsession & sentimentality for Love, wrapping himself in a coccoon that he would never escape from &

2 he began to take cheap pot shots at the Evils of early 1970s society, sloganeering instead of analysing, a trend he would continue (and trip himself up badly with) on his next album, Sometime In New York City.

Imagine isn't a classic album. I loved it as a young boy but maturity displays it in a different light. Lennon isn't so much a leader of the world's youth as I thought, he's just a very confused pop star. Mind you, Imagine still has a very special place in my heart but that's in the Hall of Eternal Sentimentality, not the Pantheon of Rock'n'Roll.

Imagine: The Album

"...The song Imagine will probably be forever considered to be John Lennon's signature song. The album, likewise, will probably be considered his best album...and though it doesn't quite measure up to Plastic Ono Band, it's still an excellent album..." Amazon reviewer Harry Brewer

"...John Lennon may have been a good singer, but he was full of crap..." Amazon reviewer Erich Ludendorff

"...Even though this is his second solo album, a fair amount of the material had its roots in the White Album and Get Back (i.e. Let It Be) sessions..." Amazon reviewer dvdtrkr

"...Lennon's follow-up to Plastic Ono Band is a very divergently thematic effort. Some could describe it as a calmer and more populist record (which is true), but there's bitterness aplenty...His varying attempts at love songs, acrimonious attacks, antiestablishment protests, introspective musings, and optimistic dreams are starkly contrasted against one another, (ruin) any chance for mood consistency. It's not exactly a weakness since almost every song on here is a winner..." Amazon reviewer Matthew T. Medlock

Nevertheless, Imagine is an important part of The Beatles story and a really fascinating part of John Lennon's tragic life. Don't miss it. During the recording of Imagine, John & Yoko were interviewed by Steve Turner to publicise her book of poems, Grapefruit. There's not a lot about the book itself...but Lennon says enough to let you in on his Imagine state of mind.

Yoko Ono: Grapefruit

"...Ono's conceptual instruction pieces are all bound together as Grapefruit. While she organized the book as a single art piece in itself, incidently, it also serves as a great overview of her early themes. Its perfect for someone looking for a book of playful, humourous, and imaginative bits..." Amazon reviewer Peabody "macmurphy"

"...A prior (Amazon reviewer) invited us to give a one word review of this book, "Grapefruit." Here is mine: Lemon..." Amazon reviewer fattuchus

Dick Cavett: The John & Yoko interviews

With the album Imagine about to be released, John Lennon took to the airwaves to make sure the public hadn't forgotten him since the break-up of The Beatles.

He was still smarting from the unexpected success that George Harrison had received for his All Things Must Pass multi-million selling album...and again only a few weeks prior to the first interview for the Concert For Bangla Desh, so Lennon wanted to make a good impression...and sell his Imagine!

There are two interviews with Dick Cavett fron this time:

Saturday September 11 1971
Friday September 24 1971

...and a third interview from:

Thursday May 11 1972

For the third interview, Lennon performs Woman Is The Nigger Of The World from his & Yoko's Some Time In New York City album.

The Dick Cavett Show: John Lennon & Yoko Ono

"...With his plaid jackets, striped shirts, and longish hair that sort of curled at the collar, Dick Cavett was the epitome of an early 1970's man: influenced somewhat by the hippie culture of the previous decade, but still buttoned-down, respectable enough to be welcomed into five million homes each night..." Amazon reviewer B.W. Fairbanks

"...This dvd is a time capsule for all us babyboomers - a definite MUST before we meet our Maker. Amazon reviewer Robert L. Covington Jr.

For the September 11 segment, Lennon looks very pale and fidgety, chewing gum the whole time and probably under the influence of some intoxicant, though he remains quite coherent. There's nothing earth-shattering on these Dick Cavett interviews...John & Yoko seem intent on promoting their various works, including their experimental films...but their "story" is fleshed out that little bit more.

You see, the early 1970s was a different time. It was a time when "artists" were taken seriously, and the public looked to them for direction, not just entertainment. John & Yoko were considered such artists and this excerpt from Yoko Ono's film Fly is a testament to that, on which a fly crawls over a naked woman's body:

Excerpts from Yoko Ono's experimental film, Fly.

Can you imagine e.g. David Letterman coming out of that with a straight face? I don't think so! Personally, I see two mischievous playmates in a global media sandpit, having fun and enjoying egging each other on, while simultaneously being encouraged by the world to keep playing.

Yoko Ono: Fly CD, recorded at the same time as Imagine

"... It gave me a bloody nose: I realize that suffering is supposed to build character and all but Heaven really should have helped us when John Lennon decided to unleash this monstrosity upon the world! Amazon reviewer Carolyn

"...Yoko performed some of the most lascerating electric guitar solos of all time, on this disc, only she did them with her voice! Half the songs are meditatives, dusky, gems, and the other are death metal/funk blitzkriegs. Some of John's best guitarwork can be found here, along with Clapton, and Ringo. If Yoko is a witch like so many half-wits portend, then FLY is her pox on all their little houses..." Amazon reviewer Baron Dakota

"...Yoko is Yoko...either you get it or you don't. It is as simple as that..." Amazon reviewer Laswell Enthusiast

Soon after the release of the Imagine, Lennon recorded the Happy Christmas (War Is Over) single with a number of Imagine's session musicians. It was released Xmas 1971 in the USA and a year later in the rest of the world. It is now available as a bonus track on Some Time In New York City.

War Is Over T-shirt