What was happening in 1971 that made Lennon want to write the song "Imagine"?

Question

I am attepting to write an essay on this song and just need some input.

Answer 1

OMG, Lena. Did you ever open up a flood of memories for me !! I just did a search of "Imagine" on Yahoo search. A lot of the material you need is there, #8 on the first page. This is one of the greatest songs of the century. Gotta do the lyrics.

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 . . .

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 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 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.

Anti-war, civil rights, womens equality, sexual liberation , & many other movements were at their peaks. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful, civil disobedience protests, except for the cops. Militant groups had been formed promoting violence as the only answer. Many cities had gone through their worst riots ever. pitching whites against blacks. Between 1963 and 1968, President John Kennedy, Presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy, & civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated. At Kent State University, 4 students at the fringes of an anti-war demonstration were shot & killed by National Guard Troops ( "Four Dead In Ohio", CSNY) In 1968, both National political conventions were held in Chicago, both drew huge crowds of anti-war protesters, & at both the Chicago cops were brutal. Hard feelings ran deeply in both sides of the disputes. Nixon was in his first term as President & the war in South East Asia was at its peak, with no end in sight. (Watergate came later). At a small farm in outstate NY, over 1/2 million people attended what was supposed to be a small concert supporting the anti-war movement: Woodstock became a household word. And the movements of the fringes became the demands of teh mainstream.

A year before the album was released, Paul McCartney announced the breakup of the Beatles. John had divorced his 1st wife & was married to Yoko Ono. He was not yet heavily into drugs. While the Beatles had written mildly about social issues, once free of them, John poured all his energy into the peace & justice movements. The message was to peacefully unite people to promote changes. His first "solo" album didn't do well at all. "Imagine" was produced, in part, to regain some of the mainstream audience. He wrote the song "Imagine" at home one morning, & it went on to become one of the best loved songs of the 20th century. Of course the song was an impossible dream, but it was a dream Lennon put all his soul into. It was so ironic that this man of peace & justice was assassinated, just as the Kennedy brothers & King were years earlier, on December 8, 1980.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

What Happened In 1971

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What was happening in 1971 that made Lennon want to write the song "Imagine"?
I am attepting to write an essay on this song and just need some input.

Answer 6

During this time in his life John was a very dedicated and active pacifist. Imagine was written right after the whole "bed-in for peace" and "War is over if you want it" campaign. Imagine reflects a lot of his ideas of peace and harmony.
Go to your video store and rent the 1988 movie, Imagine: John Lennon. It will give you more insight into the man's life during the time of the writing of this song. plus it's a great movie.
Good luck on your essay.

Answer 7

I don't think it was so much what was happening (although it was an interesting decade...it was just after the 60s remember...make love not war....) but I think with all the insight he got from the drugs and Dhali Lama quest and all that jazz (I'm sure they were looking for the path to enlightenment) I guess it him...he is an artist and visionary after all...and in that personal space of his he must have discovered soem truth and was inspired to write something about the thoughts rolling around in his head...imagine...maybe from his personal pain and anguish...it hit him how much hatred and intolerance and misunderstanding and lack of compassion, etc. existed in the world..how religion caused chaos much as it does now...and wow...imagine a world with no religion...no war...nothing to live or die for....what a song...no one could ever write anything better than that one. John Lennon was amazing...just friggin amazing...what a shame some useless scum had to cut his life short.

Answer 8

Both periods were good, however I'd say Beatles period was better although not in the very early days of the Beatles. Which this shows that Jane needs to listen to more of the Beatles more closely. For example, although most of the "Help!" album I'll admit was pretty poppy, the best song I think from their Help! album was "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". Which after that album, then they released "Rubber Soul", which is when the Beatles started to get really good, which although Lennon shared credit with McCartney on a lot of the songs. A lot of the songs he shared credit with McCartney on, was actually mainly or totally written by him but shared writing credit on. Examples of this for example are songs like--"Norwegian Wood(This Bird has Flown", "Nowhere Man","Girl", "In My Life". There are many other great songs the Beatles did which actually was written mainly or totally by John Lennon, but he shared credit with Paul McCartney. Which don't get me wrong I like Paul's stuff too including a few Wings songs, but John Lennon was most of the soul of the Beatles, just like Dee Dee I think was most of the soul of the Ramones.

Answer 9

Well-- There was a war in Vietnam that people wished were different or that it would go away.

The truth is, though, that his annoying wife Yoko wrote many of the lyrics. It was largely inspired by her childhood in Japan.

There's more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28song%29

Including:

"Imagine" is a utopian song performed by John Lennon, which appears on his 1971 album Imagine. Although originally credited solely to Lennon, in recent years Yoko Ono's contribution to the song has become more widely acknowledged.

Imagine is widely considered as one of the greatest songs of all time. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine voted "Imagine" the third greatest song of all time. [citation needed]

In the book Lennon in America, written by Geoffrey Giuliano, Lennon commented the song was "an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted."[citation needed]

The lyrics were thought to be inspired solely by Lennon's hopes for a more peaceful world. In reality, the song's refrain was coined by Yoko Ono, in reaction to her childhood in Japan during World War II. According to The Sunday Times, the song's refrain can be found in several of her poems written in the early 1960s, before she met Lennon, and in her 1965 book Grapefruit.

Answer 10

The Cold War.

In 1971, the USSR was Socialist, Strong, and Threatening to unilaterally make the rest of the world like them. Maoist Red China was Communist, Strong, and Threatening to do the same kind of thing. The USA was Capitalist, In Charge, and Trying to make the world safe for --- well, basically, YOU.

Lennon had studied Eastern Philosophy, yoga, and meditation in India, and wanted to make us think just a little outside the box, which we were not good at back then. Also he disdained war, and the US was still in Vietnam. His wife was Japanese; adding to the clarity with which the differences of Eastern and Western thought impressed him.

As a Poet he loved to play on double meanings of words and phrases. The song was loved and hated, and very timely. He knew that insight was necessary for understanding, and understanding was necessary for Peace.and that the time for it had arrived.