John Lennon’s Imagine – the third greatest song of all time, according to Rolling Stone magazine – has been given a reworking today for what would’ve been the former Beatle’s 78th birthday.
So who better then to deliver this musical gift, than the track’s co-writer, Yoko Ono?
The Japanese artist, who married Lennon in 1969, was only officially recognised as co-writer last year. Now she’s released a haunting new church organ version of the 1971 classic.
The re-Imagining is set to feature on Yoko’s politically-driven forthcoming album Warzone, which will arrive just a few weeks after last Friday’s reissue of her late hubby’s most celebrated solo album. The original version of Imagine was co-produced by John and Yoko – alongside Phil Spector – and the 85-year-old told the BBC she remembers it as a special time, when they were both dreaming of a better world.
“When we finished creating,” says Yoko, “we just looked at each other and said: ‘Did we do this?’”
Yoko is keeping the dream alive in 2018 and adds it was important for her to do the track justice.
“I did enjoy it. I thought putting out Imagine again in this way was so important that I did my best to make it well.
“John and I created a lot together and he would be very happy that I did it.”
Rock ‘n’ roll’s most famous couple made seven albums together and one son, Sean, before Lennon was shot and killed outside his New York apartment in 1980, aged 40. Prior to Imagine, in 1969 – during the height of the Vietnam War – the couple staged a world famous ‘bed-in’ in an Amsterdam hotel room. It remains one of the most famous anti-war protests in modern pop culture and Yoko is still hopeful that one day the world will be as one.
“I’m very happy that people are thinking about peace these days.
“We said it in many ways how important that peace is and I feel that we were successful. (BBC)
“I felt that we were living in a war zone, but that increased more and more and I felt that [now] I had to say it. Yoko Ono’s new album Warzone is out on 18 October.
(BBC)
RELATED POSTS
View all
