John Lennon wrote one of the most enduring socially conscious songs of all time, “Imagine.” While the Beatles didn’t allow him the space to be as political as he wanted to be, his solo career offered that freedom. He took it and ran. Ran so far, in fact, that he was brought back down to earth after one song brought him significant backlash. The accompanying album for this song failed in comparison to his other successes. Find out which album Lennon was sad to see flop below.
The Controversial Album John Lennon Was Sad to See Fail
Shortly after the Beatles called it quits, Lennon released arguably the most controversial song of his career. Titled “Woman is the ****** of the World,” this song was always going to ruffle feathers. While Lennon was, in his opinion, trying to paint a parallel between racial injustice and misogyny, the brashness of the title put listeners off the message.
As a result, the accompanying album, Some Time in New York City, didn’t do as well as his other work. Lennon was disappointed by the lackluster response, standing behind his contentious single.
“I was disappointed at the reaction to the last album,” Lennon once said. “Over here, they banned it and made such a fuss about the songs, and it was never played because they said it insulted blacks, which it didn’t at all. I know a lot of Black people, and they know what’s going on.”
“I know it was political with a capital ‘P,’ but that was what I had in my bag at the time, and I wasn’t just going to throw them away because they were political,” he added. “‘Imagine’ did pretty well, so after that I wanted to just do one that I felt like…I still like the song. I like the sound of it and it gets me off, but it just happened that it didn’t please people.”
Lennon’s Other Political Work
While this attempt at political messaging failed for Lennon, he ultimately wrote other songs throughout his career that shaped culture. Of course, “Imagine” remains Lennon’s most influential song, but different cuts, such as “Gimme Some Truth,” “Power to the People,” and “The Luck of the Irish,” proved to be more successful than Some Time in New York City.
Of all of the Beatles, Lennon was the most outspoken when it came to politics and cultural clashes. It worked at times and failed at others. All in all, despite this massive misstep, Lennon had an excellent track record.
(Photo by Sergio del Grande/Mondadori via Getty Images)