What Are We Singing When We Sing Imagine?
Introduction
This is a world full of conflicts, different opinions and even wars. Whenever we try to persuade others to believe what we believe, whenever we spend uncountable time and money fighting for what we think we are meant to, there is always a song that gives us hope that one day all these conflicts will disappear and the world will be as one. Released in October 1971, from the album of the same name, Imagine has become one of the most famous and important song in the history of popular music. Not many songs can last more than 10 years, yet Imagine is still known by young people nowadays. This phenomenon could be contributed by the great performance by many different artists. However, to understand how to sing this song successfully, it is important to see through appearances to grasp the essence.
The birth of Imagine
At 11th October 1971 (Biography.com Editors 2017), John Lennon released an album called Imagine. However, at that time, he didn’t know and couldn’t imagine how this album has affected the following generations of people and the history of humankind.
The Pacifists Awakened
“Everybody can sing about love, harmony and love, but it is dangerous for somebody who is singing about death, killing and stop doing it”, said in the documentary “The U.S. vs John Lennon” (Leaf and Scheinfeld 2006), this could be a sign of the start of people gathering against the dominant government by running protest activities in all different forms. It was for the first time, people realized that there is a way to illustrate their thought other than war. Music can be a weapon that protects the society and fights for the dreams. John Lennon was not the first, but he was the most significant one of that generation.
U.S. and Vietnam War
The story began at September of 1969. John Lennon returned his MBE (Member of British Empire) to protest for UK’s support for Vietnam war (Hammett 2007). The MBE was awarded by Queen Elizabeth to the Beatles in 1965. In the announcement, he wrote,
“Your Majesty,
I am returning my MBE as a protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam and against 'Cold Turkey' slipping down the charts.
With love. John Lennon of Bag”
This was seen as the beginning of John’s activist life (Giles 2015). However, back to that time, there were a large portion of the society didn’t think he even deserved it. Things had been changing since 1971 after John and his wife Yoko moved to New York. They met and became friends with the co-founders of the Youth International Party, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. A short time later, Rubin convinced John to “perform in Ann Arbor, Michigan on December 10, 1971 to free John Sinclair, leader of the White Panther Party, who had been arrested for selling two joints of marijuana to undercover policemen” (Hammett 2007).
It was a few months before that performance, John released the song Imagine. The album reached number 1 of Billboard 200 and became the best-selling album world-widely. In the song, he illustrated his belief where the world was without boundaries and groups, where people could live for themselves instead of the restraint of those so-called principles and rules.
If people believed John Lennon was a born rebellion and a pacifist, then after his release of Imagine, he proved himself that he was much more thoughtful than that.
Anarchism vs Religion
In fact, back to 5 years before the release of Imagine, when he was still in Beatles, he had expressed opinions like “more popular than Jesus” in the interviews. He said, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that. I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now. I don't know which will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." (Swanson 2015) He didn’t know this could bring him so much trouble in 5 months when this interview was reprinted in the U.S.
He then explained in a more careful way, “I'm not saying we're better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person, or God as a thing or whatever it is. I just said what I said and was wrong, or was taken wrong, and now it's all this. (Swanson 2015)" In my opinion, the way he explained was an even more clear indication that he did not really consider religion as a necessary part of lives but rather an irrelevant idea. He was not anti-religion. He was far beyond that state. He could make jokes about god and then claimed he was not anti-religion, which shows he did not really have an opinion on religion. If we think in another way, the things we do not have an opinion are usually things we ignore, like colours, fruits and air. He was not arrogant but just beyond the era, just like all the most significant people in history.
A Hero Who Happened to be an Artist
Early Life
The early times of John Lennon was nothing like the John we have known in later times. He showed talent in music when he was in school and eventually he formed the band we know, the Beatles in 1960. John was always rebellious in his writings, music and interviews.
To evaluate John and his life, there are so many dimensions that need to be taken into consideration. He was a teenager who took drugs and involved in fistfights. People could not see how different they were from other rock bands. However, he attempted to use music to illustrate his belief in community and the whole world. It is hard to say if it is because the public stood too close to him that they could not realize how much power he had, or because the thoughts of John required decades of times for the public to comprehend and accept. In either way, we can certainly not ignore his influence both as an artist and as a social activist.
Back to the song Imagine, if we consider the background information behind John’s personality, the lyrics seem to have a deeper meaning than just love and peace.
The Breakup of the Beatles and the Start of John Lennon
There were many reasons why the Beatles broke up. One of them was that the members had diverse music tastes and it started when John left the Beatles. After he left, he moved to New York and started his new music career with Yoko. They have produced many great works together. In fact, Yoko was accused as one of the reason why the Beatles broke up since “other members wouldn’t accept her to be one of the Beatles (6)”.
However, John left the Beatles when he was in very serious depression and there was a lot of tension among members. McCartney believed that Yoko had made John emboldened. He said, “In fact, she wanted more. Do it more, do it double, be more daring, take all your clothes off. She always pushed him, which he liked. Nobody had ever pushed him like that. (Gilmore 2009)"
The Woman
Speaking of John Lennon, there is a woman who cannot be ignored. That is Yoko Ono. She was the wife of John and formed collaboration with him in music as well. Yoko was a very controversial person. John met Yoko before the Beatles broke up and had tried to introduce her to other members. However, she was not accepted as he planned and this hurt John in terms of leadership. Later on, Yoko and John produced many music together such as “Dear Prudence” and “Julia”. As the success of Imagine, Yoko was mentioned as co-producer until one year before John was murdered. In an interview, John Lennon talked about how the poem Yoko wrote inspired him and became part of the lyrics where it says, “imagine there’s no heaven”.
With all aspects of Yoko Ono as a musician and the wife of John Lennon, we cannot deny her contribution in the
song Imagine, and the story between John and Yoko has given this song more sense of life and reality. Without knowing how this song was produced, there would be much less strength and consistency when artists interpret this song.
John and Yoko started the famous “Bed-In” activity in order to protest the Vietnam War. With the help and support from many artists, this event has created much noise and been one of the most successful protest events during that time. Even with those rumours that made Yoko sound like a very ambitious woman who approached John with purpose, no one can deny that she shared the same political and social belief with John.
There are not just good people and bad people. It could be complex when we try to investigate how a personality forms and why it is in the way it is. The deeper we go into, the more we realize that they are just people, both good and bad at the same time. They live, make mistakes and do great things. To live in the most natural way without unnecessary “principles”, it is the spirit of Imagine that I understand.
Wake up from the Dream
Death of John Lennon
The story stopped when John Lennon was shot by a crazed fan who tried to enter his apartment (Baillie 2016). It was such a tragedy that an activist who spent the whole life asking for peace was killed by the people he was trying to protect from wars. After his death, Imagine reached number 1 in UK singles chart and lasted for four weeks (Official Charts 1972). There were many different covers of Imagine in the past 30 years and every time it arouses a response in the audience.
Conclusion
The existence of Imagine is inevitable. There would be much less successful political activities that protest wars and cheer people up. It would take decades to reach the position what we are at without Imagine. To understand the content of the lyrics and the flow, it is necessary to have a broad reading about the author John Lennon and his legendary life. From a rebellious rock star who formed one of the most influential band in the modern music history, to an activist who devoted himself to the protest of wars and conflicts, John Lennon used even the last drop of his blood to illustrate what a hero is like and Imagine is the best portrait of his short but legendary life. With all the faith in peace and love, singers can finally empower themselves to perform this song. The mystery is to pass the power and the energy to the public since the reason why we sing is to express, not just impress.
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