Hear the Original, Never-Heard Demo of John Lennon's "Imagine"

[Internetado]

Imagining a "brotherhood of man" sounds Pollyannaish and painfully
naïve when even an "uneasy truce of man" seems hardly possible. But
when John Lennon sings about it with conviction in "Imagine," we sit up
and listen. Such is the power of "Imagine"'s utopian vision, and Lennon
later admitted it "should be credited as a Lennon/Ono song," since "a
lot of it-the lyric and the concept-came from Yoko," specifically from
Grapefruit, her little book of whimsical "instructions." For decades
the pair's collaborations have received withering scorn from Beatles
fans, but no greater testament to their combined humanist vision exists
than "Imagine," a product of Ono's conceptual dream verse and Lennon's
earnest songcraft.

So much has been said and written about the song, so many great and
not-so-great covers performed since its 1971 release, that we might
think we know all there is to know about it. We even have behind the
scenes footage in the documentary Gimme Some Truth of the sometimes
tense recording sessions. Yet it turns out that the original demo
version Lennon recorded at his own Ascot Sound studios went unnoticed
in a box of tapes for 45 years. We can celebrate its 2016 rediscovery
and now hear it for ourselves, that eight-track tape transferred to
digital and enhanced by engineer Paul Hicks, above.

The recording was discovered by Rob Stevens who found it, reports Jason
Kottke, "while sifting through boxes upon boxes of the original tapes
for Yoko Ono." It seems that improper labeling damned the tape to
decades of obscurity. "There's a one-inch eight-track," remembered
Stevens, "that says nothing more on the ‘Ascot Sound' label than John
Lennon, the date, and the engineer (Phil McDonald), with DEMO on the
spine. No indication of what material was on the tape." The find was
"true serendipity," he remarks.

Hearing this moving, stripped-down solo version reminds me of David
Bowie telling an audience in 1983-just before singing the song on his
Serious Moonlight tour-of how Lennon approached his songwriting:
"'It's easy,' he said, ‘you just say what you mean and put a backbeat
to it.'" Even without the backbeat, "Imagine" says exactly what it
means. Imagine all the people living for today.

A set of "Ultimate Mixes" of the Imagine album will be released in
October (pre-order here) and will of course include the newly-unearthed
demo along with many other demos and rarities. Till then, enjoy this
amazing discovery, as well as Lennon's live television performance from
1972 on the Mike Douglas Show, just above.

via Kottke

Related Content:

Watch David Bowie Perform "Imagine": A Touching Tribute to His Friend
John Lennon (1983)

Watch John Lennon's Last Live Performance (1975): "Imagine," "Stand By
Me" & More

John Lennon Extols the Virtues of Transcendental Meditation in a
Spirited Letter Written to a Beatles Fan (1968)

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him
at @jdmagness

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Eduardo
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