A powerful song : Imagine by John Lennon

 Hey Charlie !

So today I'm gonna write about a very famous song which is entitled Imagine. I really love this song, and I hope you will find out some interesting facts about it thanks to my article.

First of all, a little introduction :

This soft rock song was sung and composed by John Lennon and was released in the album Imagine in 1971.

John Lennon has been part of the famous group named The Beatles for ten years. After its disbanded, John Lennon continued a career as a solo artist and Imagine was his best-selling single.

Broadcast music named Imagine one of the 100 most performed songs of the 20^th century. Since 2005, event organizers have played the song just before the new year's Time Square Ball drops in New York city.

On the evening of December, 8^th 1980, John Lennon was shot and fatally wounded in his residence in New York city. His killer was Mark David Chapman, an American Beatles fan who had travelled from Hawaii. Chapman said he was angered by Lennon 's lifestyle and public statements, especially his much-publicized remark about the Beatles being « more popular than God » and the lyrics of his later songs God and Imagine.

Now a few elements of context :

John Lennon wrote Imagine's lyrics when he was in a plane, on a hotel receipt. Several poems from Yoko Ono's 1964 book Grapefruit inspired Lennon to write the lyrics for Imagine. He only said shortly before his death that much of the song's lyrics came from his wife and she received co-writing credit in 2017.

John Lennon described the song as “an ad campaign for peace”. Written in March 1971 during a tumultuous period : the Vietnam War, Imagine has become a permanent protest song and a lasting emblem of hope. This Hymn For Peace can be defined as an anti-war song. Indeed, Lennon wanted the end of the Vietnam War and a return to an optimistic humanism.

Then, here are the lyrics' topic and meaning :

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people
Livin' for today
Ah

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Livin' life in peace
You

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

This song delivers a peaceful message through a utopian vision of the world. John Lennon says « Imagine all the people living life in peace ». The lyrics encourages listeners to imagine a world at peace. The song covers the violence issue we have in this world. We are surrounded by hate, cruelty, murder, war and racism. « no countries, no religion, no possessions » : the song shows us a life without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality. We can consider the possibility that the whole of humanity would live unattached to material possessions. Through these lyrics, we can imagine a place where things that divide people do not exist. « And the world would live as one » : in the song, everyone is living together as one, sharing the world. Everybody has enough to live decently « No need for greed or hunger ». We are all one country, one world, one people. This song was written to show us that there is another way out there to live our lives, that we don't need to hate and kill (anti-war movement) but to learn to live in harmony with each other « A brotherhood of man ».

The Imagine mosaic in remembrance of John Lennon, in the Strawberry Fields section of New York's Central Park

Here is my opinion on this song :

I think Imagine is such a wonderful song ! The slow rhythm is relaxing and lets me forget all my problems for a while. The song transports me into another world, where I would like to stay forever. I also find this song timeless, its message always remains relevant. The lyric 's meaning is more important than ever nowadays ; because with the world crisis of COVID pandemic, we need to be united and to help each other to overcome it.

Léa C.