Imagine - John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band (w The Flux Fiddlers) (Ultimate Mix 2018) - 4K REMASTER

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Published 2012-12-20
Imagine - The Ultimate Collection - the audio box set: bit.ly/imagine-ult
Imagine John Yoko - the definitive book: bit.ly/imaginejohnyoko
Imagine film remastered - BluRay/DVD: bit.ly/ImagineGST-Amazon

IMAGINE
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.

written by John Lennon & Yoko Ono

John Lennon: vocals and piano
Klaus Voormann: bass
Alan White: drums
The Flux Fiddlers: strings
Produced by John & Yoko and Phil Spector
Recorded at Ascot Sound Studios, 27 May 1971
String overdubs recorded at Record Plant, NY, 4 July 1971
Filmed at Tittenhurst Park, 21 July 1971.

ABOUT IMAGINE
John: ‘Imagine’ is a song conceived in my head without melody. The first verse came to me very quickly in the form of a childlike street chant ‘da da da da da dee dee da dee da ee a eeeh’. The piano intro I’ve had hanging around in my head for a few years – the chords and melody followed naturally from this.

The middle eight was ‘conceived’ to finish off the song. I think it works as a song. Of course, there is always room for improvement – otherwise I wouldn’t make any more. The third verse came to me in an eight-seater plane. It’s a song for children.

Yoko: ‘Cloud Piece’: ‘Imagine the clouds dripping, dig a hole in your garden to put them in.’ This is not a piece of poetry. Poetry to me is nouns or adjectives. This is verbs. And you have to do them. These are all instructions and when you just do it, then you start to understand it.

John: ‘Imagine’ was inspired by Yoko’s Grapefruit. There’s a lot of pieces in it saying like ‘Imagine this’ or ‘Imagine that’. If you get a copy of Grapefruit and look through, you’ll see where I was influenced by her. ‘Imagine’ could never have been written without her. And I know she helped on a lot of the lyrics but I wasn’t man enough to let her have credit for it. So that song was actually written by John & Yoko, but I was still selfish enough and unaware enough to take her contribution without acknowledging it. The song itself expresses what I’d learned through being with Yoko and my own feelings on it. It should really have said ‘Lennon/Ono’ on that song, because she contributed a lot of that song.

Alan White (drummer): Every song we did on Imagine, John would make us read the lyrics and insist that we understood the meaning of the song before started playing it. That had quite an impact for me.

Klaus Voormann (bass): When we played ‘Imagine’ and heard the lyrics, the possibility that this was going to be such a big song was apparent. It definitely was. I even thought I didn’t want to play on it because it was so amazing with just John playing piano. It was so true and honest. That would have been enough. I hope you’ve got a version of just John playing it.

Phil McDonald (engineer): ‘Imagine’ was one of the easiest tracks to record, almost all live, in a few takes. We mixed the track at Tittenhurst and Phil Spector added strings on top of the stereo tape in the USA.

Yoko: John and I were both artists and we were living together, so we inspired each other. And the song ‘Imagine’ embodied what we believed together at the time. John and I met – he comes from the West and I come from the East – and still we are together. We have this oneness and ‘the whole world would eventually become one’ is the sense that we will all be café-au-lait colour and we will all be very happy together. All these instructions are for people for how to spend eternity, because we have lots of time.

John: If you can imagine a world of peace, if you can imagine a world with no denominations of religion – not without religion, whatever religion is – but without this divisive ‘My god is bigger than your god’ business.... Then, if you can imagine the possibility, then it can be true.

Yoko: ‘Imagine’ is a complete vision. A succinct bible of truth. It will start to unfold as you believe in it. The film? Well, it just happened naturally. I was well aware of the symbolism of everything – closing and then opening the shutters to let the light in. It’s rather personal, but I had a definite reason why I smiled at the end, in addition to loving being next to John.

Find out more: imaginejohnyoko.com/
www.johnlennon.com/

All Comments (21)
  • @neswhobruv873
    “Imagine all the people living life in peace” All these years later and we’re still imaging. . .
  • @emmalu4796
    Imagine all the people listening to this song right now with you
  • @susah3416
    My first child’s father had this LP, and I when I was pregnant I used to listen this repeating. When our daughter finally was born and I got her on my arms for the first time, the radio started to play this song. It felt like a miracle.
  • @user-xk6ev1ql1n
    若いころは、ただの反戦歌だと思ってた。 歳を重ねて、今やっとこの曲の偉大さがわかった。 ジョンは言葉では言い表せないくらいの才能を持ってたんだ… ジョン、ありがとう。 ずっと聞きます
  • @hellvetx
    R.I.P John Lennon R.I.P David Bowie R.I.P Freddie Mercury R.I.P Kurt Cobain R.I.P Chester Bennington R.I.P Bob Marley R.I.P Eric Carr R.I.P Mark St. John R.I.P Jonnhy Haliday R.I.P Cliff Burton R.I.P Frank R.I.P The Rev R.I.P Micheal Jackson R.I.P John Bonham R.I.P Malcolm Young R.I.P Richard Wright R.I.P Paul Grey R.I.P Bon Scott R.I.P Dimebag Darrell R.I.P Vinnie Paul R.I.P Chris Cornell R.I.P George Harrison R.I.P Brian Jones R.I.P Jim Morrison R.I.P Jimi Hendrix R.I.P Elvis Presley R.I.P Buddy Holly R.I.P Janis Joplin R.I.P Frank Zappa R.I.P Joey Ramone R.I.P Sid Vicious R.I.P Karel Gott R.I.P Pete Burns R.I.P Marie Fredriksson R.I.P Stevie Ray Vaughan R.I.P Joe Cocker R.I.P Tom Petty R.I.P Ginger Baker R.I.P Ramones R.I.P Ritchie Valens R.I.P Bach R.I.P Vivaldi R.I.P Beethoven R.I.P Frank Sinatra R.I.P Eddie Van Halen R.I.P Frank Sinatra They're all singing and playing in heaven right now. Thanks for all the likes. All the comments I'm reading guys but they are many to add to the list. They are all alive in our hearts ♡♡♡
  • @wegojim5124
    40 years later today........ R•I•P King
  • @CotoL17
    43 years today and he is still sorely missed. This song is so pertinent today. ❤
  • @markleidich7591
    John Lennon would have turned 83 years old today, October 9th! Thanks to you John, the world 🌎 can still Imagine! Happy Birthday John!
  • I'm profoundly Deaf and i wear a hearing aid, using the speakers 🔊 as vibrations this song feels like I'm closer to heaven...
  • @nicorelli
    There is no other musical piece in the world that better conveys the concept of peace, freedom, and solidarity. In its simplicity, it's a masterpiece that is easily understood by everyone. Honor and respect to John
  • @Nik0ol964
    Una canción que le encantaba a mi abuelo, una qué siempre ponía para cantar juntos, ahora el falleció, solo queda imaginar que algún día lo volveré a ver
  • @mariefleury3728
    This was my little brother’s favourite song. We played it during the funerals, my bro, 17. RIP angel 17.04.21. Love you!
  • Imagine he'd still be here... we wouldn't have to miss him. You may say i'm a dreamer, but i'm not the only one.
  • @CharlyBown77
    Feliz cumpleaños John, siempre recordamos tu música y tus letras, gracias por darnos tantas grandes canciones, realmente te extrañamos.
  • @auhongan23
    This is the first song that I've been able to play on the piano, and it's a great motivation for me to be determined in learning the piano. Such a beautiful melody
  • @maksjurczyk3499
    I was 9 when my mum showed me this song for the first time i used to think this man was Harry Potter but now i know he is a LEGEND
  • @alanstrom2221
    John's 80th Birthday today. He will live forever in our hearts and minds.
  • John just wanted everyone to live in peace. A perfect example of what he was trying to get across to everyone in the world took his life. John had such a beautiful soul. R i.p. John Lennon
  • @user-re8jo4py2g
    This song was one of the elements to make me change and be a better person back in 2019, it totally changed me, I was amazed by this, this song was the start of changing everything I liked, that year I met the love of my life because of that change and I need to thank this song because of that.