Song Lyric Sunday: Imagine

I would ‘imagine’ that most people will have heard of Rolling Stone magazine. The first issue was published on 9 November 1967, 55 years ago this week, so it seems appropriate that Jim has invited us to play a song today by someone who has taken their coveted place on the Cover of the Rolling Stone – no, I’m not playing that one! There are many international editions of the magazine in addition to the original US version: we even got our own here, called Rolling Stone UK (very imaginative, guys) in September 2021, but of course we have always been able to get the US version here, and we still can. I did a little research and found that the very first cover – which is at the head of this piece – featured John Lennon in his role in the movie How I Won The War, which had come out a couple of weeks previously. This was a satire on war, but didn’t receive much critical approval or box office love at the time. However, at the risk of being obvious, and of possibly being one of many who choose him and this song for today, this is my selection:

I’m sure most of you won’t need to see the lyrics, but as this is Song Lyric Sunday here they are, just in case you don’t already know them:

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky

Imagine all the people
Livin’ for today
Ah

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Livin’ life in peace
You

You may say 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

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You

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

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Winston Lennon

This really is such an obvious choice, isn’t it, so why am I doing it? For me, this is the third and final part of a kind of musical triptych that I have shared this week. The first part was Tuesday Tunes 129: Peace, which as its title suggests gave you songs about various kinds of peace as my theme for the week. I mentioned that my reason for choosing the theme was part of my contribution towards remembering those who had made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our democratic freedoms, and I followed it up on Friday with Remembrance 2022, in which I shared some songs suitable for Remembrance Day itself. This one suffered a few copyright issues, but I managed to find a work around so that all five pieces of music are now available to all. It was important for me to complete this, as there are some beautiful, poignant songs in that collection. The final part of the set is today’s post: here in the UK today is Remembrance Sunday, on which we mark our debt of gratitude to the fallen with services of Remembrance and parades around the country, particularly in London, which you may well have seen on tv over the years. Combining Jim’s theme with this seemed a natural fit for me, and I make no apologies for going down such a well-trodden path. John Lennon may well have been a dreamer, but he ISN’T the only one: anyone who doesn’t wish for a peaceful world isn’t worthy of being called a human being, in my view.

As John said in one of his other songs, “all we are saying, is give peace a chance.” I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to do this but, sadly, there have been and still are too many who would rather go to war than exist in harmony. On Remembrance Sunday we mark the human cost of the folly of those who have, for whatever warped reason, waged war and sent innocent people to their deaths.

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

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

If only…

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