# Yoko Ono Will Receive Songwriting Credit on John Lennon's 'Imagine' **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2017, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060 "2017-06-15T20:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/21 "2017-06-16T16:19:22Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > I agree that as a singer she’s talentless. As a songwriter it’s harder for me to judge her especially without knowing to what extent she collaborated on _Imagine_ Given what a horribly sappy, mindless piece of dreck “Imagine” is, the knowledge that Yoko was a significant contributor seems entirely logical. I always considered “Imagine” to be prima facie evidence of how drugs helped destroy a great talent. Obvously, bad companions can be a major factor as well. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/22 "2017-06-16T16:24:32Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > How many things that you need to do do you put off because there will be time later? How many things do you not worry about because on a practical level, it makes no difference except that doing it would be ‘right’? Is your wife’s name on the title to the car you drive, for instance? > > Adding Yoko to the songwriting credits would not have altered anything from a financial point of view; there was no pressing reason to do so other than to “make things right”, AFAICT. If it wasn’t a source of friction between them (and it doesn’t appear to have been, since Ms. Ono has never, to the best of my knowledge, mentioned it to anyone), then I can imagine it would be somewhat far down on the priority list. That’s a good answer. Much better than “Read the article that doesn’t have the answer in it!” ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/23 "2017-06-16T16:39:13Z")
Imagine no possessions…no intellectual property too… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/24 "2017-06-16T16:43:57Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > That’s a good answer. Much better than “Read the article that doesn’t have the answer in it!” I’m sorry you found my first response lacking, but the article does mention the interview prominently. And the interview is well-known to fans, as is the date and circumstances surrounding Mr. Lennon’s murder. For me it is one of the few times I can answer the question “do you know where you were when you heard…?” For similar reasons, [Annie Liebovitz’s photo of the couple from the same day](https://www.lomography.com/magazine/65562-influential-photographs-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-1980-by-annie-leibovitz) is especially poignant and well-known (they were returning home from this photo shoot when Mr. Lennon was murdered). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/25 "2017-06-16T16:45:20Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Imagine no possessions…no intellectual property too… Apparently it’s true he was not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/26 "2017-06-16T16:59:15Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I’m sorry you found my first response lacking, but the article does mention the interview prominently. Yes, the article does mention the interview. But maybe some people would like to know why he never went back and added her himself. Like myself. That isn’t answered in the article. Your answer was good for me. Not sure why you didn’t just post that in the first place, instead of directing people to an article that doesn’t in fact answer that question. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/27 "2017-06-16T17:44:53Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, that’s the ignorant public’s view of Yoko. And maybe it’s true for her music, which I’ve never listened to. That makes me ignorant and not fit to offer an opinion. > > But I did go to see her major career retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It contained all the famous works and many others that never received recognition outside the art world. I was flat out impressed. When I saw the works in proper context, got to participate in them, made the connections between one and another I thought that it was probably the best modern conceptual art exhibit I’d seen. (And not because it was the only one. I know how Dopers think.) The facts convinced me. > > Ever since I’ve tried to defend her and her art from people who’ve just heard about it second or fourth hand from scoffers and ignoramuses. It would be like getting your opinion of John Lennon from aceplace’s link from the rabidly anti-liberal New York Post. You lose IQ points that way. Her art had poetry in it. And she deserves credit for Imagine. But she is very hateable. It was a real error to attach herself to this beloved public figure in such an aggressive way. I know: “John wanted it that way” But John was an unstable lunatic. That’s why we love him. We are under no such obligation to like yoko because john was a lunatic though. I don’t like her as a human being. I think if you want to know what she was like as a person you need to have talked to Cynthia and Julian Lennon. Treating kids like shit is not forgiveable, even (especially) if the kids own parent does it too, and the world agrees that that’s what “love” looks like. It doesn’t at all. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/28 "2017-06-17T02:13:26Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, that’s the ignorant public’s view of Yoko. And maybe it’s true for her music, which I’ve never listened to. That makes me ignorant and not fit to offer an opinion. > > But I did go to see her major career retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It contained all the famous works and many others that never received recognition outside the art world. I was flat out impressed. When I saw the works in proper context, got to participate in them, made the connections between one and another I thought that it was probably the best modern conceptual art exhibit I’d seen. (And not because it was the only one. I know how Dopers think.) The facts convinced me. > > Ever since I’ve tried to defend her and her art from people who’ve just heard about it second or fourth hand from scoffers and ignoramuses. It would be like getting your opinion of John Lennon from aceplace’s link from the rabidly anti-liberal New York Post. You lose IQ points that way. She’s a talentless hack with a history of stealing songs. But if you want to think the emperor’s new clothes are beautiful, have fun basking in your arrogance and condescension ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/29 "2017-06-17T02:39:06Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > She’s a talentless hack So tell me exactly what is talentless about her art. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/30 "2017-06-17T14:04:12Z")
**[Moderating]** **Jim’s Son** , calling Yoko Ono a talentless hack is acceptable. Calling other posters arrogant and condescending is not. Knock it off. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/31 "2017-06-17T19:07:21Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The interview with the BBC took place on 8 December 1980, just a few hours before Lennon was murdered while walking with his wife. [Cite](http://www.beatlesarchive.net/john-lennons-last-interview-december-8-1980.html). > > How many things that you need to do do you put off because there will be time later? How many things do you not worry about because on a practical level, it makes no difference except that doing it would be ‘right’? Is your wife’s name on the title to the car you drive, for instance? As John himself put it, “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/32 "2017-06-17T20:27:09Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I’m sorry you found my first response lacking, but the article does mention the interview prominently. And the interview is well-known to fans, as is the date and circumstances surrounding Mr. Lennon’s murder. For me it is one of the few times I can answer the question “do you know where you were when you heard…?” > > For similar reasons, [Annie Liebovitz’s photo of the couple from the same day](https://www.lomography.com/magazine/65562-influential-photographs-john-lennon-and-yoko-ono-1980-by-annie-leibovitz) is especially poignant and well-known (they were returning home from this photo shoot when Mr. Lennon was murdered). Actually, the photo shoot took place earlier in the day inside Lennon’s apartment. When Lennon was gunned down, he and Ono had just returned from cutting a single at the Record Plant. > **[John Lennon's Death: A Timeline of Events](https://www.biography.com/musicians/john-lennon-death-timeline)** > > The musician died on December 8, 1980, after being shot by Mark David Chapman. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/33 "2017-06-17T20:54:32Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Actually, the photo shoot took place earlier in the day inside Lennon’s apartment. When Lennon was gunned down, he and Ono had just returned from cutting a single at the Record Plant. > > [John Lennon's Death: A Timeline of Events](https://www.biography.com/news/john-lennons-tragic-death-33-years-later-a-timeline-of-events) I stand corrected. My hat is off to you, sir! ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/34 "2017-06-17T20:55:29Z")
It’s about time she shared the blame for that song. For too long John Lennon had to live with people thinking he was solely responsible for it. Now he can rest a little easier. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/35 "2017-06-17T22:09:38Z")
And likewise I hope John wasn’t stiffed out of any credit for Yoko’s fly songs. ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/36 "2017-06-19T08:48:57Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > John & Yoko’s appearance with Chuck Berry on “The Mike Douglas Show” would be a good introduction. “Memphis, Tennessee” and “Johnny B. Goode” are on YouTube; Chuck practically cringes when Yoko joins in. He looks around as if he’s thinking, “What the hell is _that?_” And after her first bit of “singing” one of the technicians heroically cuts her mic. ---
**Author:** ![Peanut\_Gallery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@Peanut\_Gallery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanut_Gallery)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/37 "2017-06-21T17:05:44Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > We can add Imagine to the list of Yoko Ono’s masterpieces, which now comes to the grand total of 1. That’s funny! What’s your score? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/38 "2017-06-21T19:01:19Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Given what a horribly sappy, mindless piece of dreck “Imagine” is, the knowledge that Yoko was a significant contributor seems entirely logical. Agreed. Whether or not it was hypocritical for a fantastically wealthy celebrity to preach about austerity, the lyrics are insipid, sound like something a thirteen-year old girl would write in her diary. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/39 "2017-06-22T05:17:35Z")
Imagine is an decent song at its root, I just hate how most of John Lennon’s music was overproduced after Plastic Ono Band. If it just had John’s voice and a piano, it would be more of a classic - even with its problematic lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060/40 "2017-06-22T11:08:18Z")
When I was in engineering school a fellow student started singing this (to the song _Imagine_) while doing homework: Imaginary axis… Going to infinity… Aha-ah, ah ah ah [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yoko-ono-will-receive-songwriting-credit-on-john-lennons-imagine/789060.md?page=3)