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John Lennon - Imagine
Music CD CoverArtist: John Lennon Edition: Music CD Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered CD Release Date: 2000-04-11 Music Label: Capitol Soundtracks: - Imagine
- Crippled Inside
- Jealous Guy
- It's So Hard
- I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier
- Gimme Some Truth
- Oh My Love
- How Do You Sleep?
- How?
- Oh Yoko!
Free Music Notes for ImagineFree Music Review: To The Young Fan Considering Lennon Hit: 5 StarsOnly a soreheaded crank with an axe to grind (usually something regarding his or her personal take on the break-up of the Beatles or the eccentricities of Yoko Ono) would care to dispute the fact that this album pretty much defines the term "classic" within the universe of mainstream popular music. A positive review here on amazon is almost superfluous. Almost.
Of course, nearly everyone on the planet is familiar with the brilliant and utterly ubiquitous title track, but fewer, I'm afraid, have taken the time to mine the other gems ensconced within the confines of this disc.
One of Lennon's most compelling characteristics as a songwriter is his ability to transport the listener to his universe...to force you to feel what he feels...his pain, his joy, his heart's overflowing love for the woman he describes as the other half of himself.
Hate all you want, but John found Yoko to be entirely inspirational, and every iota of his unfathomable love for her comes bursting through on the vibrant and jubilant "Oh Yoko!". Lennon's feelings for his bride are also in evidence on the haunting, almost sweetly-sorrowful "Oh My Love" and the self-effacing "Jealous Guy", on which Lennon boldly lays bare his insecurities for all the world to see. Similar deeply personal introspection abounds on "How?".
The term "white-washed tombs filled with dead men's bones" comes to mind when John cranks out the jangly "Crippled Inside", his pithy indictment of a vacuous society obsessed with the sizzle at the expense of the steak. Pointed social commentaries also find their mark on "I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier" and "Gimme Some Truth".
Another treasure is the prototypical "diss song" "How Do You Sleep", on which Lennon deftly skewers his former bandmate, Paul McCartney. "The only thing you done was yesterday/and since you've gone it's just another day..." Ouch! The like was not to be heard until KRS-1 ripped into MC Shan and Canibus took aim at LL Cool J.
Sometimes, we get so used to people saying that something is a "classic' or a "standard" that we barely take the time to analyze it and appreciate its true greatness. How many times have you glanced casually at the pyramids or the Mona Lisa and taken them for granted? Don't let this be the case with Imagine. Give it a listen. You won't be disappointed.
Imagine Poster John Lennon Photos More from John Lennon  Imagine (Original Soundtrack) |  Live in New York City |  The U.S. vs. John Lennon |  Mind Games |  Working Class Hero |  Walls and Bridges | The enduring legacy of John Lennon's best album has overshadowed a glaring historical irony: the Beatles' original architect was also responsible for some of the Fab Four's most erratic solo albums. His recording projects all too often held hostage to polemics both personal and political, Lennon's conflicting artistic sensibilities arguably reached perfect balance just once. Coproduced with an uncharacteristically subtle touch by Phil Spector (a stark contrast to his dense aural constructions for George Harrison's All Things Must Pass from the same period), this is Lennon as whole man. Here he exhibits childlike utopian optimism (the title track), extends romantic paeans to the love of his life ("Oh Yoko!" "Oh My Love," and "Jealous Guy," the latter two begun as White Album demos) and spews bitter, petty acrimony toward his former songwriting partner ("How Do You Sleep?"). Set against such expressions, Lennon's fervent antiestablishment tirades ("I Don't Want to Be a Soldier," "Gimme Some Truth") took on some real weight and perspective, while his dollops of introspection ("How?" "Crippled Inside") have an air of resignation missing from the vitriol of his personal exorcism, Plastic Ono Band. This digitally remixed/remastered redux of the album may invoke the ire of the historically retentive, but it was accomplished under the aegis of Yoko Ono with an ear for clarity and a little more of John Lennon's complex, but always gratifying, soul. --Jerry McCulley
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