1 Coldplay Song Ripped Off John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’
John Lennon‘s “Imagine” became the template for numerous peace anthems that came after it. Coldplay just straight-up ripped off part of the song for one of their most famous tracks. Coldplay’s song seems to contradict what John was trying to accomplish with “Imagine.”
Coldplay reused a riff from John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ but not its message
In some ways, “Imagine” is completely innocuous. Who doesn’t want to live in a world without hatred and violence? In other ways, it’s one of the most provocative pop hits of all time. The song’s call for a world with no religion, where nobody has heaven on their mind, is just as incendiary today as it was in 1971.
The most famous aspect of “Imagine” is its beautiful opening riff. Coldplay reused that riff for their ballad “The Scientist.” Coldplay would not be the first or last band to take inspiration from John, but the way they went about it was odd.
“Imagine” is a call for people to lay down irrationalities like religious sectarianism, nationalism, and greed. Meanwhile, “The Scientist” is about how “Questions of science, science and progress / Do not speak as loud as my heart.” That’s the textbook definition of irrationality.
Why Coldplay’s song doesn’t live up to John Lennon’s
“The Scientist” has its charms but it’s nothing compared to “Imagine.” First of all, whether you agree with the message of “Imagine” or not, it’s lyrically brilliant, with several of its lines feeling like aphorisms. Meanwhile, “The Scientist” is just another love song.
On top of that, “The Scientist” doesn’t contain a lot of musical variation. It just builds and builds with no payoff. You can’t say the same thing about “Imagine,” which leads to a pretty musical conclusion that leaves you feeling satisfied and wanting more.
The former Beatle said another musician deserved a writing credit for ‘Imagine’
During a 1980 interview in the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, John discussed the origin of “Imagine” — and seemed to gently back away from the track’s anti-religious themes. “[Comedian] Dick Gregory gave Yoko and me a little kind of prayer book,” he said. “It is in the Christian idiom, but you can apply it anywhere. It is the concept of positive prayer. If you want to get a car, get the car keys. Get it?
“‘Imagine’ is saying that,” he said. “If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion — not without religion but without this my-God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing — then it can be true.” John said the tune also took inspiration from instructions in Yoko’s book Grapefruit, but that he was too timid to give Yoko a songwriting credit because he was worried that she might overshadow his public image.
John looked down on any attempts to water down the ballad’s message. “The World Church called me once and asked, ‘Can we use the lyrics to ‘Imagine’ and just change it to ‘Imagine one religion?'” he remembered. “That showed they didn’t understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole idea.”
“The Scientist” is a good song that takes the signature riff from “Imagine” and uses it to its own, very different ends.
