I first met John Lennon when I was in college.  Actually, we didn’t exactly meet face to face – just heart to heart.

I was on my way to lunch one day when I heard I Wanna Hold Your Hand on the radio.  My life was changed that day forever.

What followed was the greatest musical upheaval of my life – greater than the advent of rock n’ roll, greater than the Kennedy assassination, greater than the Berlin Wall coming down, even greater than Haagen Daz.  The Beatles – a goofy name for four goofy guys who changed the world through music.  Once I heard that song the very first time, I was hooked forever.

Most of us were.  When the end came – and I mean the breakup of The Beatles, not John’s death – I refused, like so many others, to believe it.  It just couldn’t be.  It was only temporary.  The world would not change so drastically.  Things like that just could not go away.  I held on to my hope for eventual reunion for years.

Then John was murdered.  Then it really was over.  The end of the greatest creative upheaval of my life.  The end of the most influential quartet to ever walk the planet.  If you don’t agree with me then you simply weren’t alive back then – or perhaps you had been put away in a nunnery.

After the break-up, sometime during the weird and wacky John and Yoko period, John wrote his iconic song, Imagine. I’ll have to admit that I paid little attention to it because John had gone goofball with his strange wife and I thought that relationship to be the major cause of the break-up of my band.  I was a loyalist and Imagine was not an official Beatles song, so I wrote it off.

Over the years the song became hard to ignore as it weaved its way into the fabric of our lives.  It wasn’t until decades later that I begrudgingly admitted that it had become an iconic song and was, in fact, quite beautiful.

Recently, when faced with the task of finding an iconic song to represent the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me” in Matthew Hoffman’s modernization of the Ten Commandments project being produced by Watchfire Music, I found myself choosing John’s Imagine as the pop song that best represented that concept.  Had I thought through the lyric before and studied its concept?  Not really. In my Beatles loyalty myopic-ness I had never “gotten” the simple beauty of John’s message.  Now I have.

When you produce a song, you truly learn it from the inside out and from all the different angles.  I will say it was a joy to work with John and his simple but monumental idea.  Even though when he wrote it he was off doing strange things with Yoko, he was still John the Beatle speaking to us all from his lofty place – the same place that brought us A Day In The Life, All You Need Is Love, Across the Universe, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and, of course, I Am The Walrus :o).

You might ask, “Does Imagine even mention God?”  And, of course, the answer is no, but it its intent, I think, speaks to the first commandment’s words of wisdom on its practical rule for mankind.

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that 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

If there’s truly one God, then shouldn’t the world be at 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 that 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

And in case you missed the point I decided to add a rap to the song and further clarify the song for our purposes:

Imagine dis
Imagine dat
Ever’body wearin’ de same hat
Imagin-nations livin’ all as one
Ever’body workin’ in unison
One people
One goal
One mind
One soul
Ever’body eatin from de same bowl
Ever’body diggin’ de same hole
No masters no slaves
No chiefs n’ no braves
Ever’body knowin’ jus’ how duh behaves
Ever’ little thang under God’s control
Nobody runnin’ roughshod
One God(whisper) Imagine!

Livin’ in sympathy
In unity
One big happy family
Anuity, solidarity
Communion
One
You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.
Imagine nation-wide
Good vibes
No tribes
Same sides
Besides, ever’body’d be pacified
Satisfied
Dignified
Refried an’ allied
Transmogrified!
(Imagine no possessions.  I wonder if you can…)
Beautified
Magnified
Demystified inside
Purified, sanctified and simplified
Ever’ little thang under God’s control
Nobody runnin’ roughshod
One God
(shouts) Imagine!

The Beatles are gone but the songs live on.

Thank you, John – wherever you are.  Knowing you the way I do, you’re probably a little ticked off at me for doing this, so I apologize.

It’s a better world for your presence.  Thanks.

For more inspiring music you can download
and information about Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.