Imagine

Toro: Say Pancho, who does the last dirty gringo Fed Up think he is. Pancho: I don't know Toro, he is Cranky Reviewer in disguise. Toro: My guess is he didn't hear this record. Pancho: To correct the loco Fed Up, The Beatles were 1961-70 and this record was in 1971 and Oasis were 1990s(in other words, rip-offs of The Fab Four). Toro: Back to Imagine, this record has lots of great songs like the title cut, Jealous Guy, How Do You Sleep and Oh Yoko among others. Pancho: Si Toro, Lennon is a LEGEND. Icons like Janet Jackson fade but LEGENDS like Lennon live forever. Toro says vaminos from this computer and go and scoop Imagine pronto! GRACIAS!

After the brilliant 1970 debut solo album Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon returned just a year later with his biggest and most popular album to date, Imagine.

Unlike its predecessor, Imagine sounds more radio friendly, with strings sugarcoating almost each track giving it an all-round sweetness.

The title track, Imagine, a song about peace, is Lennon's most famous song he has ever penned in his post-Beatles days. Jealous Guy is a mesmerizing song where John is apologizing to all those he had hurt in his lifetime. How?, a song about feeling frustrated, is an excellent example of John's ability to write better ballads than former bandmate Paul; this is also evident on the elusive Oh My Love, a song that John and Yoko gave birth to after they first fell in love with each other. John successfully brings back the social and political blitz of Plastic Ono Band on two vengeful tracks: the sharp-as-nails Richard Nixon and politician bashing Gimme Some Truth, and the bluesy anti-war anthem I Don't Want To Be A Soldier. And of course, no Lennon album would be complete without some straight-out rock 'n roll tunes, in this case It's So Hard and Crippled Inside do the job well.

The album topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic upon its release in late 1971. Today, Imagine is more than just a classic hit album, it's a significant moment in Lennon's legacy.

Recommended

A-

The night he was shot all my friends and family called to try to soothe my sadness and I sat in the dark of my room and listened to this album. Vinyl. It's a great album. Pop and rock and solid songwriting. Humor and cynicism. This might be more slick than "Plastic Ono Band" but it's honest and melodic. It would be great if Amazon would allow the entire song to sample so we could really compare one album to another and decide for ourselves. Until then if you like Lennon, you'll LOVE this collection of songs.

So much has been written about this album. The reality is that Imagine is a very good piece of work, not an excellent album by any means. The unspoken truth is that John Lennon's solo career really can't hold a candle to that of Paul McCartney's or George Harrison's. After the release of the Imagine album in 1971, John's solo career began a very quick downward spiral, with each subsequent release becoming less enthralling than the one before. So, for this reason alone, if you are interested in solo Lennon, you definitely want to start here, and pick up Double Fantasy as well. Lennon himself pretty much realized his troubles as the Seventies wore on, as he and McCartney both said mid-decade how hard it was to create an album on their own, top to bottom, on the level of brilliance that were the albums made by The Beatles.

The classic tracks on this album remain the title track, "Jealous Guy," "Crippled Inside" and "Oh Yoko." And even more confusing is the critical label of McCartney being the 'balladeer' Beatle, while we have John filling the Imagine album with several love pop songs galore! But that argument is for another time and place.

The rest of the album is comprised of some solid Lennon songs, but none of it eye opening or groundbreaking, which too many refer to this album as being...a monumental work. (It's nowhere near the heights Lennon soared with The Beatles.) Yet the Imagine album, whose title track calls for world peace and the good of all mankind, also features a stinging attack on his former partner, Paul McCartney. Did John forget about the things he sang about in "Imagine" when he laid this acidic piece of music in the final running order? At least when McCartney was railing against Lennon in song ("Too Many People" from the Ram album, for example) it was built within the confines of a solid song with a great arrangement and a more subtle, classy approach. "How Do You Sleep" has none of those qualities, and in hindsight, is an over the top and unwarranted act of contempt by someone who was telling us a couple of tracks earlier that peace is the only way. (Plus, was John really that foolish to believe that McCartney added nothing to his songs or The Beatles as a whole? I've always seen the song as a jealous, insecure man trying to rewrite history, something McCartney is often accused of doing.)

For what it's worth, I would advise picking up the Lennon Legend compilation CD, as the best of Lennon's music as a solo artist can be found within that collection. Otherwise, at the time this album was originally released, George was releasing the vastly superior All Things Must Pass and Paul was continuing in the Abbey Road-style of recording with the masterful Ram album. I would recommend those two works with Imagine coming in third.

(3 1/2 stars)

You could buy John Lennon's "Imagine" just for the title track, arguably one of the most famous songs ever written and the song that became John's most famous song when his career was summed up. The meliodic piano ballad with the idyllic video where John is sitting in a white room with Yoko and patiently playing his piano and aiming for world peace. But what about the other songs? There are several other very strong songs on this album aswell, "Imagine" as a whole stands as Lennon's best albums, together with "Plastic Ono Band" perhaps. Although it may not be far as confessional and right forward as his first album it's still got some very agressive songs such as "Cripple Inside" that is a Personal assault at an acquaintance and sound like an outtake of "Let It Be" and "How Do You Sleep" that slams his old friend Paul McCartney. But there is also much love on "Imagine", apart from the title track there is "Oh My Love" "How" and "Dear Yoko" that is very catchy like an old Beatle song and the sweet "Jealous Guy" about a scared and unsecure man that wished he was someone else. Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music covered the song right after the homicide as a tribute and scored a big hit with it. There is also some classic rockers like "It's So Hard" and the flamboyant "Give Me Some Truth" and ofcourse we also have the obligatory anti-war song "I Don't Want To Be A Soldier" that attacks US foreign policy and the Vietnam War.

The result is a great mix of many diffrent sides of a fantastic musician. Although not as revolutionary as his first album, this album is perhaps even more accessable to the crowd. This should be one of the first Lennon Solo albums you purchase, still to this say it sounds fresh and full of ideas and thoughts that still are present today in the world and media. Simply put, Imagine is a classic.