Song: Imagine -- John Lennon

Image from joe-ferraro.com

You may not know John Lennon well, but you must have heard of his solo song, Imagine, one of my all-time favourite songs.

Image from bagism.com

His Imagine album earns the 76th place from the Rolling Stone magazine's greatest album in history in 2003^[1]. The song Imagine itself is placed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Rolling Stone ranked "Imagine" the third greatest song of all time in their editorial The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[2]

Image from cdn.babble.com

In this song, you won't get to learn difficult words, but you can feel how deep the meaning of this song runs. It has the melody that never dies, never fades with time, never gets obsolete. It is a simple song, with simple lyrics, melody, but simple is beautiful. It is a belief, a hope, that one day there will be no conflict, just equality, joy and love, that the world will become "one" some day. It is a symbol of "peace".

Strawberry Fields in NY City's Central Park
Image from new-york-gallery

Image from museumca.org

I used this song in the previous entry Documentary: The Cove, hoping that these tuna, shark, sea turtle, dolphin and whale fishermen will hear this song some day, and be reminded that every animal has the right to live in peace on this planet. Human being's killing and consuming them, will eventually lead to the death of human beings. (Why? Cos these sea animals absorb the heavy metal Mercury we pollute the sea with, and we put these heavy metal back into our body by eating them. Can human beings be any more stupid than this?)

Lyrics:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
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

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

Vocabulary:
dreamer -- (n) [C]

a person who spends a lot of time thinking about or planning enjoyable events that are not likely to happen

possession -- (n) [U] when you have or own something
greed -- (n)  [U]

a very strong wish to continuously get more of something, especially food or money

brotherhood -- (n)  [C + singular or plural verb]

(the members of) a particular organization or (more generally) 

obsolete -- (adj) not in use any more, having been replaced by something newer and better or more fashionable


Resources:
[1] Imagine (album) @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(album)


[2] Imagine (song) @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(song)


Documentary: The Cove @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2011/01/documentary-cove.html


Strawberry Fields @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Fields_(memorial)

Imagine by John Lennon @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLgYAHHkPFs&feature=player_embedded

Imagine: John Lennon @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine:_John_Lennon

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/dreamer
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/possession
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/greed
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/brotherhood
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/obsolete