John Lennon - Imagine (1971)

With his first post-Beatles solo album, 1970's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon broke away from the Beatles' legacy and was free to move ahead with his solo career.  Imagine, released less than a year later, was a logical step forward.  John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, which had been co-produced by Phil Spector, had been stripped down to the barest music, with little if any studio polish.  Now, still working with Spector, John sought a more accessible sound and gave Phil more free reign.  The music on Imagine alternates between mellow ballads, light pop tunes, and straightforward rockers, supported by strings here and there and professionally, seamlessly produced.  But Lennon's lyrics remained introspective and economical, allowing him to continue to communicate directly with his audience.  This balanced approach suggested that Lennon had successfully defined himself as a solo artist and would remain a mainstay on the pop charts going into the seventies.  It didn't work out like that, of course, but in what turned out to be a rare moment of artistic self-assurance for him, he produced an album that's still held in high regard.

Most of John's softer numbers on Imagine reflect his feelings about love and self-doubt; he finds contentment with his wife Yoko Ono and he experiences discomfort when he tries to understand himself.  "Jealous Guy" is a tale of regret for hurting Yoko, while the moody "How?" asks just that about life itself; his own advice to himself to be strong in a tough world removes any sign of self-pity.  It's telling that both of these songs are orchestrated around subdued piano chords, while John is in a more positive frame of mind on the light guitar-based tunes.  The gentle "Oh My Love" (which Yoko co-wrote), where John declares he sees and feels things more clearly "for the first time in my life" thanks to Yoko's presence, is a statement of relief coming out of primal therapy, and the livelier, bouncy "Oh Yoko!", which closes Imagine, finds John in a carefree mood, holding syllables nonchalantly in an earnest falsetto that is, as the old song goes, guaranteed to raise a smile.  

The rock cuts are just as revealing.  "It's So Hard" is a meaty blues number with gritty guitars and a breathtaking solo from famed saxophonist King Curtis that acknowledges struggle as a form of survival, and "Give Me Some Truth" is a stab at pompous prima donna politicians and potentates that hits hard with guest ex-Beatle George Harrison on slide guitar and the smashing drums of Alan White.  Less enjoyable is "How Do You Sleep?," a bitter diatribe of an open letter to Paul McCartney chastising him for his then-recent solo work, his pretentiousness, even his decision to marry Linda Eastman.  Nothing Paul had done or would do justifies this attack, and the masterful blend of a blistering slide guitar (George again, which indicates whose side he was on at the time) with a foreboding string section doesn't excuse John's bitterness.  More intriguing is "Crippled Inside," a country-rock rave-up that lets Lennon deal with personal demons in a more light-hearted way.

Oh yes, the title song.  If "Imagine" isn't John Lennon's best solo song, then it's certainly his most revered . . . and most respected.  John offered up in a three-minute song what took other artists whole albums and whole careers to express - a vision for a better world.  The plaintive piano and the subtle strings give "Imagine" a sense of dignity befitting its simple message.  Lennon isn't trying to preach; he's trying to get people to think about the world as it could be as opposed to the way it is, and he leaves it at that.  That's one reason why it's been covered so often . . . though another reason some performers have covered "Imagine" is to grab some of Lennon's legacy, sometimes almost parasitically.  (I want to hear Madonna sing "Imagine" like I want to hear One Direction cover "Anarchy In the U.K.")   

Lennon later regretted the commercial sound of the whole Imagine album, but if you only have room for one John Lennon solo album, this is the one to have; John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band may be better, but it's a difficult album to listen to (see my review of that LP here), and Imagine is more varied lyrically and musically.  My mother bought this album when it first came out, and so I remember hearing it as a six-year-old, before I'd even heard of the group this John Lennon fellow used to be in.  To me it will always be the most complete measure of the man on his own.