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"Imagine"
is a song by John Lennon,
which appears on his 1971 album, Imagine.
The song was produced by Phil Spector. It was released as a
single in the same year, and reached number three in the
U.S. Billboard charts, and number six in the United Kingdom.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine voted "Imagine" the third
greatest song of all time. Former U.S. president Jimmy
Carter said, "In many countries around the world — my wife
and I have visited about 125 countries — you hear John
Lennon's song 'Imagine' used almost equally with national
anthems."
In the book Lennon in America, written by Geoffrey Giuliano,
Lennon commented that the song was "an anti-religious,
anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic
song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted." Lennon
also described it as "virtually the Communist Manifesto".
The lyrics were thought to be inspired by Lennon's hopes for
a more peaceful world, though their origins are not known
for certain. In 1963 Lennon penned the lyrics to "I'll Get
You" with an opening verse of, "Imagine I'm in love with you,
it's easy cause I know." The first verse of "Imagine" would
seem to be a reworking of this. But the song's refrain may
have been partly inspired by Yoko Ono's poetry, in reaction
to her childhood in Japan during World War II. According to
The Guardian, primordial versions of the song's refrain can
be found in her 1965 book Grapefruit, where she penned lines
such as, "imagine a raindrop" and "imagine the clouds
dripping." |
