John Lennon - 1971 - Imagine

John Lennon

1971

Imagine

01. Imagine 2:59
02. Crippled Inside 3:43
03. Jealous Guy 4:10
04. It's So Hard 2:22
05. I Don't Want To Be A Soldier 6:01
06. Give Me Some Truth 3:11
07. Oh My Love 2:40
08. How Do You Sleep? 5:29
09. How? 3:37
10. Oh Yoko! 4:18

Recorded: 11-16 February; 24-28 May; 4-5 July 1971
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector
Released: 8 October 1971 (UK), 9 September 1971 (US)

John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, harmonica
George Harrison: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, dobro
Nicky Hopkins: piano, electric piano
John Tout: piano
Joey Molland: acoustic guitar
Tom Evans: acoustic guitar
Rod Linton: acoustic guitar
Andy Davis: acoustic guitar
Ted Turner: acoustic guitar
John Tout: acoustic guitar
King Curtis: saxophone
John Barham: harmonium, vibraphone
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Steve Brendell: upright bass, maracas
Alan White: drums, vibraphone, Tibetan cymbals
Jim Keltner: drums
Jim Gordon: drums
Mike Pinder: tambourine
The Flux Fiddlers: strings

John Lennon's second solo album was his greatest commercial success. On it he tempered some of the more abrasive and confrontational elements of its predecessor, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, offering instead a more conventional pop collection that contains some of his best-loved songs.

"The album Imagine was after Plastic Ono. I call it Plastic Ono with chocolate coating."

John Lennon, 1980

All We Are Saying, David Sheff

While the soul-baring John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band had been acclaimed as a significant artistic work, its subject matters proved unpalatable for many listeners. After its release Lennon had dabbled with left-wing political issues on the Power To The People and God Save Oz singles, before contemplating a return to conventional pop music.

The songs

Imagine begins with the title track, John Lennon's most famous song. One of his most idealistic moments, Imagine suggested a world without religion, nation or possessions, asking instead that people see themselves as agents for change without traditional dogma or ideology.

If Imagine was an attempt to reach beyond the political norms, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, It's So Hard and How? returned to the personal introspection of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Lennon's demons clearly hadn't been vanquished, but he had learnt to temper them and couch them in more palatable form.

Gimme Some Truth saw a return for Citizen Lennon, marking the next step in a transition towards political polemics that would reach a peak on 1972's Some Time In New York City. It was a journey he had begun with 1968's Revolution, but began to focus on properly from Power To The People, released six months prior to Imagine. Gimme Some Truth remains one of Lennon's most powerful musical statements, launching a full-blooded attach on the hypocrisy of authority figures, and still able to pack a considerable punch decades after its release.

Oh My Love and Oh Yoko! were love songs for Lennon's wife, the first of which was written at the beginning of their relationship in 1968 and was co-credited to Ono.

And then there was How Do You Sleep?, the most notorious of Imagine's songs. An undisguised attack on Paul McCartney, it was as far from living life in peace that it was possible to Imagine Lennon.

The song was written in response to various coded messages Lennon claimed were on Paul and Linda McCartney's 1971 album Ram, particularly in the songs Too Many People, Dear Boy, Three Legs and The Back Seat Of My Car.

"I heard Paul's messages in Ram – yes there are dear reader! Too many people going where? Missed our lucky what? What was our first mistake? Can't be wrong? Huh! I mean Yoko, me, and other friends can't all be hearing things. So to have some fun, I must thank Allen Klein publicly for the line 'just another day'. A real poet! Some people don't see the funny side of it. Too bad. What am I supposed to do, make you laugh? It's what you might call an 'angry letter', sung – get it?"

John Lennon

Crawdaddy magazine

Although McCartney later claimed the messages had been confined to Too Many People, the damage had been done. Lennon launched a full-scale broadside at his former songwriting partner, accusing him of being surrounded by sycophantic 'straights', having achieved nothing more than writing Yesterday, and trashing his recent works as "muzak to my ears". As a final blow, he suggested those believers of the 'Paul is dead' myth were actually right.

Early pressings of Imagine included a postcard showing Lennon holding the ears of a pig, a clear parody of McCartney's pose on the cover of Ram. The pair eventually settled their differences, although their friendship never recovered the closeness it once had.

"Well, it was like Dylan doing Like A Rolling Stone, one of his nasty songs. It's using somebody as an object to create something. I wasn't really feeling that vicious at the time, but I was using my resentment towards Paul to create a song. Let's put it that way.

It was just a mood. Paul took it the way he did because it obviously, pointedly refers to him, and people just hounded him about it, asking, 'How do ya feel about it?' But there were a few little digs on his albums, which he kept but I heard them. So I just thought, Well, hang up being obscure! I'll just get right down to the nitty-gritty."

John Lennon

All We Are Saying, David Sheff

In the studio

Choosing to collaborate more fully with Phil Spector than he had on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon began recording the Imagine album during the Power To The People sessions at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, between 11 and 16 February 1971.

Lennon retained Klaus Voormann from the Plastic Ono Band sessions, but Ringo Starr was unavailable. In his place Lennon recruited Jim Gordon, formerly of Derek And The Dominos, and also added saxophonist Bobby Keyes to play on Power To The People. The group recorded six other songs: It's So Hard, I Don't Want To Be A Soldier, a cover of The Olympics' Well (Baby Please Don't Go, an early version of I'm The Greatest, and two by Yoko Ono – Open Your Box and O Wind (Body Is The Scar Of Your Mind).

Of the six songs, It's So Hard and I Don't Want To Be A Soldier appeared on Imagine, although the latter was later re-recorded. Their lyrics matched the emotional intensity that ran through John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, suggesting Lennon was considering repeating the formula for its follow-up. However, work stalled on the project, and Lennon committed himself to other projects for three months.

Work on Imagine began in earnest between 24 and 28 May 1971, at Ascot Sound Studios, Lennon's recording facility at the Tittenhurst Park mansion he shared with Yoko Ono. In those five days a total of eight songs for Imagine were recorded: the title track, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, Gimme Some Truth, Oh My Love, How Do You Sleep?, How?, and Oh Yoko!.

The sessions normally began around 11am and finished in the early evening. Lennon typically assembled the musicians around him, taught them the chords and explained the arrangement he had in mind, and recording ended when Lennon, Ono or Phil Spector pronounced themselves to be happy with the results. Lennon always sang guide vocals with each take, which he later replaced by overdubbing a final version.

In the studio

Choosing to collaborate more fully with Phil Spector than he had on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon began recording the Imagine album during the Power To The People sessions at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London, between 11 and 16 February 1971.

Lennon retained Klaus Voormann from the Plastic Ono Band sessions, but Ringo Starr was unavailable. In his place Lennon recruited Jim Gordon, formerly of Derek And The Dominos, and also added saxophonist Bobby Keyes to play on Power To The People. The group recorded six other songs: It's So Hard, I Don't Want To Be A Soldier, a cover of The Olympics' Well (Baby Please Don't Go, an early version of I'm The Greatest, and two by Yoko Ono – Open Your Box and O Wind (Body Is The Scar Of Your Mind).

Of the six songs, It's So Hard and I Don't Want To Be A Soldier appeared on Imagine, although the latter was later re-recorded. Their lyrics matched the emotional intensity that ran through John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, suggesting Lennon was considering repeating the formula for its follow-up. However, work stalled on the project, and Lennon committed himself to other projects for three months.

Work on Imagine began in earnest between 24 and 28 May 1971, at Ascot Sound Studios, Lennon's recording facility at the Tittenhurst Park mansion he shared with Yoko Ono. In those five days a total of eight songs for Imagine were recorded: the title track, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, Gimme Some Truth, Oh My Love, How Do You Sleep?, How?, and Oh Yoko!.

The sessions normally began around 11am and finished in the early evening. Lennon typically assembled the musicians around him, taught them the chords and explained the arrangement he had in mind, and recording ended when Lennon, Ono or Phil Spector pronounced themselves to be happy with the results. Lennon always sang guide vocals with each take, which he later replaced by overdubbing a final version.

The cast list for Imagine was more extensive than for John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. George Harrison appeared on several tracks, as did pianist Nicky Hopkins, Badfinger guitarists Joey Molland and Tom Evans, and respected session drummer Jim Keltner.

During the May sessions the musicians also recorded an unreleased cover version of San Francisco Bay Blues, plus four songs by Yoko Ono: Mind Holes, Mind Train, Midsummer New York, and Mrs Lennon. The songs were included on her 1971 album Fly, released as a counterpart to Imagine but, unlike her Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band release before it, with a quite separate identity to Lennon's album.

Lennon and Ono had been documenting their private and public appearances as audio or filmic records since 1968. The Imagine sessions at Ascot were no different. The sessions were filmed by a camera crew which captured around 60 hours of footage.

A full-length documentary film was planned, to be called Your Show then Working Class Hero, but the project was shelved as Lennon and Ono worked on the Imagine promotional film in July and September 1971. The footage was, however, used as the basis for the 1988 biopic Imagine: John Lennon, and a documentary released in 2000, Gimme Some Truth: The Making Of John Lennon's Imagine Album.

Recording for Imagine was completed in early July 1971, with the addition of saxophone and string overdubs in New York City's Record Plant East studio. The saxophonist was King Curtis, who recorded his contributions for It's So Hard and I Don't Want To Be A Soldier in less than an hour. Sadly, King Curtis was murdered on 13 August 1971, shortly before Imagine was released.

The strings were performed by members of the New York Philharmonic orchestra, whom Lennon dubbed The Flux Fiddlers. Arrangements for Imagine, Jealous Guy, It's So Hard, How Do You Sleep? and How? were scored by Torrie Zito. With recording complete, the album was mixed quickly and prepared for release.

The release

Imagine was issued on 9 September 1971 in the United States, and on 7 October in the United Kingdom. It topped the charts in both countries.

It was also the first Apple album release in quadrophonic, a four-channel system which was an early form of surround sound. The format was issued on LP and eight-track cartridge.

Cover artwork

The front and rear photographs on the cover of Imagine were taken by Yoko Ono. The original concept for the front had been a picture of Lennon with his eyes replaced by clouds, but the idea was abandoned.

The back cover also featured a quotation from Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit. Cloud Piece was an instructional poem dated Spring 1963 which inspired the album's title track.

"Imagine the clouds dripping.

Dig a hole in your garden to

put them in."

Grapefruit

Yoko Ono

George Maciunas, an artist affiliated with the Fluxus movement, designed the cover lettering and the inner sleeve layout. Early copies of the album also included the pig parody postcard, and a 33"x22" poster of Lennon seated at his white grand piano. The photograph used for the poster was taken at Tittenhurst by Peter Fordham.

Imagine

2018

Ultimate Edition

Imagine The Album The Ultimate Mixes Disc 1

101. Imagine 2:59

102. Crippled Inside 3:43

103. Jealous Guy 4:10

104. It's So Hard 2:22

105. I Don't Want To Be A Soldier 6:01

106. Give Me Some Truth 3:11

107. Oh My Love 2:40

108. How Do You Sleep 5:29

109. How? 3:37

110. Oh Yoko! 4:18

Singles & Extras

111. Power To People

112. Well... (Baby Please Don't Go)

113. God Save Us

114. Do The Oz

115. God Save Oz

116. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Imagine The Ultimate Mixes Disc 2

Elements Mixes

201. Imagine (Strings Only)

202. Jealous Guy (Piano, Bass & Drums)

203. Oh My Love (Vocals Only)

204. How? (Strings Only)

Album Out-Takes

205. Imagine (Demo)

206. Imagine (Take 1)

207. Crippled Inside (Take 3)

208. Crippled Inside (Take 6 Alt Guitar Solo)

209. Jealous Guy (Take 9)

210. It's So Hard (Take 6)

211. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (Take 11)

212. Gimme Some Truth (Take 4)

213. Oh My Love (Take 6)

214. How Do You Sleep? (Takes 1 & 2)

215. How? (Take 31)

216. Oh Yoko! (Bahamas 1969)

Singles Out-Takes

217. Power To The People (Take 7)

218. God Save Us (Demo)

219. Do The Oz (Take 3)

220. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (Alt Mix)

Imagine Raw Studio Mixes

Extended Album Versions

301. Imagine (Take 10)

302. Crippled Inside (Take 6)

303. Jealous Guy (Take 29)

304. It's So Hard (Take 11)

305. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (Take 4 - Extended)

306. Gimme Some Truth (Take 4 - Extended)

307. Oh My Love (Take 20)

308. How Do You Sleep? (Take 11 - Extended)

309. How? (Take 40)

310. Oh Yoko! (Take 1 - Extended)

Out-Takes

311. Imagine (Take 1)

312. Jealous Guy (Take 11)

313. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (Take 21)

314. How Do You Sleep? (Take 1)

315. How Do You Sleep? (Takes 5 & 6)

Imagine The Evolution Documentary

401. Imagine

402. Crippled Inside

403. Jealous Guy

404. It's So Hard

405. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die

406. Gimme Some Truth

407. Oh My Love

408. How Do You Sleep?

409. How?

410. Oh Yoko!

For easy reference the Blu-Rays have everything on the CD's plus the following that are unique to the Blu-Rays:

The Raw Studio Mixes Out-Takes

BR 2-2 Crippled Inside (Take 2) 5:23

BR 2-3 Crippled Inside (Take 6 Alt Guitar Solo) 3:49

BR 2-8 How? (Takes 7-10) 6:18

BR 2-9 How? (Take 40 Alt Vocal) 3:46

BR 2-10 Oh Yoko! (Take 1 Tracking Vocal) 6:20

The Elements Mixes From The Master Multitracks

BR 2-2 Crippled Inside (Upright Bass & Drums) 3:39

BR 2-4 It's So Hard (Strings) 0:59

BR 2-5 I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (Guitar, Bass & Drums) 6:08

BR 2-6 Gimme Some Truth (Electric Piano & Guitar) 3:18

BR 2-8 How Do You Sleep? (Strings) 5:01

BR 2-10 Oh Yoko! (Acoustic) 4:21

The Evolution Documentary

BR 2-11 Power To The People 5:29

BR 2-12 Well... (Baby Please Don't Go) 3:06

BR 2-13 God Save Us/God Save Oz 8:36

BR 2-14 Do The Oz 2:17

BR 2-15 Happy Xmas (War Is Over) 4:05

BR 2-16 Tittenhurst Park 17:22

Imagine John & Yoko - The Elliott Mintz Interviews

BR 2-1 Imagine John & Yoko - The Elliott Mintz Interviews 29:39

Also of course the CD's also only have 16/44.1 Stereo (or Mono) whereas the Blu-Ray's use 24/96 Stereo (or Mono), and also have 5.1 and Quad multichannel mixes.

When Imagine was released in September 1971, John Lennon finally gave Beatles fans the album they wanted.

His first three solo records were recorded and released while the group was still around, but they were experimental noise collages constructed with Yoko Ono that had nothing to do with the Beatles' music (unless you consider "Revolution 9" representative of their work). And 1970's post-breakup John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, as great as it is, was a little too abrasive for folks who still had "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road" ringing in their ears.

Imagine, on the other hand, sounded enough like a Beatles album that it became Lennon's first No. 1 LP as a solo artist. Four and a half decades later, it still sounds like a work made to sate fans who were still reeling from the world's biggest and greatest group splitting up the year before.

The six-disc Imagine - The Ultimate Collection box pulls together stray singles from the era, various mixes and takes, surround sound and the remastered original album for a definitive look at one of the Beatles' most popular solo records. Is it a little too much for casual fans? Sure, but the breadth of the collection gives a pretty thorough portrait of one of the most famous artists on the planet during about nine months of a most crucial year.

The Imagine album is still celebrated today because most of the music sounds as timeless now as it did almost 50 years ago. Its best tracks reflect the span of Lennon's songwriting at the time. Love songs ("Oh Yoko!"), peace anthems ("Imagine"), protest numbers ("Gimme Some Truth") and bits of self-searching ("Jealous Guy") are heard throughout. And two of his greatest non-album singles from the period -- "Power to the People" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" -- are included on The Ultimate Collection.

They put the entire era in perspective, as do the set's other extras, which lean more toward intriguing instrument- and vocal-stripping mixes and alternate versions that chart the tracks' evolution than cultural-shifting revelations. Even Lennon's early demo of the title song sounds mostly formed here. But they all sound linked in a way, whether he's supporting an underground magazine slapped with an obscenity charge on the single "God Save Oz" or knocking Paul McCartney on the Imagine album track "How Do You Sleep?"

If anything, all of the extended album versions and outtakes reveal just how committed Lennon was to the project. He famously exorcised some personal demons on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and was still fighting other issues when work began on Imagine in February 1971.

As various takes play out, none all that drastically different from the released versions, Lennon and the band -- which included Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann, Alan White and George Harrison -- piece together the songs with steadfast focus. (Compare these sessions with the ones he made with Imagine producer Phil Spector a couple years later that chaotically ended with Spector running off with the tapes.) Lennon wouldn't sound this centered on record again until 1980's Double Fantasy.

Even the rawer extended takes are more disciplined than what you'd expect from these rougher versions. The singing is a little more frayed at times and the playing is just a bit less polished, but everything falls into place as it should. It's like the direct opposite of the primal scream-inspired Plastic Ono Band, which may have been the point all along. (The fourth CD's documentary-like mix of studio chatter, rehearsals and songs is pretty much for completists only; likewise, the Blu-ray audio discs have a specific, and somewhat niche, appeal too.)

Like the Beatles' 2017 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band: Anniversary Edition box, Imagine - The Ultimate Collection charts the evolution of a classic album through repetition and fly-on-the-wall detail. It's not for everyone. It's probably not even the top candidate for this sort of probing (the cathartic John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, his best album, would likely yield more interesting results as Lennon fought his demons in the studio). But it's an occasionally fascinating journey into the creative process of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists as he worked his way toward some peace.

Imagine Ultimate Collection - The Missing Pieces

01. Imagine (Take 02)

02. Crippled Inside (Take 02)

03. Crippled Inside (Take 03)

04. Jealous Guy (Take 01)

05. Jealous Guy (Take 02)

06. Jealous Guy (Take 17)

07. It's So Hard (Take 02)

08. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Want To Die (Take 01)

09. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Want To Die (Take 02)

10. Gimme Some Truth (Take 01)

11. Gimme Some Truth (Take 02)

12. Oh My Love (Take 02)

13. Oh My Love (Take 06)

14. How Do You Sleep? (Take 02)

15. How? (Take 01)

16. How? (Take 12)

17. Oh Yoko! (Take 09)

18. San Francisco Bay Blues

19. Well (Baby Please Don't Go) (Take 02)

20. Power To The People (Alternate Take)

Regarding the CD Boxed Set for 2018 ...

With the variety of reissues, remasters and tweaking that’s been going on in music as of late, especially with the brilliant work done by Steve Hoffman on the Steely Dan albums, methinks it might be better to begin with the negative aspects first. Those aspects would revolve around the amount of material delivered here, where what I was hoping for was simply an actual ‘better’ mix of the songs, not nearly five versions of each track, totally around sixty-one in all.

Granted, most listens today weren’t around nearly fifty years ago when this Lennon’s album Imagine was released, meaning that those of us who were will probably hear the difference in quality immediately. Yet the powers that be have loaded an over abundance of material on the world, everything from the original mono recordings, to outtakes, to explorative recordings. The question that keeps circling in my head is ”Why?” Of course this additional material is fun, perhaps once, leaving me to feel that someone somewhere is trying to convince me of the brilliance and value for owning this collection, though I tell you, as Lennon himself sings, ”Just give me the truth …,” just give me the album, allow me to be the judge. And for those of you who weren’t there then, that material is all easy enough to find if you wish to make side by side comparisons.

The hype goes as such: A truly unique expanded edition of one of the most iconic albums of all time. This new edition takes us on incredibly personal journey through the entire songwriting and recording process - from the very first writing and demo sessions at John's home studio at Tittenhurst Park through to the final co-production with Phil Spector - providing a remarkable testament of the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their own words. Super Deluxe version includes 4 CDs (new stereo mix, outtakes, raw studio recordings, track-by-track) and 2 Blu-rays (5.1 surround mixes, HD audio, Elements mixes, Elliot Minz audio documentary). Imagine: The Ultimate Collection (CD) (Includes Blu-ray)

There’s absolutely no way to enjoy these new mixes without dropping the old material and burning your own disc of the Ultimate Mixes only. There are a number of things that could have been done … the Ultimate Mixes could have been packaged and housed in a lovingly created small box (about the size of a CD case) laced with super images, liner notes, lyrics and filled treats that would actually make the outing a sparkling listening experience. Now that’s something I cold get behind. Instead we’re given a vinyl album size collection filled with six compact discs and a large book (which is cool), though the issue is, most people have no where to store such collections, nor for the most part do they want them, with large box-like things always getting trampled and crushed underfoot or while storing. Of course there’s the ultimate ultimate box set that includes much of this on black and clear vinyl. So, you’re going to have to decide how happy or how sad you are with the package. Me? I would have been delighted with the aforementioned box I described, or perhaps simply a reissue of the LP as a gatefold on light blue vinyl with a full sized booklet; after all, at the end of the day its all about the music.

Now the good news, and it’s sad that good news doesn’t take up as much space. The new mixes sound great, every fan should take a listen as I’m hearing instruments I’d not heard on the original release, though if these are newly added or simply brought front and center I can not attest to, yet they do sound great, with the entire remix of the formal album sounding more vast, spacious and unrestricted. I imagine that sooner or later I’ll be afforded the opportunity of these new mixes as a vinyl package only, and that I’m sure most people like myself, those of us who were there then, will I’ll jump on.

Please, music is supposed to be fun, it’s not a history lesson of the times, I’ll give that to you in reviews, where as I’ve suggested, in reality one doesn’t want a massive collection such as this … as good as it is, it’s for the hardcore collector only, I’m not shelling out nearly $100 (my copy slid under the door as a promotional item) when all I actually wish is the original album cleaned up and tweaked to perfection. 

Truth be told, there’s something about the original album that has stood the test of time for me. I can remember when stereo sound stepped front and center, when mono was consider irrelevant, when Elvis Presley’s original mono recordings were converted to stereo and they tossed out with the trash, only to be saved from the dumpster, and now stand as a shining light for the brilliance of setting up a mono studio recoding space and the resolve of that sound, an art that has nearly been forgotten.

So yes, this is a huge boxed set, an yes, the new sound quality is sensational, and it’s not that outrageously priced, yet in the end, when all is said and done, there are but ten songs that I want out of the sixty-one, from this Lennon’s second album originally released in September of 1971, an album that was already more heavily produced and raw than John’s initial outing, one where his old bandmate George Harrison joins him, where at the time of the original release, Rolling Stone magazine suggested that the album was overly produced, yet sparse, infused with some good material, though Lennon’s posturing would soon make him irrelevant.

There’s a lot here, a lot to love, a lot to dislike and mistrust. It’s going to take me several weeks to shake it all out, though most likely, it’s only those ten remastered tracks that will hold my attention.

John Lennon 

2018 

Imagine Sessions

Misterclaudel mccd - 396/397/398/399/400/401

Imagine

101. Studio Demo (Complete)

102. Take 1 (Complete)

103. Take 2 (Complete)

104. Take 3

105. Offline Monitor Mix From Version #1

106. Alternate Take - Double Piano Overdub (Partial)

107. Version 2, Take 1

108. Version 2, Alternate Take

109. Version 2, Take 7

110. Mixing Session - Offline Monitor Mix

Crippled Inside

111. Take 1 (Breakdown)

112. Take 2

113. Take 13 (Breakdown)

114. Take 17

115. Alternate Rough Take

Jealous Guy

116. Piano Demo #1 (Child Of Nature) (1970)

117. Piano Demo #2 (Child Of Nature) (1970)

118. Take 1

119. Take 2

120. Take 7

121. Take 7 Vocal Overdub

122. Vocal Take 20

It's So Hard

123. Take 2

Overdub Session

124. John Talks About King Curtis

125. King Curtis Arrival

126. Playbacks And Discussions

127. Demonstrations

201. Rehearsal

202. Saxophone Overdub Take 1

203. Saxophone Overdub Take 2

204. Discussion

205. Saxophone Overdub Take 3

206. Playback 1

207. Discussion

208. Playback 2

209. Playback 3

210. Playback 4

Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama

211. Studio Rehearsal

212. Take 1 (Complete)

213. Take 2 (Complete)

Overdub Session

214. Discussion

215. Playback

216. Playback

217. Playback

218. Discussion

219. Saxophone Overdub Take 1

220. Discussion

221. Saxophone Overdub Take 2

222. Saxophone Overdub Take 3

223. Saxophone Overdub Take 4

Gimme Some Truth

224. Take 1 (Breakdown)

225. Take 2

226. Take 3 (Breakdown)

227. Alternate Vocal

228. Vocal Overdub Session

Oh My Love

Rehearsal Session

301. Piano Demonstration

302. Rehearsal #1

303. Rehearsal #2

304. Rehearsal #3

305. Rehearsal #4

306. Rehearsal #5

Studio Session

307. Make Love, Not War

308. Rehearsal Take 1

309. Run-Through

310. Take 1

311. Take 2

312. Middle Eight #1 Rehearsal

313. Take 3 (Breakdown)

314. Take 3

315. Take 4 (Breakdown)

316. Take 4 With Rehearsal

317. Take 5 (Breakdown)

318. Take 6

319. Take 7 (Breakdown)

320. Take 8 (Slate As Take 7) (Breakdown)

321. Take 9 (Breakdown)

322. Take 10 (Breakdown)

323. Take 11 (Slate As Take 10) (Breakdown)

324. Take 12 (Breakdown 1)

325. Take 12 (Breakdown 2)

326. Take 12 With False Start And Breakdown

327. Take 13 (Breakdown)

328. Take 14 (Breakdown)

329. Take 15 (Breakdown)

330. Take 16 (Breakdown)

331. Take 17 With False Start (Erroneously Known As Take 2))

332. Take 18 (Breakdown)

333. Take 19 (Breakdown)

334. Take 20 (Fade Out)

How Do You Sleep?

335. Piano Demo

336. Piano Rehearsal

337. Rehearsal 1

338. Rehearsal 2

401. Rehearsal 3

402. Rehearsal 4 (Breakdown)

403. Rehearsal Take 1

404. Rehearsal Take 2

405. Breakdown

406. Breakdown

407. Rehearsal Take 3

408. Breakdown

409. Breakdown

410. Breakdown

411. Take 1

412. Studio Chat

413. Take 2

414. Rehearsal (Cut)

415. Alternate Take Version 2 #1

416. Alternate Take Version 2 #2

417. Alternate Take Version 2 #3

418. Alternate Take Version 3

419. Take 4 (Breakdown)

420. Take 5 (Breakdown) + Take 6

421. Alternate Vocal A

422. Alternate Vocal B

423. Double Tracked Chorus

How?

501. Demo #1 (1970)

502. People Get Ready/How? Demo #2 (1970)

503. Demo #3 (1970)

504. Demo #4 (1970)

505. Take 1

506. Take 2

507. Take 12

508. Alternate Vocal A

509. Alternate Vocal B

510. Vocal Recording

511. Monitor Mix

Oh Yoko

512. Demo #1 (1970)

513. Demo #2 (1970)

514. Take 7

515. Take 9

516. Vocal Overdub Session #1

517. Vocal Overdub Session #2

518. Vocal Overdub Session #3

Studio Outtakes

519. San Francisco Bay Blues

520. Well (Baby Please Don't Go)

Piano Demos 1970

521. Sally And Billy #1

522. Sally And Billy #2

523. Help!

524. I'm Having A Baby My Love (Improvisation)

525. Instrumental

601. Christmas Message #1

602. Christmas Message #2

603. Somewhere In My Sky (Improvisation)

604. Can't Belive You Wanna Leave #1

605. Can't Belive You Wanna Leave #2

606. Mailman Bring Me No More Blues

607. I'm Not As Strong As You Think

608. You Know How Hard It Is (Improvisation)

609. Happy Girl

610. I'll Make You Happy #1

611. I'll Make You Happy #2

'Clock' Soundtrack - St. Regis Hotel, NY Sep 1971

612. Shazam

613. Honey Don't #1

614. Honey Don't #2

615. Glad All Over

616. Lend Me Your Comb

617. New York City

618. Wake Up Little Susie

619. Vacation Time

620. Not Fade Away

621. (You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care

622. Heartbeat

623. Peggy Sue Got Married

624. Peggy Sue #1

625. Peggy Sue #2

626. Maybe Baby

627. Mailman Bring Me No More Blues

628. Rave On

629. Instrumental 'Exit Piece'

Imagine - Rough Acetate Mix

630. Imagine

631. Crippled Inside

632. Jealous Guy

633. It's So Hard

634. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama

635. Gimme Some Truth

636. How?

Not content to be merely an ex-Beatle. John Lennon has carved out a new career for himself as political gadfly, floating member of the international avant-garde and as rock’s most psychologically daring tightrope artist. John has always displayed an amazing capacity for growth, and if one is impatient with the speed with which he takes up and then discards various causes, philosophies, and people, the other side of the coin is that he hasn’t fallen into the latter-day complacency of various other rock and roll over-achievers.

Yet despite his quest in and out of music, Imagine raises the question how much further John can progress with the vocabulary of concepts and feelings laid down on John Lennon / Plastic One Band.

POB’s importance lay not in the fact that it is the culmination of certain tensions which can be seen in John’s work since the beginning (the lyrical directness and vocal intensity, for example), but that it was also their solution. As an early adolescent, John chose rock as both his artistic and therapeutic medium. Rock and roll’s way of solving problems is simply stating and restating them (“I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” is the classic example) and through the resulting emotional and physical exhaustion, the pressure is temporarily alleviated. However, the intervention of the primal therapy experience forced John to redefine his approach in a subtle but decisive way. Where he had sung “Twist and Shout” with the urgency of someone who had to get something off his chest, he sang the songs on POB as a final recreation of his original traumas, and as a document of their cure. POB is a profoundly “ultimate” album, because it unbends the mainspring of at least one man’s rock and roll career. The question of following up POB was thus inescapable because it was difficult to imagine its successor being merely more of the same.

The problem of following an album as perfect as POB is of course more than a stylistic one. POB took an individual course. Where the trend of rock over the past few years had been one of increasing complexity and sophistication (certainly John, with songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “I Am the Walrus” is as responsible for this as anyone), POB represented a return to rock’s most visceral, and still implicit origins. Of course, it was not done naively, but with a full regalia of theoretical justifications. But it is a style which, because it is so bound up with a particular experience at a moment in time, is obsolete once it is expressed.

On the evidence of Imagine, I don’t think John has resolved the manner in which a masterpiece and an artistic dead-end like POB can successfully be followed. In its technical sloppiness and self-absorption, Imagine is John’s Self-Portrait. Most of it centers around issues which have already been dealt with on POB, only here handled less passionately and, strangely, less fastidiously as well. For POB, in its singing and instrumental work, was as much a triumph of artifice as of art. It managed to sound both spontaneous and careful, while Imagine is less of each. Even though it contains a substantial portion of good music, on the heels of POB it only seems to reinforce the questioning of what John’s relationship to rock really is.

“Imagine,” for instance, is simply the consolidation of primal awareness into a world movement. It asks that we imagine a world without religions or nations, and that such a world would mean brotherhood and peace. The singing is methodical but not really skilled, the melody undistinguished, except for the bridge, which sounds nice to me.

I first heard “Crippled Inside” on my car radio. I didn’t know right off who it was (though the dobro sounded like George), but was convinced that only someone very famous, in this age of banal competence, would dare put out something so haphazard. The song’s refrain and theme is “One thing you can’t hide/Is when you’re crippled inside,” and is another pitch for John’s personal outlook. It sports an Ed Sanders-type vocal.

It is not clear whether “It’s So Hard” came before or after John’s primal therapy experience. “It’s so hard, it’s really hard/Sometimes I feel like going down.” John sings, and the words can have the most general meaning, or, applied to John’s own past, the most specific. The guitar playing is extremely basic; the sax playing by King Curtis is extremely compact. Like “Crippled Inside,” it sounds to have been done in a single take..

“Oh My Love” is another post-primal testimonial, to the effect that John can only now see, feel, and love for the first time. John’s singing here is not as full-bodied as on POB, though part of the blame must be placed on the quality of the recording, which doesn’t sound as good to these cars as that on the earlier album.

“I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don’t Wanna Die” is an enumeration of all the roles John withdraws from, and contains some incisive lines like, “Well, I don’t wanna be a lawyer mama, I don’t wanna lie” and, “Well, I don’t wanna be a thief now mama. I don’t wanna fly.” The melody is essentially the Kinks‘ “You Really Got Me.” An aura of grandiose decadence envelops this cut. When John shouts “Hit it!” to the horns, it is like some ancient tyrant commanding the Nubians. He sounds both long-suffering and cruel.

“How,” again has a nice bridge, but is otherwise fairly drippy, and contains predictable lines like, “How can I have feeling when I don’t know If it’s a feeling?” “Oh Yoko!” is a charming bauble, another tribute to his wife.

The three really worthy, musically effective numbers are “Jealous Guy,” “Gimme Some Truth,” and “How Do You Sleep.” And while on a spontaneous level I find them the most musically appealing, I think there are also sound reasons for their quality. Each of them represents an area of John’s sensibility which he has previously not presented, and while I find “How Do You Sleep,” John’s character assassination of Paul McCartney, horrifying and indefensible, it nevertheless has an immediacy which makes it more compelling than most of the rest of the album.

“Jealous Guy” is a touching confession. It boasts a brilliantly tortured, pathetic vocal and an eloquent string arrangement. His voice here is weak and lacks range, but this only contributes to the effect. The song is powerful because it progresses beyond the realm of POB. There, John’s whole realty was “Yoko and me.” Here, then insulation and mutual devotion comes unstuck out of John’s lack of trust in her, and the moment is a humane and revealing one. The initial musical motive and the piano arrangement are highly reminiscent of “Day in the Life.”

“Gimme Some Truth” is one of John’s famous polysyllablic songs, and like “I Found Out” is a series of denunciations. Here, however, the shock of recognition is not dramatized, rather, John knows perfectly well what the truth is, and is merely disgusted with all the hypocrites whose business it is to obscure it. It contains a brilliant seething guitar solo by George.

In sheer viciousness, nothing on the album surpasses “How Do You Sleep.” It begins with the orchestra tuning up, a la Sgt. Pepper, and proceeds to lay waste to Paul’s character, family and career. John is still a wicked punster, and lines like “The only thing you done was yesterday” hit then mark. But beyond the cruelty of it, it is offensive because it is unjust. Paul’s music may be muzak to John’s ears, but songs like “Oh Yoko” or “Crippled Inside” are no more consequential than anything on McCartney or Ram. And while a song like “It’s So Hard” is more “serious” than much of what’s on those two albums. it is certainly no better. As for “You live with straights who tell you you was king,” popstars do have their sycophants and I wonder if John is really such an exception. As for “Jump when your momma tell you anything,” that is an unusual accusation for John to hurl at someone else. Finally, there is the audacity of the retrain “Ah how do you sleep at night?” as if to suggest that Paul’s conscience should be bothered by the course his life has taken.

The motives for “Sleep” are baffling. Partly it is the traditional bohemian contempt for the bourgeois; partly it is the souring of John’s long-standing competitive relationship with Paul. When they were both Beatles their rivalry was channeled towards the betterment of the Beatles as a totality. Apart, it is only destructive.

Most insidiously, I fear that John sees himself in the role of truth-teller, and, as such, can justify any kind of self-indulgent brutality in the name of truth. In “Gimme Some Truth,” John complains, “I’ve had enough of watching scenes. Of schizophrenic-egocentric-paranoic-prima donnas”; who is he speaking about now? Personally. I’m interested in John the man, his personal trials and dramas, because he has revealed them to us as John the extraordinary artist. If he does not continue as such, his posturings will soon seem not merely dull but irrelevant. It seems to me that John is facing the most extraordinary challenge of his career, both personally and artistically. But then, great artists, of whom John is one, are nothing if not resourceful.

"One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside."

I could've sworn I'd read an interview with John where he criticized Imagine for being too syrupy and soft when it should have been as raw and naked as John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band. That wouldn't surprise me, as John was always very critical of his own work. But the closest I can find is his saying that "Imagine" the song is "anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it's sugarcoated, it's accepted." Which is all very true. There are many people who sing along to the chorus and because it's so pretty, don't realize that it is asking them to give up their God, their country, their possessions. As John also said, the song is "virtually the Communist Manifesto"; no other artist could have recorded a song this anti-everything and have it revered as a universal anthem and played in baseball stadiums. It is possibly the crowning achievement of John's post-The Beatles career, and certainly the most renowned. It is one of the few popular songs so beloved that it could bring together people of all cultures. Simply a beautiful, defining statement.

And hey, the rest of the album's pretty awesome too. For those Beatles fans who never warmed to Plastic Ono Band, it must have been a welcome return to form. Now, most of the songs are as complex as those on the first album, but Phil Spector--producing alongside John and Yoko Ono--takes a more traditional tack, though since he's a genius, it's still brilliant. "Crippled Inside," with guest George Harrison on dobro, is a satirical country tune taking on racism and bigotry in insanely hummable fashion. "Jealous Guy" is the most tender song on the album, John's painfully apologetic voice swathed in Nicky Hopkins' piano. John was known for some chauvinistic and cruel behavior toward women before, and during, his relationship with Yoko, and here he pours every ounce of himself into the apology. "Oh My Love," co-written with Yoko and with another appearance by George (this time on guitar), ties "Jealous Guy" for the most effectively reflective song on the album. The lyrics are very simple, but incredibly moving in their simplicity: "I see the wind/Oh, I see the trees/Everything is clear in my heart."

The only songs that really sound angry this time out are "Gimme Some Truth" and "How Do You Sleep?" "Gimme Some Truth" is a blistering screed against lying, manipulative politicians. Coming during the latter years of the Vietnam War and right before the Watergate scandal, the song captured the feeling of the time. Harrison takes lead guitar, delivering the best of his very fine contributions to Imagine. George also appears on "How Do You Sleep?," a much more controversial piece. It's a forebear of hip-hop's diss track, John directly referring to and spewing venom on Paul McCartney. John disses Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "Yesterday," Paul's hit single "Another Day," the list goes on. John later admitted that some lines, specifically "Jump when your mama tell you anything," were critical of his own life at the time, but the attacks on McCartney are impossible to miss and, yes, musically if not morally perfect. Still, though, it's not for queasy Beatles fans; Ringo Starr stopped by the studio when it was being recorded and was so upset he remarked, "That's enough, John."

There are two songs on the album which could've benefited from Plastic Ono Band's cruder production. Lyrically, "It's So Hard" and "How?" are right in line with songs like "I Found Out" and "Hold On." The comparably lush production, though, kicks them down a notch. "It's So Hard" indulges a little in the saxophone that would soon become a big part of John's music, and adding strings on top of that, it feels a mite too laid-back to deliver at full force despite a raunchy vocal. The contemplative nature of "How?" was obviously influenced by the primal scream therapy, but again, the strings--and the oddly echo-y drums--threaten to muffle its full impact. These are still great songs, however. The weakest track is "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier," in which the echo and reverb are dialed up to 11 as John describes all the things he doesn't want to be: a soldier, a failure, a poor man, a rich man, etc. Again, this is in no way a bad song, but a little disappointing compared to the rest of the album.

Perhaps the greatest example of the difference between Imagine and Plastic Ono Band are their respective closing tracks. Plastic Ono Band ended with the chilling "My Mummy's Dead," while Imagine ends with "Oh Yoko!," a joyous ode to the other woman in his life. It is gorgeous, folksy, and full of life. It's a delight, sending the album off on the perfect jangly note.