Imagine, the Song

In an interview that John Lennon gave the year he was killed he said," ....Give Peace a Chance - we're not being unreasonable, just saying give it a chance. With Imagine we're saying can you imagine a world without countries or religions? It's the same message over and over. And it's positive."


imagine by massromantic

John Lennon

April Fools Day 1973, John Lennon and Yoko Ono created a conceptual country named Nutopia. This nation was based on the morals of the song Imagine.

In their official declaration of Nutopia it reads:

"...has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people. Nutopia has no laws other than cosmic. All people of Nutopia are ambassadors of the country. Citizenship of the country can be obtained by declaration of your awareness of Nutopia."

I think nearly everyone know's John Lennon's lyrics to this famous song by now, it starts off with -

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

It then continues with different scenarios such as no countries, no religion, no possessions etc, leaving the keywords of the song (in my opinion anyway)

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

As with any song that achieves the success that this has that is also advocating peace on earth while 'threatening' what some see as our world's structure it has had a lot of opponents and was even banned by numerous radio stations following the 9/11 attacks and is still banned in some schools in the UK and US. Let's look at what the criticisms are -

Have you ever heard the saying 'Imagine the possibilities?' I believe that this is what John Lennon was doing when he wrote his song Imagine.

He was thinking of what obstacles got in the way of us living in a world of peace and harmony. Once he had identified problems he was imagining the solutions, albeit in a very simplistic was.

Imagine no religion

Different religious beliefs have caused a lot of upsets in the world from neighbours not understanding (or not wanting to) each other to wars between different nations and even terrorism. Think of the West Bank, 9/11 and the IRA attacks during the 80s.

Imagine no countries

Different countries have different forms of governments who disagree with each other resulting in wars. When two children argue over toys in a playground the parents sort it out when the arguments are between two governments.........look at the cold war (the movie Red Dawn also illustrates what happens when Two Tribes go to war), Vietnam and the World Wars.

Imagine no possessions

Inequality always causes dissent, 'Let them eat cake' was Marie Antoinette's much quoted statement when the French peasants were hungry - enter the French Revolution and she lost her head.

These are very simplistic ways of looking at the song, but when you look at John Lennon's background he consistently gives the same message -

"All we are saying is give peace a chance."

When John Lennon wrote the song Imagine he wasn't talking literally, he was talking about in his mind. If you free your mind of the contraints that religion, countries and wealth place on you then you will find inner peace. He threfore believed that if everyone was able to do the same then you could find World peace.

When Liverpool's Airport was named after John Lennon the words "above us only sky" were painted on the ceiling.

Imagine is the official song of Amnesty International

Part of the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park, New York includes a mosaic, in the middle of the mosaic is the word "Imagine."

1983 on the anniversary of John Lennon's death David Bowie sang Imagine at a Hong Kong concert in honor of Lennon.

Stevie Wonder covered the song for the closing ceremony of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Peter Gabriel covered the song for the opening ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics.

John Lennon Action Figure

A little 'Imagine' art available to buy or just enjoy browsing.

Buy it here!

Buy it here!

Buy at AllPosters.com

Buy at AllPosters.com

This webpage was last updated by lou16 on 2nd July 2011