He paid £1.45m (1.940.591 US dollars). Michael said: “I know that when my
fingers touch the keys of that Steinway, I will feel truly blessed. And parting
with my money has never been much of a problem, just ask my accountant.”
“I had always said, that the only time I would ever consider singing “Imagine” would be if it was the ‘End of the World’. The War on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy. As a human, and as an artist, I felt compelled to respond in the most significant way I could. The song reflects the light at the end of the tunnel, that we are all hoping for.
In April, he performed the track for the first time (with Nuno Bettencourt on acoustic guitar) as part of the Stand Up For Ukraine campaign event, a global fund-raising effort broadcast from Warsaw, Poland.
Watch here…
Now Julian released his Imagine cover officially with a great portion
of the proceeds going to the Stand For Ukraine charity organisation.
You can stream/buy the track here.
Anniversary album: IMAGINE – 2nd solo LP Released: 9 September 1971 – 50 years ago today
Rolling Stone wrote at the time: Imagine is John’s Self-Portrait. Most of it centers around issues which have already been dealt with on POB, only here handled less passionately and, strangely, less fastidiously as well. For POB, in its singing and instrumental work, was as much a triumph of artifice as of art. It managed to sound both spontaneous and careful, while Imagine is less of each. Even though it contains a substantial portion of good music, on the heels of POB it only seems to reinforce the questioning of what John’s relationship to rock really is. Full review here.
Turn Up The Volume: After the brilliant John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band debut LP
rocker Lennon wanted to rock again, which lead to an average longplayer, except
for a few exceptions and of course, the single Imagine (we’re all tired of hearing it,
meaning that it was a 24-Carat gold classic), a song they even know on Mars.
