Posted on 12/06/2012 10:18:56 AM PST by raccoonradio
As we approach the 32nd anniversary of John Lennon’s death, I think it’s time to take a hard look at the song that — sadly and improperly — personifies Lennon’s legacy for far too many people.
That song is “Imagine.”
Why this weak entry in Lennon’s dazzling oeuvre receives such adoration mystifies me. The song features a syrupy melody, a cloying piano line, none of the startling chord or time changes that distinguished Lennon’s great Beatles songs, and no memorable hook.
Lyrically it’s even worse. There are lines in this song that a young John Lennon would have savaged.
“No need for greed or hunger, a brotherhood of man.”
Oh, spare me. This is Jonathan Livingston Seagull territory; mawkish sentiment shoehorned into Lennon’s ironically un-Imaginative melodic framework.
Clearly, the song has attained its beloved status because it addresses world peace, or some Yoko-inspired concept of what world peace should look like: The “world will be as one,” stuff, clumsy phrasing depicting inaccessible ideals.
World peace is a wonderful value. I appreciate Lennon’s pursuit of it, as nutty as that pursuit was (Literally nutty: John and Yoko sent acorns to world leaders).
The problem is, every time I hear “Imagine” I feel the need to listen to “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” or some other brilliant Lennon song to remind me of his true genius. Some artists can turn big societal observations into memorable pieces. Others lose their art to their cause. Lennon’s musical creativity seemed to decline in proportion to the importance of his subject matter.
When I hear “Imagine” I picture Lennon setting about to write an Important Song about Important Things: peace, love, understanding, Heaven, whatever. This approach — big thought, music and lyrics to follow –doomed the piece from the outset. It is precisely opposite from the approach that made Lennon a songwriting immortal. His great pieces featured flashpoint creativity, whether sparked by a poster (“Mr. Kite”), a cereal jingle (“Good Morning, Good Morning”), a drawing by his son (“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”), or the death of a friend (“A Day in the Life”).
Lennon mined his boyhood to great effect, both in his memories of place (“Strawberry Fields Forever”) and literature (“I Am the Walrus”). He produced many of his gems under deadline pressure, with recording schedules beckoning and Paul McCartney ready to go. Lennon lacked the time to reflect, thus, he created.
“Imagine” is all reflection, and that’s what makes it so mundane.
Some artists can turn big societal observations into memorable pieces. Others lose their art to their cause. Lennon’s musical creativity seemed to decline in proportion to the importance of his subject matter. “Imagine” has its roots in “Give Peace a Chance,” another Lennon world-improvement effort featuring inspired concepts and featureless musicality. Message trumped music. Whether this was a byproduct of ego, or laziness, or misguidance, or simple evaporation of talent, I’m not sure.
Plus, there’s an undercurrent of condescension to the piece, with Lennon laying out his insipid version of world peace (“no hell below us, above us only sky”) and then asking whether we can imagine it along with him, before belittling our capacity to do so (“I wonder if you can”). Yes, we can. Imagining world peace is the easy part.
Jim Borghesani: “Imagine” is all reflection, and that’s what makes it so mundane. (Album cover)
McCartney certainly released his share of saccharine tunes over the years, but at least he had the good graces to call them what they were — silly love songs. And Paul never fell into the pretentious trap of thinking that his music could stop bullets from flying.
I don’t disparage “Imagine” and other post-Beatle Lennon compositions (“Our life, together, is so precious, together, we have grown, we have grown” Oh, the pain!) because I dislike Lennon’s music. Quite the contrary. I disparage them because I love Lennon’s music. His memory should live on in the sparkling songs he created as an acerbic, witty Beatle — not in the mushy musical observations of his later years.
So, on Dec. 8, I’ll be thinking about John Lennon. I’ll be thinking about how utterly cool he looked on the back of “Revolver.” I’ll be thinking about his ghostly vocal on “A Day in the Life.” I’ll remember seeing the Beatles perform Lennon’s “Rain” on The Ed Sullivan Show, and realizing their music had, impossibly, become even more brilliant.
And, in honor of Lennon, when “Imagine” comes on the radio, I’ll change the station.
Those two songs are not normal 4/4 beat rock and roll but they DO demonstrate the incredible musical songwriting abilities Lennon/McCartney had.
Together they had a synergy that exceeded either of their abilities on their own.
He’s probably thinkin’ “Happiness would be a lot cooler place than this...”
Zep rocks. 8 minute songs just means 6 more minutes of rock.
I do like, though, when the photographer gives him what-for in the bathroom between the maudlin Puccini bombing sequence and the saccharine Imagine reunion ending.
Imagine there's no possessions
from a guy who left an estate of around $200 million, which has since grown to around $1 billion. Haven't heard of anyone involved taking imagination to reality and giving up their 'possessions'.
Shameless hypocrisy fed to the ignorant masses. And the rest of the song is equally ridiculous.
Most overrated band ever.
I would want to poke my eardrums out with Icepicks when “Hey Jude” came on the radio.
I think they probably stuck by their official song sharing for this very purpose: to get double credit. McCartney and Lennon are weaker than Lennon/McCartney. Do we even know how much they collaborated after a certain point? By Sgt. Pepper at least they might’ve had less to do with the other guy’s final product than did George Martin.
Imagine no heaven, no hell below us, no religion, no possessions....
That’s been tried. Things didn’t work out too well for the Khmer Rouge or the country it nearly destroyed.
Yeah, me too... 17 times... once for each repeat of that mindless, meaningless refrain.
I liked the Beatles’ early stuff, but hated the products of their drug/zen/free love era. People rail on about how “great” the “white album” was; IMO, it didn’t hold a candle to the music they put out in the early 1960s.
I've thought that for a long time as well... I doubt Lennon intended it that way, but some of the lyrics of that awful song sounded like a Khmer Rouge handbook.
I understand that different people have different opinions, but I can't get over all of the hatred for The Beatles.
If I get tired of Guy Clark, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Robert Earle Keen, I can listen to The Beatles for six hours straight and enjoy it. I will, however, skip parts of "The Beatles" (a/k/a "The White Album").
They're still the most popular and influential popular music band in the world and deservedly so.
I think if he wanted to record it with The Beatles, Paul would have told him that ‘that song is the worst piece of crap I have ever heard.’
You would be surprised how much we know about their collaboration on a song-by-song basis.
Everything is for the Uncle. I grew up with a kid who was the only person in his family to survive the Khmer Rouge. He was only 4 years old when he came here but I remember he was covered with scars and burn marks. If I ever run into him again I want to ask him if he remembers seeing John Rambo Kerry in Cambodia around Xmas.
Be sure to slide over to Borghesani's "Why The Democrats Need Rush Limbaugh" if you want to really raise your blood pressure. First paragraph:
The post-mortems in the wake of the Republican humiliation on Nov. 6 should have Democrats a tad nervous. Up until Election Day, the anti-science, anti-intellectual, anti-compromise tenets of the GOP were unassailable. Now some cracks are emerging in the Koch brothers-Fox News-Karl Rove edifice.
Not somebody I'd trust, even with reasons why "Imagine" is a lousy song ...
The author obviously knows nothing about the genesis of the song. He might do a little background research:
When asked about the song’s meaning during a December 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboy magazine, Lennon told Sheff that Dick Gregory had given Ono and him a Christian prayer book, which helped inspire in Lennon what he described as:
“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 ... 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.”
“but the same CD that has 8 zep tunes can hold 12 badfinger songs, 23 Gary Lewis 45s, or 28 Chuck Berry greats...Conversely (so and so) can all pop out 20+ minutes at a time.”
My point was more that it doesn’t lose it rockingness for being longer. Of course a simlar effect could be achieved using longer or shorter songs. Assuming the band is at ease to shift from length to length. Some specialize; Zep was flexible.
What length you prefer depends on mood, purpose, and taste. I prefer 4 equal minute songs, all things being equal.
“but the same CD that has 8 zep tunes can hold 12 badfinger songs, 23 Gary Lewis 45s, or 28 Chuck Berry greats...Conversely (so and so) can all pop out 20+ minutes at a time.”
My point was more that it doesn’t lose it rockingness for being longer. Of course a simlar effect could be achieved using longer or shorter songs. Assuming the band is at ease to shift from length to length. Some specialize; Zep was flexible.
What length you prefer depends on mood, purpose, and taste. I prefer 4 or 5 minute songs, all things being equal.
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