andrewgoulding.com - Imagine-1971

Imagine

Gimme Some Truth: The making of Imagine DVD &

Imagine: The album

The Gimme Some Truth DVD was shot mostly at Tittenhurst Park, the Lennon's then luxurious estate (formerly owned by Ringo) during the making of the Imagine album in July 1971.

Oddly enough, after the much-publicised bad feeling during the filming of Let It Be, in particular, about the cameras being ever-present, Lennon went and did exactly the same thing for Imagine, albeit on a smaller scale. Go figure!

Though some of this footage has resurfaced before in Imagine, The Movie, Gimme Some Truth centers on the recording of the tracks and a few in-studio sequences, starring some of the big names in pop music at that time.

Ringo Starr, who had drummed on Lennon's previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, would have been there but had prior commitments in the USA, so the basic band is:

George Harrison...guitar
Nicky Hopkins...piano
Klaus Vormann...bass
Jim Keltner...drums

...And there's plenty of studio interplay:

in particular, Lennon blowing his cool with a recording engineer for making a small mistake
Lennon playing How Do You Sleep for Harrison for the first time
some laughs
some swearing &
a pretty funny episode when a stoned American visitor pops by to see his hero, Lennon...and gets invited in for some food

...but really, what you get is a fairly honest account of the proceedings that resulted in Lennon's best-loved SOLO album, Imagine.

Gimme Some Truth - The making of Imagine DVD

"...This is an exceptional piece of Lennon memorabilia...See and hear...John and George at work on How Do You Sleep and Oh My Love. The respect between them as well as chemistry is still evident...The soundtrack remixed in Dolby 5.1 surround sound is music to the ears, especially John singing Gimme Some Truth and Jealous Guy Enjoy. Turn it up..." Hank W. Siffel

Looking back on Imagine, it's easy to see that while he could still manage to write (some) good lyrics, Lennon's musical muse was certainly flagging. While his previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, had flourished in austere minimalism, Imagine, which purported to be much more, was an album...in search of a great tune. In fact, the only really memorable music is the final track, Oh Yoko! written in 1968 when Lennon was still Beatle John with a mysterious album credit of "the j&p duo". (Did McCartney help write it?)

Lennon: review of Imagine album with pig photo In comparison to Paul McCartney's Ram (1971), which has a bounty of beautiful sounding tunes looking for a decent lyric, Imagine sounds sluggish and uninspired, except when the Lennon-McCartney catfight is sounding from the alley way.

The tone for that fracas was set with a black and white photo of Lennon holding a pig, parodying McCartney holding a ram on the cover of Ram. It was given away FREE with the original vinyl release of Imagine and the world was left in no doubts as to what Lennon was insinuating.

The bitch-slapping gets into full swing with:

How Do You Sleep (with George Harrison's mean slide guitar)

"...You live with straights who tell you, you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was Yesterday
And since you're gone you're just Another Day*
Ah! How do you sleep at night?..."

How Do You Sleep

and continues with the less-specific but more cutting Crippled Inside

"...You can shine your shoes and wear a suit
You can comb your hair and look quite cute
You can wear a collar and a tie
One thing you can't hide
Is when you're crippled inside..."

Crippled Inside

I remember, even as a young boy, that the song Imagine, seemed very powerful in those Vietnam War years but now, unfortunately, sounds less so, though to say it's trite would certainly be going too far.

Why is that, I wonder?

Is it that lines like "...Imagine all the people living life in peace..." seem naive or is it that they sound more like Yoko than John? Either way, the track Imagine is a classic and I don't intend to diminish it in any way. However, there is one point to bear in mind. Ironically, though so well loved and respected, Imagine has become far less of an anthem over time than the ridiculous but vaguely amusing Give Peace A Chance.

The rest of the album proceeds on a soft Lennon/hard Lennon approach with some soppy love songs: Jealous Guy, Oh My Love & How, all of which are earnest enough but carry little of the former Lennon magic, the powerful word-play:

"...Oh my love for the first time in my life
My eyes are wide open
Oh my love for the first time in my life
My eyes can see..."
Oh My Love

Words like that, meant to be direct and hard-hitting need far more work than Lennon was obviously willing to put in.

On the other hand, the hard Lennon songs: It's So Hard, I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier, Mamma are repetitive and slightly ridiculous with the only words of any merit being in the dirge-groove Gimme Some Truth:

"...I'm sick of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted
Narrow minded hypocrites

All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth..."

Gimme Some Truth

If Lennon had been capable of turning the gun on himself after the catharsis of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Imagine might have been a great album. Instead, he did two things:

1 he continued to mistake Oedipal obsession & sentimentality for Love, wrapping himself in a coccoon that he would never escape from &

2 he began to take cheap pot shots at the Evils of early 1970s society, sloganeering instead of analysing, a trend he would continue (and trip himself up badly with) on his next album, Sometime In New York City.

Imagine isn't a classic album. I loved it as a young boy but maturity displays it in a different light. Lennon isn't so much a leader of the world's youth as I thought, he's just a very confused pop star. Mind you, it still has a very special place in my heart but that's in the Hall for Sentimentality, not the Pantheon of Rock'n'Roll.

Imagine: The Album

"...The song Imagine will probably be forever considered to be John Lennon's signature song. The album, likewise, will probably be considered his best album...and though it doesn't quite measure up to Plastic Ono Band, it's still an excellent album..." Amazon reviewer Harry Brewer

Nevertheless, Imagine is an important part of The Beatles story and a really fascinating part of John Lennon's tragic life. Don't miss it.

Soon after the release of the album, Lennon recorded the Happy Christmas (War Is Over) single with a number of Imagine's session musicians. It was released Xmas 1971 in the USA and a year later in the rest of the world and is now available as a bonus track on his next album, Some Time In New York City.

With the Vietnam war still raging, Happy Xmas, War Is Over was an overt, perhaps brave, political single at a time when Rock Music had very little to say about the war.

Dick Cavett: The John & Yoko interviews

With the album Imagine about to be released, John Lennon took to the airwaves to make sure the public hadn't forgotten him since the break-up of The Beatles.

Still smarting from the unexpected success that George Harrison had received for his All Things Must Pass...and again only a few weeks prior to the first interview on August 1 1971 for the Concert For Bangla Desh, Lennon wanted to make a good impression.

There are two interviews with Dick Cavett fron this time:

Saturday September 11 1971
Friday September 24 1971

...and a third interview from:

Thursday May 11 1972

For the third interview, Lennon performs Woman Is The Nigger Of The World from his & Yoko's Some Time In New York City album.

The Dick Cavett Show: John Lennon & Yoko Ono

"...With his plaid jackets, striped shirts, and longish hair that sort of curled at the collar, Dick Cavett was the epitome of an early 1970's man: influenced somewhat by the hippie culture of the previous decade, but still buttoned-down, respectable enough to be welcomed into five million homes each night..." Amazon reviewer B.W. Fairbanks

"...This dvd is a time capsule for all us babyboomers - a definite MUST before we meet our Maker. Amazon reviewer Robert L. Covington Jr.

For the September 11 segment, Lennon looks very pale and fidgety, chewing gum the whole time and probably under the influence of some intoxicant, though he remains quite coherent. There's nothing earth-shattering on these Dick Cavett interviews...John & Yoko seem intent on promoting their various works...but their "story" is fleshed out that little bit more.

The early 70s was a different time. It was a time when "artists" were taken seriously, and the public looked to them for direction, not just entertainment.

Yoko Ono: Fly CD, recorded at the same time as Imagine

"... It gave me a bloody nose: I realize that suffering is supposed to build character and all but Heaven really should have helped us when John Lennon decided to unleash this monstrosity upon the world! Amazon reviewer Carolyn

"...Yoko performed some of the most lascerating electric guitar solos of all time, on this disc, only she did them with her voice! Half the songs are meditatives, dusky, gems, and the other are death metal/funk blitzkriegs. Some of John's best guitarwork can be found here, along with Clapton, and Ringo. If Yoko is a witch like so many half-wits portend, then FLY is her pox on all their little houses..." Amazon reviewer Baron Dakota

"...Yoko is Yoko...either you get it or you don't. It is as simple as that..." Amazon reviewer Laswell Enthusiast

John & Yoko were considered such artists and this excerpt from Yoko Ono's film Fly is a testament to that, on which a fly crawls over a naked woman's body:

Excerpts from Yoko Ono's experimental film, Fly.

Can you imagine e.g. David Letterman coming out of that with a straight face? I don't think so! Personally, I see two mischievous playmates in a global media sandpit, having fun and enjoying egging each other on, while simultaneously being encouraged by the world to keep playing.