imagine

John Lennon made his sugarcoated case for world peace and struck a responsive chord with fans and critics alike. He recorded the basic tracks with Klaus Voormann and Alan White at his home studio in Tittenhurst Park, with more instrumentation added at Record Plant in New York City with Phil Spector. George Harrison, Nicky Hopkins, King Curtis, and the Flux Fiddlers all played prominent roles in the sessions. 'Imagine' topped album charts in Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Japan, the UK, and the US.






http://www.johnlennon.com/

The controversial title track challenges listeners to visualize a utopian society without divisive elements like religion, possessions, or countries. It was a number one hit in Australia, Canada, and the UK, peaking at number three in the US.

"You may say that 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 "

The country grooves of 'Crippled Inside' are a sly disguise for a satirical look at hypocrisy and bigotry.

"You can wear a mask and paint your face

You can call yourself the human race

You can wear a collar and a tie

One thing you can't hide is when you're crippled inside"

The sweeping 'Jealous Guy' was originally composed during the Beatles trip to India in 1968.

"I was trying to catch your eyes

Thought that you was trying to hide

I was swallowing my pain"

'I Don't Want To Be A Soldier'

"Well, I don't wanna be a rich man, mama, I don't wanna cry

Well, I don't wanna be a poor man, mama, I don't wanna fly

Well, I don't wanna be a lawyer, mama, I don't wanna lie

Well, I don't wanna be a soldier, mama, I don't wanna die"

'How Do You Sleep?' mercilessly disses McCartney.

"So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise

You better see right through that mothers eyes

Those freaks was right when they said you was dead

The one mistake you made was in your head"

full album:





All songs written by John Lennon, except "Oh My Love" by Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Side one
"Imagine" – 3:01
"Crippled Inside" – 3:47
"Jealous Guy" – 4:14
"It's So Hard" – 2:25
"I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" – 6:05 [nb 3]
Side two
"Gimme Some Truth" – 3:16
"Oh My Love" – 2:50
"How Do You Sleep?" – 5:36
"How?" – 3:43

"Oh Yoko!" – 4:20

plastic ono band

John Lennon measured his pain for all of us to see with the most singular statement of his artistry and humanity. Alternately tender and terrifying, the album challenges our preconceptions as much as it challenges every sense of what popular music is all about. The stripped down simplicity of the sound increases the sense of intimacy and the cathartic intensity of his expression is downright disturbing. He and Yoko had undertaken primal scream therapy with with Arthur Janov and both of them channelled their repressed childhood traumas into their music. They both released their own Plastic Ono Band album on the same day with similar album covers ("In Yoko's, she's leaning back on me; in mine, I'm leaning on her.") and similarly therapeutic expressions of emotional angst, although Yoko's version was even more avant-garde and caterwauling. Both are harrowing confessionals that give us a glimpse into the personal anguish of the most public and outspoken of celebrity couples. In perhaps his darkest moment of despair he lashes out at everything and denounces all beliefs to the extreme. "I don't believe in Beatles... I just believe in me." There is rage, resignation, remorse, and rebirth in this haunting, exhausting, but ultimately rewarding listening experience.

http://www.johnlennon.com/


http://www.yoko-ono.com/

"Working Class Hero"

"When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years, then they expect you to pick a career; when you can't really function, you're so full of fear."

"Hold On"

"When you're warm...really warm, then you'll get things done like they've never been done"

"Well Well Well"

"We sat and talked of revolution..."

Plastic Ono Band full album:





All songs written by John Lennon

Side one
"Mother" – 0:01
"Hold On" – 5:30
"I Found Out" – 7:24
"Working Class Hero" – 11:01
"Isolation" – 14:52

Side two
"Remember" – 17:45
"Love" – 22:27
"Well Well Well" – 25:45
"Look at Me" – 31:45
"God" – 34:39
"My Mummy's Dead" – 38:50

Yoko Ono - Plastic Ono Band
full album:




All songs written by Yoko Ono.
00:00 Why
05:37 Why Not
15:32 Greenfield Morning I Pushed An Empty Baby Carriage All Over the City
21:12 Touch Me
25:01 AOS
32:09 Paper Shoes

watching the wheels

On December 8, 1980, we lost one of our most beloved icons. We lost him to an act of violence from a man who claimed to be a fan, but really wanted to make a name for himself. Some have tried to blame a darkness in the music. Others think that our violent society is to blame. There are even claims that the C.I.A. used mind control techniques and hidden triggers in the book 'The Catcher in the Rye' to assassinate Lennon. The F.B.I. and the I.N.S. tried for years to get him arrested and deported for his anti-war activities and associations with various radicals; but it became overshadowed by the Watergate scandal. Mark David Chapman claimed that he was enraged by Lennon's statements about God and how he preached to "imagine no possessions" but still lived a lavish lifestyle. He thought that by killing this "phoney", he would become a hero like Holden Caulfield. Chapman is still in prison and expresses regret over venting his "anger, confusion, and low self esteem" on Lennon. "I saw him as a cardboard cutout on an album cover."






http://www.johnlennon.com/

Lennon's childhood was painful and isolated; but it fueled his creativity.

The childlike perspective of 'Look at Me' conveys the sense of confusion over personal identity with which he struggled most of his life.

'Watching the Wheels' shows how far he had come. He took five years off from the merry-go-round of the music business and the public limelight and focused on being a househusband. It was a healing time for him.

"The whole universe is a wheel, right? Wheels go round and round. They're my own wheels, mainly. But, you know, watching meself is like watching everybody else. And I watch meself through my child, too. Then, in a way, nothing is real, if you break the word down. As the Hindus or Buddhists say, it's an illusion, meaning all matter is floating atoms, right? It's Rashomon. We all see it, but the agreed-upon illusion is what we live in. And the hardest thing is facing yourself. It's easier to shout 'Revolution' and 'Power to the people' than it is to look at yourself and try to find out what's real inside you and what isn't, when you're pulling the wool over your own eyes. That's the hardest one. I used to think that the world was doing it to me and that the world owed me something, and that either the conservatives or the socialists or the fascists or the communists or the Christians or the Jews were doing something to me; and when you're a teenybopper, that's what you think. I'm forty now. I don't think that anymore, 'cause I found out it doesn't fucking work! The thing goes on anyway, and all you're doing is jacking off, screaming about what your mommy or daddy or society did, but one has to go through that. For the people who even bother to go through that - most assholes just accept what is and get on with it, right? - but for the few of us who did question what was going on.... I have found out personally - not for the whole world! - that I am responsible for it, as well as them. I am part of them. There's no separation; we're all one, so in that respect, I look at it all and think, 'Ah, well, I have to deal with me again in that way. What is real? What is the illusion I'm living or not living?' And I have to deal with it every day. The layers of the onion. But that is what it's all about."

"Jai Guru Deva Aum" is Sanskrit for "glory to the shining remover of darkness." Lennon claimed that 'Across the Universe' was a "cosmic song" that just came to him: "The words are purely inspirational and were given to me - except for maybe one or two where I had to resolve a line or something like that. I don't own it; it came through like that."

double fantasy

thirty years ago one of the most famous couples in the world put it all out there (again) with this heart play. double fantasy emerged after a five year gestation in a secluded family bubble. after his separation from yoko and his battles with the u.s. immigration office (the album is dedicated "with special thanks to all the people, known and unknown, who helped us stay in america, without whom this album would not have been made"), john let go of the merry go round of his career and settled into domestic felicity with his new son sean (born on his thirty fifth birthday!); while yoko handled the business end of things. in this musical conversation, songs alternate back and forth between john and yoko from rekindling the romance to doubt and despair, from 'i'm losing you' to 'i'm moving on', from the cold and hard to the warm "sun that looks over our shoulders and brings our shadows together." the most striking thing about this record is the buoyant spirit john displays as he has embraced life and fatherhood. yoko's more dark and edgy contributions make john's wide-eyed optimism that much more pronounced. this is a lovely and complex album for all beautiful boys and the women that love them. when yoko finishes the dialogue with the pronouncement that "hard times are over, over for awhile," it rings rather ominously. after john was murdered, it shot to the top of the charts and ended up receiving a grammy for album of the year. it stands as a testament to the honesty and bravery with which lenono chose to live in the world.

"for the other half of the sky..."

"...in rain or shine or life or death..."

full album:




Side one
1. "(Just Like) Starting Over"   John Lennon 3:56
2. "Kiss Kiss Kiss"   Yoko Ono 2:41
3. "Cleanup Time"   Lennon 2:58
4. "Give Me Something"   Ono 1:35
5. "I'm Losing You"   Lennon 3:57
6. "I'm Moving On"   Ono 2:20
7. "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"   Lennon 4:02
Side two
8. "Watching the Wheels"   Lennon 3:35
9. "Yes, I'm Your Angel"   Ono 3:08
10. "Woman"   Lennon 3:32
11. "Beautiful Boys"   Ono 2:55
12. "Dear Yoko"   Lennon 2:34
13. "Every Man Has a Woman Who Loves Him"   Ono 4:02
14. "Hard Times Are Over"   Ono 3:20

strawberry fields

john winston ono lennon

(9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980)

icon, rebel, activist, realist, dreamer, walrus, quarryman, beatle. his influence on popular culture cannot be overstated. his wit and honesty changed our minds even as his music changed the world. passionate to a fault, he was the heart of the beatles. even when he got lost in the haze of drugs, his powerful creative vision was apparent. it was his restless nature that drove the creatively competitive partnership he had with mccartney. the subversive nature of his work caught the attention of the f.b.i. who sought to keep him out of the united states. the fallout led him to withdraw from public life and focus on his new family. he reemerged as a contented and liberated artist with a new lease on life.










http://www.johnlennon.com/

strawberry field was a garden in the salvation army children's home where lennon had happy childhood memories. utilizing mellotron, orchestral elements, and a little bit of cranberry sauce; this nostalgic masterpiece was released with mccartney's 'penny lane' to create one of the greatest double sided singles of all time. this may be the first conceptual rock music video:

See all music videos The Beatles

    

    

plastic ono band was a seminal album through which lennon exorcized the demons of his childhood through primal therapy. his integrity and courage shine through in this alternately tender and raging series of confessions like this one: