She both inspired and co-wrote it, according to John Lennon. "Yoko actually helped a lot with the lyrics, but I wasn't man enough to let her have credit for it."
Then how do you explain John never giving her credit when he was alive when he gave her writing credits on other songs and clearly contributed a lot to her albums without any writing credits himself? John had no qualms about giving Yoko credit for things. At all. This would be the one major exception, which is odd and unprecedented in their relationship. It's funny, if he had regrets about the songwriting credits on the original release, he didn't change them when they released the Imagine film in 1972, or when reissuing "Imagine" on Shaved Fish in 1975 or when re-issuing the song as a single in 1975, or during any of his retirement years when he wasn't very busy at all and had time to change writing credits...I get that John stated in an interview what he said, but his actions over the course of 9 years tell a different story. So either "Imagine" is this weird anomaly where for some reason John didn't want to give Yoko credit for once in his life, or we must assume that in this one interview he's speaking with hyperbole about her contributions to the song, saying not only was she an inspiration but that she helped write it too, while he was promoting their collaborative album Double Fantasy, trying to show that they've always collaborated successfully and commercially, and while looking back to 9 years before with rose-tinted glasses. Of course Yoko inspired John, but I believe this account of the song more than John (probably coked up) said in 1980, or what this new Yoko press release is saying: John Lennon wrote Imagine to outdo Yesterday While we are at it, with this Imagine re-issue then, Yoko should change the "Gimme Some Truth" credits to "Lennon-McCartney". There's overt evidence of John and Paul jamming on this song together and Paul singing melodies and lyrics over John's jamming in January of 1969, and in the Lennon Letters Book, there's one letter in which John mentions Paul helping him write the song. Then when Imagine was released, John even gave an interview in which he mentioned one of the tracks was from the Beatles days or something like that...
He did give her credit. He literally said, "Actually, that should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song because a lot of it - the lyric and the concept - came from Yoko." Then he died two days later, which didn't give him much time to fill out the forms to make the change official. He says he only realized in retrospect he should have shared the credit, so it's missing the point to ask why he didn't give her credit earlier. John Lennon said Yoko co-wrote it and it should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song. What makes your opinion more relevant than John Lennon's?
Nothing makes my opinion more relevant than his. I'm just looking at the facts and its very odd to me. The whole thing. Having read a lot about their relationship and John's solo career, it makes more sense to me that John was speaking with hyperbole in that one interview than the notion that he harbored this massive oversight for 9 years and had just then realized Yoko should be credited for the song. From the guy who named his live band and first LP after his wife, and who always worked on her albums either first or simultaneously to working on his own albums, I find the idea of him robbing her of a co-writing credit for 9 years very very unlikely.
Did I read Oct 9th release for this on here ? YES. Any details what’s included yet ? No full details revealed yet.
"I’m very pleased and grateful that now, for the first time, so many of the participants in IMAGINE have kindly given their time to 'gimme some truth' in their own words and pictures. love, yoko" "Imagine John Yoko is the definitive inside story of the making of the legendary album and all that surrounded it: the locations, the creative team, the artworks and the films, in the words of John Lennon & Yoko Ono and the people who were there." Yoko Ono on Twitter
It seems like this upcoming release may present that narrative. Yoko was very influential on John's work during that period and certainly played a role during the production of the album, offering suggestions and solutions. It has also been documented that her poetry and other writings influenced John's lyrical content for the title track. That said, the history of the "Imagine" album has been well-documented for nearly 50 years, so it seems totally unnecessary to try to revise and alter its history so many decades later, if that is indeed what this project may attempt to do. If Yoko goes down that path with this project, no one should be surprised. It will be interesting to see what sort of outtakes are issued. Hopefully there is an affordable, audio-exclusive release.
You know, John's story as well as the Beatles story has been documented hundreds of times, if not thousands. I don't think that a book, or a single project by 85-year old Yoko in the year 2018 is going to make much of an impact, if she does indeed attempt to rewrite history. I prefer to look at the glass as half full and be thankful that Yoko has tried to keep John's name (and music) as relevant as possible and given us remixes (through MFSL no less) as well as remastered original mixes and new packaging and box sets. I haven't bought all of it as I feel I've got more than enough of his music already, in the forms that I want. But I do appreciate that she's made it available.
If the reissue of the ALBUM says Imagine John and the Lennon part is replaced with Yoko - I will simply not buy the physical product - however I may buy the digital release.
Will Phil Spector be giving a big voice in the book? He may be a felon, but no one had a bigger influence on how the album sounds.
Yoko obviously has a lot of issues--one might even say compulsions--surrounding credit given to John for John Lennon's talent. One gets the impression she still is incredulous that this oafish rock and roll singer is better-loved and appreciated than she. I agree with others that it's best to just enjoy the material she releases, and ignore completely the increasingly desperate attempts to be remembered as a co-genius.
I also appreciate that she's made it available..and I *do* have pretty much everything that's been re-issued in all various forms. But that said, this really feels like something different altogether. I'm more curious about the new remix than anything else just in terms of having the album in the best possible audio quality (I thought Peter Cobbin's remix made some worthwhile sonic improvements but even at that time I thought it could have been even better). But making this into a "John/Yoko" thing wreaks of contrivance to me; the type I've always felt was-among other things, good and bad-at the heart of Yoko.
Re-contextualising, just the phrase I was trying to think of. I have a lot of time for some of Yoko's work both musically and visually and even seen her live. I have read loads of JL and Beatles related books including the Goldman book and the Fred Seaman book and she still remains a mystery to me. Must say I thought that JL's comments on Imagine back in the day on the Andy Peebles interview were bigging her up. When does inspired by something translate as a writing credit?
I am going to pass on Ms. Ono's box. I have the CDs from 1987, 2000 & 2010, I think I will however search out a nice 1971 LP to celebrate this 47 year anniversary along with her.
My goodness all this Yoko bashing could indicate the insecurities of some of the people here, rather than her own.
