223. John Lennon, "Imagine"

 


There are some albums that are so perfectly conceived and rendered that they stand alone, a monument to their creator and to music in general.

This is not one of those albums.

I know that this record is beloved by millions and critically adored.  But ask yourself this: if it wasn't by John Lennon, what would you think of it?  I mean, "Imagine," the song, is kind of treacly and wan.  (It was also mortally wounded by getting the celeb treatment at the beginning of the pandemmy [Sample YouTube comment: "I played this to my dying grandmother who was on life support. She woke up and pulled the plug herself."].)  "Crippled Inside" has a nice folky feel but isn't all that much.  "It's So Hard" is a freak-blues number that has potential but never really takes off.  "How?" is a snooze, a would-be soft rock jam that fails to launch.

Not that there aren't some moments!  I really like "Oh Yoko!" because, unlike some of the other songs, it feels like it was thought through and worked on instead of just John showing up in the studio and recording whatever happened to be going on.  It was also used in "Rushmore," one of my favorite movies, so maybe I'm biased.


But because I'm such a cranky old asshole, my very favorite song is "How Do You Sleep?," not for the music, which is nothing special, but because it's such a venomous swipe at Paul McCartney:

So Sgt. Pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mother's eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head

How do you sleep?
How do you sleep at night?

You live with straights who tell you, you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since you've gone you're just another day

Haha holy shit.  I mean, I guess McCartney got the last laugh by not dying and becoming a beloved billionaire but this is some grade A trolling.  

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Go ahead and shoot me, but no.

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