Artist: JOHN LENNON
Album: IMAGINE REMASTERED (CD)

Year: 1971/ 2000
Media type: CD

Imagine is John Lennon's second solo album and is considered the most popular of his solo works. Recorded and released in 1971, the album contained songs that were gentler, more commercial and less avant-garde than the ones he released on the previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The difference, he said, was that Imagine was "chocolate-coated for public consumption", in reference to the strings so prevalent throughout.

Basic tracks for the album were recorded in his home studio (Ascot Sound Studios in Tittenhurst Park) with strings overdubs added at the Record Plant in New York. As on his last album, Phil Spector joined Lennon and Yoko Ono as co-producer on Imagine. Extensive footage of the sessions, showing the evolution of some of the songs, was compiled on a video documentary entitled Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine.

The title track "Imagine" became Lennon's signature tune and remains a powerful plea for world peace. "Jealous Guy", originally composed as "Child of Nature" during the songwriting sessions in India in 1968 that birthed The Beatles' double-album The Beatles, also has had enduring popularity. Other easy-listening moments on Imagine arise in the form of "Oh My Love" (composed with Ono) and the contemplative "How?" both of which were influenced by his experience with Primal Therapy. "How?" reveals the questions he was facing while going through the changes produced in him during the ongoing process of Primal Therapy, while "Oh My Love" communicates the joy and growth Lennon was experiencing as a result of the therapy.

Postcard included with "Imagine"Imagine also indulges in Lennon's love of rock and roll with the philosophical "Crippled Inside" and "It's So Hard," as well as the provocative "Gimme Some Truth," originally heard in the Let It Be sessions, but now with a new bridge. The politically-charged "I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier" closes the first half of Imagine in a cacophonic manner.

George Harrison guested on a few of Imagine's tracks, most infamously "How Do You Sleep?," Lennon's blunt reaction to what he considered veiled remarks about him on Paul McCartney's then-current album Ram (Early editions of the Imagine LP included a postcard featuring a photo of Lennon holding a pig in mockery of McCartney's similar pose with a sheep of the cover of Ram). At the other end of the spectrum is "Oh Yoko!," a joyous ode to his wife, complete with a jubilant Bob Dylan-style harmonica solo.

Upon release in September and October 1971, Imagine was warmly regarded by critics and promptly went to #1 worldwide and became an enduring seller, with the title track reaching #3 in the U.S. and #1 in the UK following Lennon's death. In 2000, Yoko Ono supervised the remixing of Imagine for its remastered reissue.

In 2003, Imagine was placed at #76 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time and reissued by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab on gold CD.

All songs by John Lennon, except where noted.

TRACKLIST:

"Imagine" – 3:01
"Crippled Inside" – 3:47
"Jealous Guy" – 4:14
"It's So Hard" – 2:25
"I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier" – 6:05
"Gimme Some Truth" – 3:16
"Oh My Love" (John Lennon/Yoko Ono) – 2:44
"How Do You Sleep?" – 5:36
"How?" – 3:43
"Oh Yoko!" – 4:20

LINE-UP:

John Lennon – guitars, piano, harmonica, whistling, vocals
George Harrison – guitars, slide guitar, dobro
Tom Evans (Badfinger) – guitar
Rod Linton – guitars
Joey Molland (Badfinger) – guitars
John Tout (of Renaissance) – piano (erroneously credited with guitar)
Ted Turner – guitar
Klaus Voormann – bass guitars, double bass
Nicky Hopkins – piano, electric piano
John Barham – harmonium, keyboards, vibraphone
Alan White – drums, percussion
Michael Pinder – percussion
Jim Gordon – drums, percussion
Jim Keltner – drums, percussion
J&P Duo Group – backing vocals
King Curtis – saxophones