Imagine

"How do You Sleep" is famous only for its satirical and biting lyrics directed againt McCartney, but it's not a good song, it's grating and drones on. Even George's acerbic guitar work on this cut doesn't save it.

I revere John Lennon but am not blinded to his faults. This album was highly overrated when it was released and it hasn't held up well in the intervening thirty years.


Re-Imagined classic with new digital mix sounds great   May 1, 2000
Wayne Klein (My Little Blue Window, USA)
36 out of 38 found this review helpful

What is it about Lennon's Imagine that makes it his most popular work? If Plastic Ono Band showed Lennon finally grabbling with the demons of his youth, Imagine demonstrated that Lennon hadn't abandoned his songcraft. He also hadn't allowed that songcraft to overshadow the content of his songs (as on later solo albums Mind Games and Walls & Bridges). There is a maturity in the best songs from Imagine that was only hinted at previously.

If you already own Imagine is it worth buying again? It depends on how much you like the album. The depth, clarity and overall sound quality has been greatly improved. You won't hear any striking differences in the mix as Yoko Ono and engineer Peter Cobbin have remained faithful to the original mix as much as possible. I've read several reviews here about how the sound doesn't "jump out" at you like the outtakes from the Anthology boxset. There's a simple reason for this; the outtakes were no frills takes without overdubbing. Additionally, those tracks were unfamiliar to most fans (except those who had the bootleg boxset)and that unfamiliarity (along with the minor differences between the different takes)allowed one to listen to them with a fresh set of ears. Imagine has become overfamiliar to most folks just from all the radio airplay most of the songs have received over the years.

The booklet isn't a huge improvement over the original CD booklet. It does have some rare and previously unpublished photos. The lyrics were printed on both the original album sleeve and the CD reissue and they are here as well. What this album lacks is a bit more information on the recording sessions themselves. It would have been interesting to see Imagine reissued in a simliar fashion to McCartney's Band On The Run reissue from last year. While the Band On The Run reissue wasn't perfect, McCartney at least attempted to provide added value with the interview portions and live takes on the second disc. Still, one can only imagine (pardon the pun) all the criticism Yoko would have received if she had attempted to "tamper" with this classic recording even more than she did.

Is Imagine worth purchasing again? If you love the album then the answer is yes. The sound on the original CD was pretty poor (partially due to the condition of the mastertapes). This remix brings new vitality to a handful of great (and a couple of not so great) songs. Imagine wasn't Lennon's definitive statement as an artist. However its boldest and best tracks rank up there with the best material Lennon wrote both with the Beatles and as a solo artist.


A Solid Album   September 22, 2000
kennedy19 (wakefield, ma USA)
34 out of 40 found this review helpful

"Imagine" is an album that has always had a slightly muddy sound quality to it, perhaps because it was recorded in a home studio or because Phil Spector, the king of mud, was involved. This remaster does what it can to remedy the situation, with mixed but overall positive results. Of the album itself, I think it was the last focused effort Lennon would offer for a long time, and roundly enjoyable from start to finish. Most fans will find it more accessible than his previous masterpiece, "Plastic Ono Band." "Imagine" is Lennon's best-loved solo song, and one of his personal favorites. "Crippled Inside" is a curious mix of honest emotion and corny musical parpody, that showcases the fine talents of the musicians (Andy White, Nicky Hopkins, George Harrison, Klaus Voorman) very well. "Jealous Guy" is another winner of a melody. "It's So Hard" is straight blues features great saxophone work by King Curtis. "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" is a massive jam, a bit disorganized but grooving in its Spectory echoes. "Gimme Some Truth" is an outstanding Lennon rocker, an impatient piece of social criticism and honesty, one of Lennon's most compelling qualities. "Oh My Love" is one of Lennon's most beautiful songs and recordings ever, apparently based on the clarity of love he found in his early days with Yoko. "How Do You Sleep?" is a notorious attack on Paul McCartney, musically brilliant and not all that nasty in retrospect. The song adds needed balance to the idea of Lennon as tender saint which some of the other songs portray. "How?" is another beauty of a song, full of odd pauses and structure. "Oh Yoko" is a catchy and uplifting closer. This album proves that Lennon could shine as a solo artist under the right circumstances.


The album that defined John Lennon   April 23, 2002
P. Nicholas Keppler (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania United States)
32 out of 37 found this review helpful

When the name "John Lennon" is mentioned today, an image of the proto-dreamer sitting at his piano calmly asserting his starry-eyed ideals over a serene melody immediately comes to mind. When Mr. Lennon first strayed from The Beatles, however, his character was much harder to pinpoint. While his former songwriter partner, Paul McCartney, established early-on that he intended to remain a baby-faced poprocker, Mr. Lennon threw a few curveballs before fully developing the personality that is now his mythos.

His first projects outside The Beatles were three LPs, released from 1968 to 1969, on which he collaborated with unconventional, Japanese "performance artist" and his soon-to-be wife, Yoko Ono on a series of experimental tracks, consisting of freeform instrumental noodling, sound effects and spoken or screamed voices (The first of which, the infamous Two Virgins, featured a nude photograph of the somewhat unkempt duo on its cover). Meanwhile a series of the couple's unusual, low-budget films, including a 40-minute video starring Mr. Lennon's penis, appeared at modish art exhibits and film festivals. As projects such as these surfaced and the two became inseparable, it appeared that Mr. Lennon's post-Beatles career would be incorporated into Ms. Ono's aura of avant-gardism and uncompromising weirdness. Then, in December of 1970, he released the album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which, despite its title, was his first non-Beatles project not to feature his spouse's equal creative footing. Although it was stunning display of lyrical sophistication and bare-boned emotional outpouring, the album would hardly be the typical John Lennon album, with its sheer bleakness and seething antipathy. Still, Mr. Lennon was writing structured songs and producing something cohesive, a sign that he would not forever be a rugged, tripped-out specter. His next release, Imagine, issued in September 1971, however, would forever define his solo career.

The fact that Mr. Lennon wrote the title track, an absolutely perfect mantra that summed-up his idealist values in a single morning and recorded it in only two takes demonstrated that, excluding "How Do You Sleep?," his absolutely scathing attack on Mr. McCartney, all the hostility and weirdness had been expunged from his system and his gift for beautiful, tuneful, poignant songs had resurfaced. The rest of Imagine is full of similar forthright and simply stated, yet utterly inspiring social and spiritual inquiries ("Crippled Inside," "Give Me Some Truth," "I Don't Wanna Be a Solider Mama, I Don't Wanna Die") and sweet, sensitive odes of love ("Jealous Guy," "Oh My Love"). Mr. Lennon's songwriting talent is astounding. His ability to place the most immense and poignant emotions and principles into the most enchanting and subtly beautiful songs is absolutely uncanny. Still, Imagine is not perfect. "Oh Yoko" is as annoying as being seated next to playful newlyweds on a subway and it was somewhat unnecessary that Mr. Lennon add every pun and insult he could think of to "How Do You Sleep?" for listeners to grasp his opinion of his former bandmate. The majority of Imagine's songs, however, are examples of the rarest type of pop music, the sort that effortlessly makes a listener think broadly and feel specially moved. This is what immediately comes to mind when the name "John Lennon" is spoken today, an intelligent and assertive icon of love, peace and the utopian dream.


actually, make that 4 1/2   April 18, 2000
26 out of 35 found this review helpful

I've got to dock this 1/2 star for not being all that it could have been. No, the sound does not jump out at you like it did on Anthology, but these are not basic tracks, either. My initial listen shows a distinct improvement in sound over the previous CD release (which was so bad it should have been easy to improve upon), particularly the clarity of the string overdubs. I'll have to listen closer to see if these tracks were actually remixed. The mix on Imagine sounded absolutely the same.

I guess Imagine is, overall, John Lennon's most accessable album, but not every cut is great. It's So Hard is very cliche-driven, and I've always thought How was very clumsy. I Don't Want To Be a Soldier benefits greatly from the remaster. This is really the only time on the album where Spector recreates his famous wall of sound, and the remaster really brings out the large soundstage. It's just sort of wasted on a mediocre song. On the other hand, Imagine, Crippled Inside, Jealous Guy, Oh My Love and Gimmie Some Truth are great songs.

If you're a John Lennon fan, and want this album in the best sound you're ever going to get, there's no way around it-- this album is a must-buy.