I see the concept of "Imagine something to make it happen" there. And even the "it's easy"... Anyway, wasn't the connection with Yoko's poem just the word "imagine"?
People! Such negativity! I posted this in another thread and I'm going to put it here too: Here's a little dude who went viral last week with a performance at his grade school talent show. Now, can't we all come together? Think of the children! Michelle Cavarnos Kornowski Showstopping moment fourth grader wows classmates with stirring rendition of John Lennon classic | Daily Mail Online
I'll buy it, unless, in the unlikely event, it should turn out to be disastrous, tho I can't see how ...
God forbid Mike Love and Yoko Ono ever collaborate on a project. Half this forum would win the Guinness' world record for most coronaries in a group of online message board inhabitants.
I don't understand why she wanted credited with co-writing the song. She owns every aspect of his Earthly remains as is and she's 80-something years old. I hope you all enjoy this release but I will stick to my original LP and the CD I bought in the 90s.
Glad to hear Yoko is finally getting her due. I have no doubt she made important contributions to the album. It is obviously a matter of principle for her.
She must be worried about kicking off and fading fast into infamy. This way her name gets noticed a little while longer, even after passing. But I thought she told Paul that she was very much against changing writer credits?
In the clip from a Dec 6, 1980 BBC interview with Andy Peebles, John said Imagine: “Should be credited as a Lennon-Ono song”. "A lot of it — the lyric and the concept — came from Yoko, but those days I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution," he said. "But it was right out of Grapefruit, her book — there's a whole pile of pieces about 'Imagine this' and 'Imagine that’. Give her credit now, long overdue”. "If it had been a male, you know — 'Old Dirt Road', it's 'Lennon-Nilsson’, ‘Fame’, its 'Lennon-Bowie’. "But when we did Imagine I just put 'Lennon' because, you know, she's just the wife and you don't put her name on, right?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaTy3kSxyoo Interview @ 45min, 30seconds
"When asked about the song's meaning during a December 1980 interview with David Sheff for Playboymagazine, Lennon told Sheff that Dick Gregory had given Ono and him a Christian prayer book, which inspired him the concept behind "Imagine".
Now now, never let the facts get in the way of a good Yoko-bashing!! Just because John thought that his wife really should get co-credit doesnt mean hes right! Yoko obviously brain-washed John! ;P
That quote from 1980 by John about not putting Yoko's name as co-writer of Imagine because she's a woman makes ZERO sense because on the same album he gave Yoko a co-writing credit on "Oh My Love." So his argument holds no water. He was fine with giving his wife co-writing credit when they sat down together and wrote together. The fact is, Yoko's poem or things Yoko said to John may have inspired the song on some level, but inspiration and actual writing of the song are not the same thing. So Yoko had a poem that included "Imagine" as a theme many years before. John had also used the term imagine in song lyrics and similar phrases about dreams and aspirations in other anthemic songs before as well... John knew how songwriting credits work. And he had 9 years and four big chances to give Yoko credit while he was alive and chose not to. The original LP release (1971), the original single release (1971), Shaved Fish (1975) and reissue single release (1975). I'm not Yoko bashing, she's an innovative and interesting artist, but it's very strange to me to change the writing credits of a song after the original author has died and so many years later, when clearly Yoko could have asked John for co-writing credit when they were alive and you know married, but she didn't. If she had done so, you know he'd have given it to her. The only logical reason she didn't ask him for co-writing credit originally is because she knew John wrote the song alone. Now it's a different story? Has a similar case ever even happened before in the history of modern music outside of a copyright lawsuit? This re-issue seems to be 100% about Yoko's new co-writing credits and presenting the whole Imagine album more like a collaboration on the level of Double Fantasy. That's how the press release seems. And that feeling makes me want to avoid this release sadly. I hope it has some interesting outtakes for those fans who do buy it.
Eh, no need to get mad about it. Just don’t buy it. If you wanna listen to the remix I’m sure it will be released on Spotify, give it a shot there if you’re interested, ignore it if you aren’t.
I think she's right to claim credit for Imagine. If she claimed credit for anything he did after and including Two Virgins I wouldn't complain - she inspired his thoughts and changed him as a person into what we now think of as John. Anyway - he's dead so it doesn't matter to him. Good point made above about Nilsson & Bowie. She's not exactly doing it for the money, is she? Credit where credit's due.
∆ This. Around that time John was facing criticism for giving Yoko half of Double Fantasy. He was just making his case, so maybe that's why he said that about Imagine (didn't he want to give Chuck Berry credits for Come Together? Whoever wrote the Elvis song for Run For Your Life?). But as you say, he gave her credit for Oh My Love in the same album, and other songs in other albums. If he didn't change the credits in 9 years, is it really fair of Yoko to change them now based on one interview, when we all know John contradicted himself many times in the press? This is like taking Paul's name off the credit of Give Peace a Chance a few years ago. We all know he didn't have anything to do with it, but John wanted to give him that, and didn't change it in the 11 years he lived after the release of the song. For these things I say that I don't like how Yoko handles John's legacy. I respect her as a person, but man, she is always trying to rewrite history.
It is my understanding that the Imagine film (not the documentary) will be released as well. I do not know if it will be the full cut or the Yoko-lite version from 1985. However, I would not be surprised if some tweaking had taken place. Likewise, I don't know anything about format, but I would think it would have to be Blu-Ray. All of the existing footage was converted to digi-Beta in 1998 for the Gimme Some Truth documentary. Chip Madinger www.lennonology.com
