John Lennon, once a member of the famous band “The Beatles” set out his own route in the music industry after the band’s separation in 1970, and successfully created his number one hit single “Imagine” a year later in 1971. Imagine is a wonderful song that many believe including myself that the song portrays a vision of peace and freedom, but after extensive research I have found that this was one view point of the song. If you carefully read the lyrics they seem to disagree with this vision of peace, and deals more about corruption. In this blogpost I will go over the lyrics, timbre, tempo, form, and meter of the song.
-Above is a video I found on YouTube where you can listen to the song yourself, and I hope you enjoy it.
Lyrics:
In the video above the lyrics are included in the video, but I have also included a link from an addition source from genius.com that specifically lays out each verse, and the chorus of the song. Originally, John Lennon proposed that he was the sole song writer of this song, but according to songfacts.com it was found out later that he stated “his wife, Yoko Ono, should have been credited as well, as he got the initial idea from her book Grapefruit, which is a book of instructions with things like “Imagine the sky crying…” or “Imagine you’re a cloud.” I was a bit more selfish, a bit more macho, and I sort of omitted to mention her contribution.”
As I mentioned earlier, when you first listen to this song you feel the happiness flowing through your soul as the melody of the song is very peaceful. However, if you read the lyrics more careful and observe the first verse where Mr. Lennon sings “Imagine there’s no countries,” and ” nothing to kill or die for” it may seem that he is supporting a government free world. The song also has lines that say “no religion” and to me it shows that Mr. Lennon was imagining a world with no form of government, but maybe one person in charge of the entire world, like a king. At first I thought I was over exaggerating about the lyrics, but I’m not the only one who believes this theory, and from biography.com “Lennon was approached by the World Church asking if they could use it but change the lyric to “one religion” instead of “no religion.” Lennon said no, explaining that that would defeat the whole purpose of the song.” Now why would it matter if we changed one word in the lyrics to “one” instead of “no” my only theory is that he disapproves the freedom of choice. Even though this is one theory to the lyrics of “Imagine” by John Lennon, I can be 100% wrong about it, but this is what I just believe.
Timbre:
This song didn’t really have that many changes in tone, but you can hear the last line in the chorus section “and the world will be as one,” sung at a more serious tone, and it sounds like the artist is trying to emphasize his listeners to really understand his message about a better world. Another area where his voice does seem to change in the song is every 5th line in the verse. He increases his voice during those lines and also includes that “you” at the end of those lines at a softer tone of voice.
Tempo:
The song starts of at a nice smooth temp with the piano music playing in the background. Nothing really starts to pick up in terms of pace until he sings the 5th line again “Imagine all the people living for today” where it seems to pick up a little more speed, but restores back to normal again. During the second chorus he also seems to also pick up the pace and when he goes back to verse 2 it slows down again. Finally when he sings the last chorus section the song starts to slow down nicely.
Form:
This song is written in a A-A-B-A form where it includes a bridge at B with the second verse talking about being humble and nice, while the first verse talks about what the world around us would look like if we decide to change the way we lived as a whole society. I think this adds a nice touch to the song because of how short the song is, and I think it would get really boring if he decided to just repeat the same lyrics over and over again.
Meter:
After listening to this song I found it playing at a traditional 4/4 time, and it wasn’t that hard to identify from the song. I don’t believe it changes at all throughout the song and it was a good choice from the artists to have it at a 4/4.
Sources:
Ulster, Laurie. “The Life & Legacy of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 7 July 2016, http://www.biography.com/news/john-lennon-imagine-song-facts.
“Imagine by John Lennon Songfacts.” Songfacts, ©2018 Songfacts, LLC, http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1094.
“John Lennon – Imagine.” Genius, 11 Oct. 1971, genius.com/John-lennon-imagine-lyrics.
Joseph's Blog 
Joseph,
Awesome song choice. This song has been labeled as the key anthem for peace and freedom advocates world wide and is by far one of the more sophisticated proponents of peace out there. The lyrics are in depth and can certainly be read into as far as interpretation is concerned. It is interesting to read your thoughts on the phrase “and no religion too”. To me the song is advocating for a world that is purely dedicated to freedom of choice, something that many feel religion and government restrict. Perhaps he didn’t want “no” changed to “one” due to the implications it would have in regards to the unification of humanity under one “Ruling” religion? Regardless there is certainly a complex and diverse array of theory and thought on the song itself. For me, lyrics make the song. Once you are able to deconstruct what the author is trying to convey you are able to more accurately enjoy the work in its entirety.
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Fantastic song! I really enjoy John Lennons voice in this song. It’s very slow and mild throughout the song, making it easy to hear the lyrics, but he changes his pitch and intensity at parts. You did a great job at identifying where he does this and I agree that it improves the song and makes it fun to listen to.
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