Ah, John Lennon, the love of my youth... ;) No, really, I still can't stop thinking and learning about him and he's the man I look up to.
I really think he took all of the text literally. He himself could really imagine to live that way though I'm sure he knew that it wasn't possible. It was his Utopia and in the early 70's it was the right time for dreams.
In 1971 he was hard on trying to get a Green Card to move to America, Richard Nixon and many others told, he would not be allowed to come over because of all the drug stories, but the truth behind it was, that they feared him as a political enemy. Maybe some of this floated in to "imagine no countries." Maybe, it's just a guess.
He was never a very peaceful man himself, all the stories about the fights he got in and the things he did when he was drunk or on drugs stand in a contradiction to what he told the world. But he was a very smart man and some kind of sensible as well, what he wrote for the world, he kind of wrote for himself. In all his songs (except the drug songs of course) he was singing about what he was feeling. In 1963/64 it was about love and girls, just that normal stuff, in 1965 he started more to think about what's really going on in him, so stuff like "In My Life" or "Help!" was coming up... In the early 1970's he felt like "Imagine", that where his thoughts and so he told the world.
On the other hand, there was the "sarcastic" Lennon, the man that made evil jokes about everything and everyone, "How Do you Sleep?" and stuff. That was what he was thinking and feeling as well, he really was in a fight with Paul.
That's the way I think about it and now I started talking about so different things than it is about in this thread, I'm sorry for that. ;)
Great melody for sure. I've always just tried to take the lyrics in a more general way. The meaning I take from it is that if we put each other above all these things, cultural differences, and beliefs maybe there'd be a chance for peace.
This song is beautiful and I agree 100% with you, Anne. I don't think the song should be taken so literally. It's more of an idea for peace, hence the title of the song.
- You can have culture without country. It's the message that human beings should help one another, no matter where they are from. You shouldn't care less about someone because of a boarder line on a map.
-People can have their religions, just don't fight and kill because you think your God is the real God.
Imagine all the Travis posters living life in peace...
You...
You may say I am dreamer, but I am not the only one.
Someday..I hope you'll join us, and the world will live as one.
You may need to hold on to that and post it at a later date in some of those threads that get oh so heated. Specifically the ones that get heated for no apperent reason!
