[Fiji Hill]

"Imagine" is a beautiful song, but as Communist anthems go, I prefer this one--written by Hanns Eisler, the brother of Soviet spy Gerhardt Eisler, who hopped a ship and fled to East Germany, making his escape from Richard Nixon and HUAC, who were hot on his tail.

Rise Up!--The New Singers (1935)

[FirstFlaBn]

Lennon on piano in the song. Considering he likely never touched a piano until he was well into his teens and never had one in his home until he was past 22, never took a lesson and couldn’t read music, the piano part is amazing. Both composition and performance.

Lyrics are more often an afterthought, so I ignore these. Nice use of his voice, but the piano is the hook for me. Compelling.