John Lennon - Imagine

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Discuss this album here.

 

So far it's better than I remembered (it's been roughly five years since I last listened to it). The title track is still , but "Crippled Inside" and "Jealous Guy" are doing me right. Let's see if this holds up.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Okay, "It's So Hard" was regrettable, the sorta blues wankery that was cute for a couple of minutes on the White Album but nothing worth revisiting. "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier Man" works; the music grooves nicely and the lyrics, while political, aren't bullshit pandering. Thanks, John, for knowing your limits (sometimes).

[vivalaultra 0]

Yeah, Imagine is a really good album. I was a big Beatles freak back in the early 90s, like when I was in 6th-8th grade. Lennon was my favorite cause he was edgy. My first Lennon solo album was the great Plastic Ono Band, which is still his best work, but Imagine is a close second. Every song on it is killer, except "Oh Yoko!", which is at the end of the album and easy enough to not listen to. Of all the other songs on the CD, I think the titular track is my least favorite, if only because it's been overplayed over the years. "How Do You Sleep at Nite?" is a great "Fuck You" song. It made me really hate Paul McCartney when I was younger. His crappy solo catalog didn't do him any favors, though McCartney is a really good CD. Anyway, if I had to rate the songs (because I'm actually listening to the CD now, inspired by the thread), I'd do so as follows:

 

1. "Jealous Guy"

2. "How Do You Sleep at Nite?"

3. "Oh My Love"

4. "Gimmie Some Truth"

5. "I Don't Wanna be a Soldier"

6. "How?"

7. "Crippled Inside"

8. "It's So Hard"

9. "Imagine"

15. "Oh Yoko!"

[Angle-plex 0]

I think that title track is actually bashed too often these days. It's not the greatest song and it's definetly overplayed but that's no fault of Lennon's. It never blows me away but I can listen to it and still consider it a good song.

 

The CD overall is decent but it can't touch many of the Beatles later albums and it's not in the same ballpark as Harrison's "All Things Must Pass".

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

"Give Me Some Truth." More political Lennon, a little more blunt than the preceding song, but hey, Lennon's rage is convincing enough. "Oh My Love" is the kind of nighttime soporific that McCartney was better at farting out, so John doesn't leave any impression here.

 

Speaking of Paul, John seems pretty peeved at him on "How Do You Sleep?" Was he irritated by Macca's unabashed desire to be a pop star, without all that I Gotta Change The World nonsense bogging him down? Paul probably slept very well, John. Anyway, I like the song, but it doesn't really go anywhere.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

9. "Imagine"

15. "Oh Yoko!"

Get new ears.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I think that title track is actually bashed too often these days. It's not the greatest song and it's definetly overplayed but that's no fault of Lennon's. It never blows me away but I can listen to it and still consider it a good song.

"Imagine" has a nice melody, but the song is way overproduced and that cynical/hopeful lyric has been done better by Lennon elsewhere. It feels tossed off.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Sentimental reasons aside (all of which are Wes Anderson-related, natch), hating "Oh Yoko!" is like hating sunshine and happiness and puppies. Maybe that's an overstatement, but the point is there. Lennon's exuberance is genuine and pretty infectious. Good song all around.

 

The song preceeding it, "How?," completely passed me by. Let me go back and listen to it.

 

...

 

wtf is this, Ram?

[vivalaultra 0]

I stand by my opinions. "Oh My Love" is a great song. I don't see how you can say he sounds sincere on "Oh Yoko!", which is goofy as all get out and call "Oh My Love" pop nonsense, McCartney-ian even. "Oh Yoko!" just seems outta place on the album. "How?" is much better than anything on "Ram". ...much better. I just checked on allmusic.com and they gave "Ram" 5 stars, but went on to call it nothing more than a "pleasurable diversion. " "Heart of the Country" is a good song. Paul was good at writing simple, sincere, nice love songs. He really lost it when he tried to go all Tin Pan Alley and such.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I'm unable to decide if I prefer Roxy Music's version of "Jealous Guy" because I think it's better or because I have a massive man crush on Bryan Ferry. Both versions are good, regardless.

[vivalaultra 0]

"Jealous Guy" is just a good song in general. There's been alot of good cover versions of it. The forementioned Roxy Music one...Jeff Tweedy had a good one. Donny Hathaway did a good job on it. Joe Cocker's is pretty nice. Lou Reed did a pretty ok one. Hell, even Collective Soul did a passable job on it. I like the original best of all, but I had a crush on John Lennon.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-zIKTEnG1g...ch=roxy%20music

 

Sigh....

[vivalaultra 0]

Is that a swoon?

 

There's nothing wrong with having a crush on Bryan Ferry. If you had a crush on Brian Eno, that would be weird.

[Guest Felonies!]

Imagine : a schmuck in the general vicinity of a piano :: Stairway : a schmuck in the general vicinity of a guitar

[Murmuring Beast 0]

Hugely over-rated.

[Murmuring Beast 0]

As much as I love Roxy Music, their version is horrendous.

[snuffbox 0]

Imagine : a schmuck in the general vicinity of a piano :: Stairway : a schmuck in the general vicinity of a guitar

 

Someday, kids will try to sound cool/edgy by saying this kind of thing about Radiohead.

[godthedog 0]

pretty uneven poppy album overall, i think. not that any of the songs are bad per se, but it doesn't seem done with a whole lot of fire or conviction. he made essentially the same super-safe choices as any pussified classic-band-member-turned-solo (see winwood, steve; mccartney, paul). he can just make it work better because he's a better songwriter. the guitars have no rawness or bite, and there's WAY too much strings & piano on everything. lennon does a lot of his guttural raspy screaming (which i'm a huge fan of), but all the sounds around it just castrate the effect; he sounded like he meant it more singing "please mister postman" than he does on "how do you sleep" or "i don't wanna be a soldier."

 

that said, "jealous guy" is one of the best melodies he ever wrote and still gives me chills.

[Guest Felonies!]

Imagine : a schmuck in the general vicinity of a piano :: Stairway : a schmuck in the general vicinity of a guitar

 

Someday, kids will try to sound cool/edgy by saying this kind of thing about Radiohead.

Wait, what? I don't get what you just did there.

 

pussified classic-band-member-turned-solo (see winwood, steve; mccartney, paul).

Hey! I love "Valerie"!

[Slayer 0]

I will never understand the appeal of Lennon. Ever

 

or Dylan. Lennon and Dylan.

 

Maybe it was a case of "You had to be there". I dunno.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Then again you like hair/power metal, so that's not surprising.

[Slayer 0]

A relevant argument, of course

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I don't know if you're being sarcastic, but it is.

 

That video is kinda creepy. Song isn't good either. I don't like the original much though.

[Slayer 0]

It was sarcasm, and no, it isn't.

 

You're using a post hoc argument by saying "You like X so that clearly explains why you dislike Y" when X and Y (in this case, metal and Lennon) are irrelevant to each other

[Annabelle 0]

boy, a metalhead not understanding the merits of two of the greatest songwriters ever. shocking.

 

appeal?

 

dylan, for actually transforming songwriting into a sophisticated realm. more introspective & social conscious. thats the appeal. we can blame the singer/songwriter, double album, and 9 minute pop songs on him as well.

 

as for lennon, the appeal is that he was the leader of the fucking beatles. and if you need someone to help you understand the appeal of the beatles on music, then i doubt you really should ever participate in a music discussion. about any music. its not about liking the beatles, its about music. and how they changed it. overhauled it.

 

its easy to say that they aren't relevent today as they have been ripped off so many times, though.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

I'm saying that your tastes are predominantly metal, so odds are something that is far from that not be to your liking.

[Annabelle 0]

i dont hate the imagine single as much as most. if i ever do get tired of it, its during the month of december & times of crisis. i don't like lennon's political music, though. jealous guy, oh yoko, how? & oh my love are my favorites. maybe i like the gentler side of lennon. though for kicks i do enjoy how do you sleep. its so silly, yet historical speaking, interesting in the sense that george & ringo helped lennon on it. am i mistaken? i dunno, but i remember reading that somewhere...i think.

[Slayer 0]

I'm saying that your tastes are predominantly metal, so odds are something that is far from that not be to your liking.

Which also presumes that I cannot enjoy anything non-metal, and I can assure you that is far from the case. For times sake, I'll spare you the fairly long list of non-metal things I can enjoy (though I think my Zappa fandom has been fairly well documented).

 

I've just always heard over the years how great those two were (though I understand part of Lennon's deification coming from his unfortunate death) and I don't get either one.

 

Oh, btw Banky, I do at least understand the appeal of the Beatles, but I still don't like most of their stuff.

[Slayer 0]

Funny enough, now that I think about it, one example of non-metal stuff I happen to enjoy would include a decent bit of McCartney's solo work (which will probably receive some scoffs from the audience here)

[Annabelle 0]

i dont hate paul mccartneys solo stuff. i just hate him.