This is an excellent album.........My favorite is Crippled Inside......I am the only one that has that opinion but it's my favorite song. John hits the ball well here..... OH My Love.........Fantastic song. A well deserved number one album
Imagine also has some of the last recorded work by legendary sax player King Curtis. He was stabbed to death outside his Manhattan apartment in August 1971.
This is one of those albums where you have to decide whether the extraordinary highs totally outweigh the weaker tracks. The title track, Gimme Some Truth and Jealous Guy would definitely be in my top 100 songs and perhaps much higher. Several others are lovely but there are tracks that I'd want to change. I think you've made a very fair review.
Hi John, I am sorry I missed this. Glad I got this.... just days before the reissue of the big Imagine box set. Are you in. I am counting the days for the release.... this the fall with so many reissues.... The White Album being another. For me there is no more important vocalist/lyricist with more of an impact on the rock medium and culture. Imagine, Jealous Guy, How Do you Sleep, Gimme Some Truth.... Oh Yoko. I agree wholeheartedly that it goes down as one of the best solo albums ever. Cannot wait to see what you have to say on the reissue of Imagine. God bless. Always admire you exquisite analysis done with class and precision. Just the right words used. Thank you John, Stay classy, Mr. Heaton... Tino
I'm glad you mentioned the poster and the other free stuff included. Outside of the great songs included on albums back then you could also look forward to possibly a poster to hang on the wall. Once things switched to cd's those nice inclusions disappeared. My brother always played this on the record player late at night when it was released and I always found the song "I don't wanna be a soldier" to be creepy as hell and to this day is my least favorite on the album. Other than that, a superb album. Pretty much flawless. It is sad that Lennon felt the need to include "How do you Sleep" and drag their dirty laundry into his art. But again, that was John and how he expressed himself. Still, it's a great song and on par with the cynicism of Dylan's "Positively Fourth Street", but, a bit below the belt and unfair to Paul. I guess it was John's reply to Paul's song "Too Many People". If anything, Paul probably learned never to attack John in songs cuz he couldn't win the battle. John had a way with words that Paul just didn't.
Well the John-Paul feud probably started publicly with the Rolling Stone interview of John's from Dec 1970 but I'm glad that he put that out as he was truly expressing the pain of the break-up..as John said in 1972 'if you can't fight with your best friend who can you fight with this? It's a fascinating period for us Beatles historians and I was very happy to visit his apartment on Bank St in the village in NYC and see where he lived 1971-2....it's really out of the way and no one would know that John had lived there from going there....we felt privileged just to be there!
The Imagine cover art looks like the cloud is leaking out of John's forehead. Cloud 9? The number 9 seems to be very important in Beatles Lore. Revolution 9. No.9 Dream. 9 letters in McCartney etc. Great review John anyway. Enjoyed your relaxed, off the cuff honest style, as usual.
This was John's 'Abbey Road'. His previous album was his 'white album'. My favourite Beatles album is the 'white album (The Beatles)'. My favourite John solo album is 'Imagine'. If you only have four albums in your collection to begin with, can't go wrong with 'Abbey Road', ''John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band'', 'The Beatles (white album)' and "Imagine".
If people like the song How Do You Sleep musically but not the lyrics that attack Paul, check out the song Steel And Glass, it's similar to HDYS but the lyrics are about something else.
We are largely in agreement here, John (thanks for the mention on "Soldier"). George is very good on this record, amongst his best work. I recall John saying that he wasn't feeling very angry while making "Steel And Glass", but did he say the same thing for "How Do You Sleep"? I don't buy John's explanation in later years either, but the main thing is they both made up. I think it's interesting that two great friends could have a public spat like that for a brief period.
Who knows what really went down Joe but as you say they were both reconciled...to some extent at least! The early '70s were a fascinating time for us Fab viewers and that is why I find it more interesting than their later work...
My favorite John Lennon album along with John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. They're sorta tied for me. I go back and forth between which one I love more. Right now if I was forced to pick one, I'd say John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. A year from now it might be Imagine though. I'm weird I guess lol. Some artists I have a definitive favorite album but John isn't one of em.
Maybe...just maybe, in the light of Covid 19 it's not so optimistic now to Imagine a better world.... 'Living life in peace' That's my hope anyway....those of us who do live through such times, that this world - for a while at least - will be a less violent, greedy and selfish and more peaceful. This, I hope is a massive wake up call and a massive kick up the arse for mankind, something that's been brewing for a very long time.
@@chazs001 And one of them is president. Really you need the pandemic to just wipe out all the lunatics and the evil. Stating the obvious here - people - and I mean everyone - need to be frightened, petrified to make this world a better place, but then a better world doesn't necessarily mean a good world. For a while people including myself will appreciate things we took for granted once this is over, but that's about it.
I really enjoy your videos john. You have this way of talking that's very calming. I'm with you all the way on how do you sleep. It's really to bad the way it went down but as you say they did make up. I'm gonna have to go along with Tim Shearn, i also prefer Plastic ono band a bit more but this album is right up there as one of the best beatle's solo albums. I'm also one of the kids in from of the tube in 1964 Feb 9th. Will never forget. Thanks for the review
Thanks for posting your comment. The Beatles history is a fascinating roller coaster....not the dream it could have been but interspersed with emotion and bitterness along the way. I'd like to think the final line of Abbey Road's 'The End' is a fitting line for us all, even if the four Beatles didn't always live up to it.
Great review John, enjoyed it a great deal. There is no denying that Imagine is a great album but it is slightly tainted for me as I associate it with the unpleasant John & Paul feud. I could not agree more with you about the How Do You Sleep track, a fantastic song but such a shame as regards the sentiment. Having said that it is all part of Beatle history and as you say, they made up in the end. For me I prefer Plastic Ono Band overall but this is still a 10/10 album.
The imagine album is always been my favorite from John Lennon and the box set That came out in 2018 is incredible as well!! I do have my original release of imagine that I received from my father back in 1975!! R.I.P. G.R.C.S!
Hi John! Great review!!! I was one of the kids sitting in there living room and saw the Beatles on Ed S Show!! I still to this day carry the torch of what I felt John was trying to say to us and what we could be to and for this planet. Thank you again for the in depth review---Lis
I love this album.. It`s my favorite Lennon album. Plastic ono band is probably a better album, but this is more to my liking. And George delivers on guitar. Smart move to put George on this album. And when it comes to "How do you sleep" well, the lyrics are very harsh on McCartney and it backfired on John. People thought he went to far. I accept it for what it is. It`s about Johns feeling toward Paul in the late 1970 and early 1971. John changed his mind again after "Imagine" was released, and in the end said it had nothing to do with Paul which nobody buy`s. Anyway. It is kind of funny to see John call Paul a conservative knowing that John spoke very fondly of Ronald Reagan in 1980, and admitted to his personal assistant that he would have voted for Reagan in the 1980 presidential election had he been able to.
Yellyman Gonzales yeah how do you sleep is interesting historically and great musically...nice to imagine with some generic timeless words ...can still be vitriolic just not so specific (against his poor old partner)
Paul is my favorite Beatle. John is my second favorite. I am not offended on Paul`s behalf of "How do you sleep" It`s alright. It`s how John felt for a short period of time about Paul and he used his anger to write a very good song. This was during his primal scream therapy where he was pissed off at almost everything that moved, his father, Paul, George Martin etc etc. He got over it, and changed his mind about Paul, and on Alfred his father.
I agree that this is probably Lennon's finest solo album. However, as a serious Lennon fan at the time that I bought the album on its release, I was and still am very upset with the lyrics and sentiment of How Do You Sleep. The song track is brilliant in terms of music and production but badly let down by the petulant, childish lyrical content. I agree with John (Heaton). Had Lennon disguised the target more or better still, aimed it at business or politics it would have been a lasting classic instead of an uncomfortable embarrassment. Oh Yoko is a bit trite but it'll do. For that reason I think it misses a full 10/10.
Hi John. Great video. A very hard album to review here. Really great depth here so nice one for doing such a great job of reviewing this album. Just keeping it short I would say the only tracks I don't like would be the last 3 tracks. I don't dis like them just don't love them like the others. I would give this album a mid seven to a mid eight probably. Great video again mate and take care
Thanks for commenting. Interesting least three favourite tracks. I can forgive most grumbles I have and overall as you know would rate this one a 10 despite its flaws. I see it still made your top 10 though!
Grouse review Mr.Heaton! Yep, it's a hard album to review because of all that went on at the time & what has happened since. I think that it must be listened to in its entirety, without all the history (if possible), because it's just such a masterpiece.GAZ
The Jethro Tull record Thick as a Brick is much better than Sometime in New York. The poetry is better, the mordant humor is better, the satire is better, the absurdity is better, if you happened to have been a glutton for punishment and you completed the connect-the-numbers drawing, the flute playing is better, the use of the newspaper format is much better developed, and overall, the exurbarance and inspiration of Ian Anderson and his mates is off the charts. There's nothing wrong with Sometime in New York either. The musicianship is pretty good, and the ballad about John Sinclair still captures my attention today. But there's no Lucy in the Sky with Cough Drops, Baby You're a Hit Man, I am the Walrus, or Strawberry Fields. Not even an Across the Universe graces this album. Even Let it Be had "Across the Universe" on it. This record which was pretty good, was still too far below the standards of the Beatles to ever be popular. Did Lennon really quit the Beatles to do this stuff? These songs were not very entertaining, or funny, and none of them were even close to being hits. Of course they were pointed and political. They said important things like "Woman is the Nigger of the World," "Free John Sinclair," "Support Angela Davis and Black Lives Matter," and "Send air polluters to jail, not the folks fighting for mother nature and us!" Who would have thought that Lennon and Yoko could make a record this raw, and in your face? Weren't Beatle records supposed to be polished, sophisticated and over produced? Not Sometime in New York, sports fans. Sometime in New York's dominant emotion is anger, and not love. Sunday, Bloody Sunday drives this home powerfully. But it's what drives the protest songs too. Paul, Ringo, and Father Christmas have no place on this album. The absense of the other Beatles is painful to most listeners. This record needed to have been better. If the music and lyrics had been glorious, John would have been pardoned by the public for abandoning his former partners. Too bad that wasn't the case.
Great review, I learned new things, but your hands John, they look agitated and uneasy with nothing in them! Untidy actually! News readers rarely show their hands on screen! Minor gripe as you might say!😁
