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In the movie "Forrest Gump", there is a passage in which Forrest Gump and Lennon tell about what they saw when they played table tennis in China. Forrest Gump said that Chinese was poor, had nothing, did not believe in religion and did not go to church. As a result, Lennon thought that this kind of place was the perfect ideal world, so he wrote the lyrics of "Imagine".
Of course, the bridge is fictional, and this song, released in 1971, is written in a very interesting background.
The Beatles (1960-1970)
John Lennon
To learn about modern Anglo-American culture, it's important not to know the British rock groups The Beatles and John Lennon.
Born on 9 October 1940 in Liverpool, England. He has had a musical genius since childhood. In 1961, the beatles were officially born, and he was a member of them. Later Beatles red and the whole West, even the Soviet Union. Beatles disbanded in 1970. John Lennon began recording and singing on his own. He composed many good songs during this period. On December 8, 1980, John Lennon was shot dead by a crazy fan in front of his residence.
In 1971, Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono lived in a luxurious villa in the English countryside. One morning at the beginning of the year, Lennon got up and wrote the lyrics of "Imagine" accompanied by Yoko. The musical part is written on his family's famous white piano.
Later, during a flight, Lennon made several more changes, writing the final and complete lyrics on a note from the Hilton Hotel in New York. There were no words like "love" or "freedom" in the lyrics, and Lennon never thought of writing an anthem, but the song later became a hymn of a generation. One day in June of the same year, Lennon and drummer Alan White (later Yes) and bassist, German friend Klaus Voormann, recorded the song in a humble recording studio at home, with Lennon playing the piano (a Steinway) himself. The producer is the famous Phil Spector. They recorded a total of 3 versions, and the second version appeared on the record.
Lennon recordings have always pursued improvisation, sacrificing accuracy. At one point he even used the mismatched accompaniment of the saxophone to a song. But this time, he was extra serious, printing the lyrics neatly in capital letters beforehand and distributing them to the recorders. Spector later added orchestral accompaniment to the song without any fuss, which was probably the best Spector ever did. Lennon also experimented with adding organs, but did not use them. Spector later recalled that he was determined to make an album that could be "popular" and that he did not renege on his word. The self-titled album was released on September 9, 1971, and the song "Imagine" rose to Number 3 on the Billboard Singles Chart, while the album reached number one on the Album Chart. Lennon commented: "The song is almost communist manifesto, although I am not a member of the Communist Party myself, nor do I belong to any movement... But because it was cloaked in a popular coat, it was accepted by the public. I now know what to do, just smear a little honey and your claim can easily spread. ”
Shortly after the album's release, Lennon and Yoko moved to New York, but were blocked by U.S.C.I.S. and refused to issue Lennon a green card. Lennon and USCIS struggled for 4 years to obtain permanent residency in the United States. Lennon seemed to have had a premonition, singing in the song: "Imagine there is no country, It isn\'t hard to do." Speaking about why he moved to New York, Lennon said, "If I had been born in ancient Rome, I would have lived in Rome. The United States is today's ancient Roman Empire, and New York itself is the city of Rome. In 1980, Lennon was shot dead by a deranged fan in his City of Rome. Thirty years and 2 days after the album was published, the city of Rome itself suffered a severe blow.
After 9/11, the American public reawakened enthusiasm for the song. On the one hand, the public media in the United States is filled with songs such as "The Star-Spangled Banner Never Falls" and "Beautiful America", and on the other hand, radio and television stations have received numerous calls from the public to broadcast "Imagine", which can be heard everywhere on popular and rock radio stations across the United States. Above New York's Times Square, a billboard was erected, bought by Yoko for money, and read: IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE/LIVING LIFE IN PEACE. At a charity gala to raise donations for the victims of 9/11, Neil Young sang the song. When he first received the invitation from the organizing committee, he couldn't think of which song he had for a while, or his wife Pegi encouraged Yang to sing "Imagine". Young's treatment of the song was almost exactly in Lennon's version, with no changes to the strings. There's only one: Lennon sings "Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can," and Yang sings "I wonder if I can," both of whom are hugely wealthy in the music world, and this change is not meaningless! Lennon later explained, "Buddhists often say that we should have nothing in our minds. Simply giving up all your money doesn't do that. ”
Many celebrities in the music industry have also commented on the song interestingly. Don Henley of The Eagles admits that the song has a double meaning for him. On the one hand, it is a very comforting song, on the other hand, this song is also permanently associated with violence. If we cannot be freed from the bondage of God and property, we will never be freed from the shadow of violence. As for the lyrics about religion in the song, Hanley said that he resonated because he felt that any religion in the world had good intentions at the beginning, but always ended up being alienated by crazy people. He felt that Lennon himself was a man who valued the spiritual world, that he was not against the religion of the spiritual world, but against "Organized religion", but the lyrics needed to rhyme concisely, not suitable for "organized religion".
U2's Bono once said that Lennon was his favorite songwriter. What he appreciates most about this song is the Buddhist idea inside, that is, "imagination is followed by action." He doesn't like it when some people think of it as a new age song, and in his opinion, this song tells people that you must first have an imagination, a plan, and then you have to put it into action, otherwise it will have no meaning. And the great thing about Lennon is that he not only thinks this way, but also acts like this.
Enjoy the classic English song Imagine (2) Wang Lihong cover song
[Top left] Click on the above text to enjoy Wang Lihong's cover song
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