Imagine - John Lennon > Reviews > An album that defines a legend

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	Great insight into the man himself
Disadvantages:	Unfortunate jab at Paul McCartney

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

How better to start out a music review than with my own bold statement:

“Probably the most inspirational, meaningful and heartfelt album ever produced”.

Now I’m not much of a music reviewer, my strength lies in analyzing the contents of a beer bottle, so I have left myself something to prove and back up the boldness of my words.

I had managed to amass all The Beatles albums as well as the Anthologies and a few compilations, but the only John Lennon album I owned until recently was the greatest hits: “John Lennon Collection”. Realizing that I had neglected a vast area of the most talented Beatle, I informed my wife that I wouldn’t mind picking up a Lennon solo album or two, and was rewarded recently in the shape of a birthday gift with the “Imagine” album.

Many critics will say that this is probably John’s best album, which I will not argue with or against at this moment. My initial comment would be that it shows both the greatest contributions of John and also the worst. “Yikes he said the worst”. I’ll explain later.

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The Stars of the Album
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*Imagine*
Without doubt, the best-known Lennon song has to be the title-track and first track on the album. This song was my first knowledge of John Lennon, as it was re-released as a commemoration following his death. And what an introduction it was! The picture (taken from the video) inside the album cover of John sitting at a pure white piano in an empty room, Yoko quietly sitting against the wall behind him, says so much about the simple message of this song. You could call this song John’s own image of Utopia.

The piano is deep and emotional but simple. The lyrics speak of "imagining no heaven", "no countries", "no religion", "no possessions", etc. How much more simple could the message be? And behind all that there’s an underlying message asking that all the world lives as one, no need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man. This song will probably always be remembered as John’s masterpiece and an anthem for love and peace. You could say it’s a development of the message sent in “All you Need is Love”.

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Wow, does this album need anymore?
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*Jealous Guy*

What about another of his greatest contributions? John could be a bad man, maybe something of a rogue at times, and probably did much to hurt the loves of his life. Jealous Guy has a message that probably resounds in all of us, and it even borders along the lines of a weepy:

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, I’m sorry that I made you cry”
“I began to lose control”
“I was feeling insecure…I was shivering inside”

You just know that this song is all truth, and you know it all comes from John’s admission of his own shortcomings. Even the whistling in the middle seems sorrowful. John manages to translate what we’ve all probably wanted to say at some time. I would have to agree with the majority, that Imagine is the greatest Lennon song, but in terms of a favorite, I just can’t help listening to Jealous Guy.

Those are the unarguable greatest tracks on the album, but you’ll also find them on the “Collection” album.

*How Do you Sleep?*

I thought I’d take a step back now and develop upon what I earlier referred to as the worst of John Lennon. Most fans would probably know that I’m talking about the jab taken at Paul McCartney in “How do you Sleep?” Let me quote a few lines:

“those freaks was right when they said you was dead, the one mistake you made was in your head”
“the only thing you done was yesterday” (ambiguously refers to the Beatles days and Paul’s solo track in those days.)
“you must have learned something in all those years”

I think the funniest line has to be “the sound you make is muzak to my ears”, as I don’t think there’s any better example of muzak than the music in “Oh Yoko”. I know that John has since apologized, and Paul retaliated and the two made up afterwards. But it is sad that this song will always be included on the album, rather than just letting a silly bickering session be forgotten. What saddens me even more is that George Harrison played guitar on this track. I guess this song is an indication of what happens when you don’t define who is the superhero and who is the sidekick.

OK, I’m not exactly running chronologically here (I’m not going to review every track in detail), but I’d better run into “Oh Yoko” after what I just said.

*Oh Yoko*

I may have just been a little critical on the musical set up for this track, but “hey he was asking for it!” John was my favorite Beatle, but you can’t talk about Paul like that. Oh Yoko, is a beautiful song about the love of his life, explaining how he thinks of her all day long, in the middle of the night, of a bath, of a shave, of a dream. I think there’s a nice simplicity to this song and even a good example of John’s creativity through simplicity. I always thought the line “I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today” (Ticket to Ride) was clever as is the way he introduce each verse in this song e.g. “In the middle of a dream ….” (Pause) “… In the middle of a dream I call your name”.

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The Supporting Cast
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“Oh My Love” shows signs of a new awakening although I’m sure John went through a few of these.

“Crippled Inside” is almost on the edge of “country” with “blues” style lyrics.

“It’s so Hard” is pure blues.

“How?” tells of how John is trying to do everything right but doesn’t quite know the answers. While each verse may sound like it’s ending on a negative note “Oh no Oh no”, you could interpret this as the answer to all his confusion is in fact “Ono, Ono”.

“I Don’t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama, I Don’t Wanna Die” is pretty simple and straight to the point and I’m sure inspired by the Vietnamese conflict.

And I left another highlight until last:

“Gimme Some Truth” is very simple in its concept but very purposeful in its message delivery. I think the set up on this one is great; the music might as well not be there; I just like listening to John yell those words into the microphone.

“I’m sick and tired of hearing things from uptight-short-sighted-narrow minded hypocrites”
“I’m sick and tired of reading things by neurotic-psychotic-pig-headed politicians”
“No short-haired-yellow-bellied son of tricky dicky is gonna mother hubbard soft soap with me with just a pocketful of hope”.

I love the directness in this song, but I also like the way it sounds as if John is making up the lyrics as he goes along, as this is truly his own style of speech.

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A Few Final Thoughts
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Whether I did enough to back up my initial bold statement, I don’t know. Like I said I’m a beer reviewer and don’t quite have the power of argument and persuasion to write an all-convincing musical review. What I would like to say however, is that nowhere will you get a better understanding of the best side, and the worst side of John Lennon than on this album. He displays his artistic brilliance in “Imagine”, while letting all the world know his own weaknesses. He displays his affection for Yoko, and lets us all know his problems with the world.

I am not being quite so bold when I declare John Lennon as the greatest musical artist of the 20th century.

You won’t hear his musical innovative abilities on this album, as are displayed in “I am the Walrus”, “Strawberry Fields”, and “Tomorrow Never Knows”. These songs are more of a drift from John’s underlying influences. What you do get is a better understanding of the man himself all wrapped up in his earlier rock and roll background, something that actually started happening towards the end of The Beatles.

Any John Lennon fan should be ashamed (as I too was) at not owning this album. For those who only have a slight knowledge of John Lennon, look out for this album at a bargain price or at a CD exchange store or car boot sale. Give it a listen, you might just be moved like I was.