Imagine
Imagine is one of the most loved songs.
The song's simple and beautiful chords and lyrics say so much in 3 minutes.
So, how did John Lennon write it?
In a 1980 BBC radio interview, John admitted that Yoko Ono should be credited as a co-writer of the song:
“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 and Yoko, but I was still selfish enough and unaware enough to take her contribution without acknowledging it.
It should really have said ‘Lennon/Ono’ on that song, because she contributed to a lot of that song.”
The documentary 'Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine Album' (which I highly recommend watching if you are a Lennon fan), gives an in-depth look into his life when he made the song.
He wrote the song one morning in early 1971 on his piano at home.
He composed the melody and almost all the words at the same time while Yoko was watching.
Lennon later explained that the concept and lyrics of the song were inspired by a book called Grapefruit, written by Yoko in 1964.
Gimme Some Truth shows plenty of home footage of John, Yoko and the other musicians who played on the song. George Harrison (the ex Beatle) was one of them who stayed at his home around the time he recorded the Imagine album.
Drums, bass and strings were added to the song that we know today - and you can hear them in the song.
However, during the recording of the song, the producer and John were trying to decide if there should be drums in the song or if it should just be a piano song.
In the documentary, bassist, Klaus Voorman (many years later) says that the song was already complete.
And if the strings, bass and drums were taken away, it was already perfect.
AND THE WORLD WILL LIVE AS ONE
Yoko Ono was formally credited as a co-writer of the song in 2017.
Comments