Imagine [VINYL]

Product Information

My guess is that this release is digitally remastered because I've never heard a British-recorded Capitol LP sound as good as this. Remastered for the first time in nearly fifty years, the original four speaker Spector/Lennon/Ono mix of the Imagine album in Quadrasonic sound. Yoko gives input through the talkback system, and Phil Spector rudely comes close to cutting her off in a dismissive way. Stripped down, the songs and performances are put into sharp focus: Listening to ‘Gimme Some Truth’ with no slap echo on the voice, you can feel the froth coming out of John’s mouth. She knew the initial basic track performances that spawned the album were as aggressively visceral and emotionally touching, if not more so, than the ones that made up John’s Plastic Ono Band album, if such a thing is possible.

Shortly after the release of Imagine, a Los Angeles radio personality listened to it and began playing the title song on his programme. As I have always been interested in those kinds of progressive things to do with sound reproduction, I wanted to create a mix where you could actually feel you were in the studio. On ‘Crippled Inside’, we thought we’d have just the drums and that slap bass sound with the delay on it. George Harrison (electric guitar), Ted Turner and Rod Lynton (twelve-string acoustic guitars), Ivan Sharrock (film crew sound recordist), Klaus Voormann (bass), Alan White (drums), John Lennon (electric guitar and vocals), Nicky Hopkins (Wurlitzer electric piano), John Tout (upright piano); Ascot Sound Studios, 26 May 1971. It was reissued in 2003 by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab on gold CD and on 180gram half-speed mastered LP.In the Quadrasonic Mixes, there are times when, literally, there is one thing equally coming out of all four speakers at once, which sounds like it’s coming out of all four speakers at once – there’s no focus at the centre. Apple Records issued Imagine on 9 September 1971 in the United States and a month later, on 8 October, in the UK. Maybe a few were worried when his first couple of albums were strange sound collages that were pretty much albums for him and Yoko to enjoy and nobody else.

Imagine was a critical and commercial success, peaking at number one on both the UK Albums Chart and US Billboard 200. Also recorded was a demo of the future Lennon track " Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)", the unreleased song " San Francisco Bay Blues", and a demo of " I'm the Greatest". Lennon later expressed his displeasure with the more commercial sound of the album, saying that the title track was "an anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic song, but because it's sugar-coated, it's accepted". George Harrison: electric guitar on ‘I Don’t Want to Be a Soldier Mama I Don’t Wanna Die Mama I Don’t Wanna Die,’ ‘Gimme Some Truth,’ ‘Oh My Love,’ and ‘How Do You Sleep?Footage of "Gimme Some Truth" aired as part of the BBC TV show The Old Grey Whistle Test on 12 December 1972. Lennon recorded the album from early to mid-1971 at Ascot Sound Studios, Abbey Road Studios and the Record Plant in New York City, with supporting musicians that included his ex- Beatles bandmate George Harrison, keyboardist Nicky Hopkins, bassist Klaus Voormann and drummers Alan White and Jim Keltner. A cover of the Olympics' 1958 song "Well (Baby Please Don't Go)", later released on John Lennon Anthology, was recorded on 16 February. On 23 November 2010, Imagine became available on the Rock Band 3 video game, exploiting the music game's use of a keyboard. The album was recorded in what was, essentially, a makeshift home studio, so there is extraneous noise and requests like, ‘all quiet in the kitchen, please.

As all the other mixes were going to be exploring new ways of listening to the album, the Ultimate Mixes should be the best possible recreations of the originals – both in Stereo and in their expansion to the 5. The sound would be coming out pretty much like a U-shape – and you’d be sitting in the middle of the U, with some ambience behind you, but not a total surround. Track C7 is listed incorrectly as "I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die (Take 25)" on the hype sticker, but correctly as Take 11 on the inner sleeve.Michael Ramsden apes John’s guide vocal, with fantastic screams and vocal gymnastics from a duetting Yoko. In 2012, Imagine ranked at number 80 on Rolling Stone 's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. I like the idea of keeping the original track sequence for record 2, but 2 times 'Imagine' and 2 times 'Crippeled Inside' after each other is a bit too much. I don't have anything to compare this to, but I think this is a nice sounding pressing, good warm soundstage on dead quiet vinyl.