John Lennon "Imagine" Apple PAS 10004 UK 1st 1U/1U +inner+poster+card 1971

	£		19
	$		25

John Lennon ?"Imagine" Apple Records ?PAS 10004  UK 1st pressing. Vinyl, LP, issued on custom Apple labels in a laminated sleeve with printed inner, poster and postcard. The inner sleeve has credits in a spiral, with artist photos; the flip-side has lyrics in a 'starburst' style, printed black on non-punched, unlined white paper. "Patent No.1,125,555 Made In Great Britain". The LP was released in 1971.
The vinyl appears to have been lightly played and is in great condition. It plays through beautifully on my elderly stereo - no hop, stick or jump. The LP i housed in its original printed inner sleeve, which is in great condition, no rips or writing. The sleeve is in great condition with no rips or writing. The spine is intact and completely legible. The poster looks like it has been folded since it was first bought. Similarly, the postcard is in great condition, again, no rips or writing. Matrix / Runout Side One : YEX 865-1U PORKY  Matrix / Runout Side Two : YEX 866-1U PECKO 
"Imagine" is John Lennon's second studio album. Recorded and released in 1971, the album is more heavily produced in contrast to the basic, raw arrangements of his previous album, the critically acclaimed "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band".
While in New York, former-Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison had a short jam session. At this session, Lennon asked Harrison if he would like to perform on Lennon's next album, with recording that was to begin in a week's time at Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios at his Tittenhurst Park residence. Harrison said yes, and would ask friend and bassist Klaus Voormann, via a phone call, if he wanted to come to the recording sessions.
The first songs, "It's So Hard" and "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier", were recorded in February 1971 at Abbey Road Studios, during sessions for Lennon's single "Power to the People". (Other sources give the location as Ascot, however.) A cover of The Olympics' 1958 song "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)", later released on John Lennon Anthology, was recorded in June 1971, during the recording of this album. Lennon would choose to remake "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" once the main album sessions were under way.
Lennon enlisted help from Nicky Hopkins, members of the Apple band Badfinger, Alan White and Jim Keltner. George Harrison would also drop by to contribute lead guitar parts on various songs. Recording for the album started on 23 June 1971, at Ascot Sound Studios. Lennon showed the musicians a song that he had recently written, the album's title track "Imagine". Besides recording the tracks that would end up on the album, also recorded during the sessions was the unreleased song "San Francisco Bay Blues", a demo for a track that would later turn up in complete form on Lennon's Mind Games album, as "Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)", and a demo of "I'm the Greatest".
Lennon and Ono flew to New York on 3 July 1971, to continue sessions for the album the next day, at Record Plant. Although the basic tracks for Imagine were initially recorded at his home studio, Ascot Sound Studios in Tittenhurst Park, many of the instruments were re-recorded at the Record Plant in New York City, where strings and saxophone by King Curtis were also added. The tracks that were finished at Record Plant are: "It's So Hard", "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" and "How Do You Sleep?". As on his last album, Phil Spector joined Lennon and Yoko Ono as co-producer on Imagine. Extensive footage of the sessions, showing the evolution of some of the songs, was originally filmed and titled Working Class Hero before being shelved. Footage of "Gimme Some Truth" aired as part of the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test, on 12 December 1972. Later on, bits of footage were released as part of the documentary, "Imagine: John Lennon".
The album is the most popular of his solo works and the title track is considered one of Lennon's finest songs. In 2012, "Imagine" was voted 80th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
"Imagine" was written and recorded during a period of particularly bad feeling between Lennon and former bandmate Paul McCartney, following the Beatles' break-up the year before and McCartney winning his case in the High Court to have their legal partnership dissolved. Harrison guested on half of "Imagine's" ten tracks, including "How Do You Sleep?" – a song written in retaliation against McCartney's alleged personal attacks on Lennon and Ono, on his recent "Ram" album. Lennon said in 1980: "I used my resentment against Paul ... to create a song ... not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta ... I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep?'. I don't really go 'round with those thoughts in my head all the time ..."
The track "Imagine" became Lennon's signature song and was written as a plea for world peace. Years later he acknowledged Ono's role in the song's creation and stated his regret that he had not credited her as a co-writer. "Jealous Guy" has also had enduring popularity; it was originally composed as "Child of Nature" during the songwriting sessions in India in 1968 that led to The Beatles' double album "The Beatles". "Oh My Love" and the song "How?" were influenced by his experience with primal therapy.
Lennon also indulged his love of rock and roll with "Crippled Inside" and "It's So Hard". "Gimme Some Truth", originally heard during the "Let It Be" sessions in early 1969, appears on the album with a new bridge. The politically themed "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" closes the first half of "Imagine" in a cacophonous manner. The last song on the album was "Oh Yoko!"; EMI pushed for this track to be the single, but Lennon thought it was too "pop".

Apple Records issued "Imagine" on 9 September 1971 in the United States and a month later, on 8 October, in the UK. Early editions of the LP included a postcard featuring a photo of Lennon holding a pig, in mockery of McCartney's similar pose with a sheep on the cover of Ram. It was also originally released in quadrophonic. "Imagine", backed with "It's So Hard", was released as a single, in the US on 11 October 1971. The album went to number 1 worldwide and became an enduring seller, with the title track reaching number 3 in the United States. "Imagine" would not be issued as a single in Britain until four years later, to coincide with the release of Lennon's "Shaved Fish" singles collection.
The front cover was a Polaroid taken by Andy Warhol. The back cover photograph was taken by Yoko Ono. A quote from Ono's book 'Grapefruit' (which the Lennons were in the process of promoting the re-release of in the UK) was also included on the back cover: "Imagine the clouds dripping. Dig a hole in your garden to put them in."