The No1 album in the US on this day, October 30th 1971, was Imagine by John Lennon. Imagine was written and recorded during a period of particularly bad feeling between Lennon and former bandmate Paul McCartney, following The Beatles break-up the year before and McCartney winning his case in the High Court to have their legal partnership dissolved. Harrison guested on half of Imagine s ten tracks, including the brutal How Do You Sleep? − a song written in retaliation against McCartneys alleged personal attacks on Lennon and Ono, on his recent Ram album. Although Lennon softened his stance in the mid 70s and claimed he wrote How Do You Sleep? about himself, he revealed in 1980: I used my resentment against Paul ... to create a song ... not a terrible vicious horrible vendetta ... I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and The Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write How Do You Sleep?. I dont really go round with those thoughts in my head all the time .... The track Imagine became Lennons signature song and was written as a plea for world peace. Years later he gave credit to his wife Yoko Ono who co-wrote the song. Jealous Guy has also had enduring popularity; it was originally composed as Child of Nature during the songwriting sessions in India in 1968 that led to The Beatles double album The Beatles. Oh My Love and the song How? were influenced by his experience with primal therapy: How? contains the questions he was facing while going through the changes produced in him during the ongoing process of primal therapy, while Oh My Love was written to communicate the joy and growth Lennon was experiencing as a result of the therapy. A little about the song How Do You Sleep?; Lennon wrote this at the height of his feud with Paul McCartney after The Beatles broke up. Each line of the song is an attack on some aspect of McCartneys life or music at the time. For instance, the line Everything you done was yesterday. Since you gone youre just another day refers to Pauls song Yesterday with the Beatles and his first solo single Another Day. John felt that Pauls greatest work was behind him. When the Imagine album was originally released, it contained a postcard of John holding the ears of a large pig. This was making fun of Pauls 1971 album cover for Ram, released before Imagine, where Paul is pictured holding the horns of a ram. On the back of the Ram album, Paul included a picture of two beetles screwing, or saying to John screw you from one Beatle to another. Heres How Do You Sleep?..... Enjoy!
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:12:36 +0000
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