john Lennon - Imagine , original master recording
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22
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29
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Description
As seen on TV last night, 1/1/19.
Imagine is the second studio album by John Lennon after his departure from the Beatles. Recorded and released in 1971, the album's musical arrangements are more elaborate compared to the basic, small-group arrangements of his first album, the critically acclaimed John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
Imagine Studio album by John Lennon Released 9 September 1971 Recorded 11–12 February, 24 May–5 July 1971 Studio Ascot Sound Studios, Berkshire;Record Plant, New York City;
Abbey Road Studios, London Genre Rock Length 39:29 Label Apple Producer
- John Lennon
- Yoko Ono
- Phil Spector
(1970) Imagine
(1971) Some Time in New York City
(1972) Singles from Imagine
- "Imagine / It's So Hard"
Released: 11 October 1971
Imagine is the most popular of Lennon's solo albums and the title track is considered by many to be one of Lennon's finest songs. In 2012, the album was voted 80th on Rolling Stonemagazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Contents
BackgroundEdit
While in New York, former Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison had a short jam session, during which Lennon asked Harrison to perform on Lennon's next album. Recording was scheduled to begin in a week's time at Lennon's Ascot Sound Studios, at his Tittenhurst Parkresidence. Harrison agreed, and called his friend the bassist Klaus Voormann, to ask him to join in.
Recording and structureEdit
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 on 16 February. Lennon would choose to remake "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" on 24 May 1971, the opening day of the main album sessions.
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 24 May 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 to continue sessions for the album the next day, at Record Plant. Although the basic tracks for Imagine were initially recorded at Ascot Sound Studios, 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. Bits of footage were subsequently released as part of the documentary film Imagine: John Lennon.
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