It’s hard to find someone as influential as John Lennon, and his song “Imagine” has affected people all over the globe as one of his greatest hits.
Unlike some artists, Lennon was known to have deep meanings in his music and really wanted to spread love and peace to the world. “Imagine” is a song about that, however there is much more to it.
John Lennon tied a lot of his core beliefs into the song, a man who cared about the world and happiness more than material things. A nonconformist to society and their beliefs.
To understand the man, read some of his quotes. He left messages of Love and peace and his ideals in many: (I included some of his most inspiring quotes at the end of this article)
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.”
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. “
Finding johns message in “Imagine”
When we take a look at the lyrics and dissect them, it becomes painfully clear what John was trying to stay. In fact, many people have written about this and most come to this conclusion.
Johns message from “Imagine” isn’t just to Imagine a beautiful world without war. It’s to take the world as we know it that is constantly trying to separate us from each other………and to reshape the world. To turn the world into a place of harmony. Watch out and keep a close eye on what divides us (things like religion and government) and try to avoid these things as much as possible. John was a man of peace who put happiness and harmony above all things.
Now, many people have taken the song to mean other things. Things that Lennon would have never written about.
The number one thing people have found the most issue with is the quote here:
“Nothing to kill or die for and no religion too”
The irony of people having issue with this quote is this is exactly what John is saying to watch out for in this song. He wants us to watch out for religious differences because they can cause problems.
He gets a little excited talking about why he wrote that line and a little about the song as well in this interview, you can hear how much he believes in this idealistic world in his voice:
He makes it perfectly clear here: “Imagining no denominations, imagining that we revere Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Christian…….equally that we don’t have to worship either one or we don’t have to believe. Imagine there no Catholic Protestant or Jew Christian, that we allow it all freedom of religion for real.”
Hearing him talk about it reveals the nature of the song, and that there was never any meaning that was malicious towards Christianity or promoted atheism.
Most of the other issues people had with the song were more trivial, however many people do wonder if Lennon was a communist since the song does talk about some Communist ideals.
This is an odd question, John has been quoted many times as specifically saying that even though the song does in fact sound like a Communist Manifesto……..that he has no affiliation with any political party.
The exact quote when asked about Imagine “It’s virtually the Communist Manifesto. Even though I am not particularly a communist and I do not belong to any movement.”
This does debunk the myth, even though the song does have a lullaby feel that would sound perfect for the communist regime.
Another Trivial thing people found they didn’t like in the song was that he was saying to imagine a world where there were no possessions……..and JL did own a lot of very nice things.
If you take a quick look of his apartment (Link here), you’ll see he did in fact own nice things. Tons of beautiful artwork, furniture and even owned a Rolls.
People basically were questioning JL about how in his own lyrics he says to Imagine a world without possessions and how could someone say that who has so many things?
Of course, people questioning this are silly. Since that is not what he’s saying at all. Like most of Lennon’s songs you need to think about what he’s actually saying by this.
His wife had interview with uncut. When they asked she simply said “He sincerely wished that there would be a time when all of us could feel happy without getting too obsessive about material goods.”
(John’s wife actually helped write this song and was recently put as a credit on the album in 2017. He even got some inspiration for the song in a book she was reading called Grapefruit.) (I’ll have tons more interesting facts about her and the song at the end of this article)
Moving forward, and diving further into the meaning….Let’s Take a look at each Lyric individually.
First Let’s take a Look at the Lyrics, section by section.
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
In this first section, Lennon introduces us with a simple question of just imagining a world without heaven and hell, where we live in the present moment. Many great philosophers talk about living in the present as the only way to truly live, because if we think to much about the past we may live in regret and if we look to far in the future we will give ourselves anxiety. Living truly in the present helps us connect with ourselves, and not let life rush by. I assume this is what Lennon meant by this. Of course imagining no heaven or hell would take our mind off of things (if you are religious) that also might consume you. It’s kind of like Lennon is asking as to basically lose all extra thought and live in the moment as much as we can. If you do start to imagine this you feel tranquil and at peace, which is of course how the rest of the song feels as well.
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 living life in peace, you
Here, John is starting out talking about no countries, which like we said before does sound like he was into communism even though he has no political affiliation. He says it isn’t hard to do, because really is it? Imagining this world would not be so hard. His wife has talked about on multiple occasions that simply imagining is the start of change, and of course you do need a vision before you can do anything. Then John starts to talk again about having no religion, making it more clear this time than the last and finally speaking of peace. I feel like he added that verse to make sure people did understand that he’s asking us to imagine all these things because of the peace it brings. Not for any other reason.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
These versus feels like a call to those that don’t truly want peace in the world, it’s like John is trying to welcome them and say that there isn’t judgement for you if you cast away the evil things in the world. Of course, John is right about being a dreamer here, sadly there most likely would be judgement from a lot of people if you were to take JLs stance on religion and government.
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
Here, John really shows how progressive he is. Bringing up more points however, that most communists would love. Talking about imagining no possessions or greed, and everyone sharing in a brotherhood…….basically perfect communist ideals.
The interesting thing to notice here, is that he doesn’t believe that this section of the song is as easy for people to do. In the beginning he says “Imagine there’s no countries it isn’t hard to do” and he also talks about “Nothing to kill or die for and no religion to” It’s as if in these sections he’s saying that most people really shouldn’t have a problem with this, but here he says “I wonder if you can” which sounds to me as if he’s challenging the reader to take a step back and really assess their view of life and how attached they are to the things they own. I can understand why it would be hard for people to give up their possessions, and it seems as if Lennon felt the same.
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
Other facts about Imagine –
- In Central Park there is a mosaic piece that is dedicated to Lennon that spells out Imagine, it’s a gorgeous piece.
- The song didn’t hit #1 in the UK until 1980 when he died.
- “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis uses the piano intro in their song
- “Imagine Whirled Peace” was an ice cream inspired by the song made by Ben & Jerrys
- Song was sang in the 2018 Olympics
- Yoko (JLs wife) once authorized the song (Illegally) for a Japanese commercial. Warner Bros and Michael Jackson are the ones with the rights to legalize use of the song.
People with wild imaginations have found some hidden lyrics in the song when played backwards, I couldn’t hear it when I listened, Can you?
Quotes from John Lennon
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.”
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life.”
“Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it.”
“We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong. “
“I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s just getting out of one car, and into another.”
“…Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I don’t know what will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. We’re more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”
“I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.”