Imagine
August 13, 2007 at 6:48 pm
“Imagine” is a utopian-themed song performed by John Lennon, which appears on his 1971 album, Imagine. Although originally credited solely to Lennon, in recent years Yoko Ono’s contribution to the song has become more widely acknowledged. The song was produced by Phil Spector. [...]
The lyrics were thought to be inspired by Lennon’s hopes for a more peaceful world, though their origins are not known for certain. In 1963 Lennon penned the lyrics to “I’ll Get You” with an opening verse of, “Imagine I’m in love with you, it’s easy cause I know.” The first verse of “Imagine” would seem to be a reworking of this. But the song’s refrain may have been partly inspired by Yoko Ono’s poetry, in reaction to her childhood in Japan during World War II. According to The Guardian, primordial versions of the song’s refrain can be found in her 1965 book Grapefruit, where she penned lines such as, “imagine a raindrop” and “imagine the clouds dripping” (wiki)
“Imagine/Persistence of Memory”
01. Moby - My Beautiful Sky
Ambient (Instinct Records, 1993)
02. Bahamadia/Roni Size/Roni Size & Reprazent - New Forms
New Forms Disc 1 (Fontana Island, 1997)
03. Badawi - Fatal Confrontation (Gashka Meets The Gate Keeper)
The Heretic Of Ether (Asphodel Records, 1999)
04. Tangerine Dream - Persistence of Memory Part Four
Springtime in Nagasaki (Eastgate, 2007)
05. Bjork - Scatterheart
Selmasongs: Dancer In The Dark (2000)
06. Mum - There is a Number of Small Things
Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK (Morr Music, 2000)
07. Flunk - Keep On
Personal Stereo (Flunk Music, 2007)
08. Four Tet - Hilarious Movie Of The 90’s
Pause (Domino, 2001)
note: What makes music a sign of time, the sound that moves memory’s to specific era? Or, how is it we don’t now have something that is so captivating it moves awareness and urge thought to move following sound. Here is a mini sketch, reverse side of Beatles Imagine, instead of melody, it’s everything but melody. Ambient, electronica and IDM bind together as if they are saying the same thing as Imagine. Anguish, but hopefull, just be, except in electronic circa ’00’s form. Maybe the form can be the message instead of direct lyrics/melody as in traditional pop/rock … ?
see also: Cries From the Midnight Circus, I was born in the day that music died.
JOHN LENNON Interview pt1
(I don’t know what the date is.
Lennon talks about his NYC experiance, UK scene, and music industry)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEHB7DYmAQM
Behind the Scenes of “All is full of love”
Another related interview, thematic. Bjork and Aphex Twin on “all is full of love”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLntDe351Ik
Yoko Ono’s kind of gloomy.
Imagine sunlight.
It is likely, as you mention, that the lyrics of the song are inspired by Ono’s poetry, who knows. But what is really incredible is the thought of her having anything to do with the music. She is terrible at it. I remember myself programing the cd player to listen just Lennon’s stuff in Double Fantasy, her songs are really unbearable.
Imagine has to be Lenon’s trademark song ( that and ‘Woman’), it’s just seer brilliant. Great selection of songs too , thanks.
The Bjork interview is with Bjork and Chris Cunningham, the director of the video, not with Aphex Twin.
one of the stupidest songs ever written.
ouais
hey hey…lay off Bjork… :D
All is full of love has terrible lyrics, but the orchestration is amazing.
I don’t think they’re that terrible, I think it’s a very spiritual song,some sort of new age metaphysical prayer; the thought that the essence in creation is love and everything surrounding us is… well full of it, a hymn to spiritual enlightenment… erm… grant the lyrics are very simple but Homogenic & Vespertine are very minimalistic and subtle on their songwriting, I feel that is the beauty of Bjork’s music, the intimacy and playfulness in it and ultimately what she’s been overall lacking on her following efforts - and yes, the orchestration & the video are amazing - I remember spending whole afternoons in front of the telly waiting for it to come up again. Thank god for the internet.
Now I’ll dive back to bed because I just realized I have a terrible hangover.
I don’t think I ever obsessed with that many videos. Most of MTV videos I like are techno with psychedelic animation background.
I remember this orbital video when MTV was still playing interesting music.
I keep repeating the prepared piano sound sample part over and over again (the one right after main melody). I thought it was the most amazing thing.
just to be clear, my comment was directed at lennon’s “imagine”, not bjork, whom i love, regardless of the likelihood that she finds “imagine” brilliant.