John Lennon & Yoko Ono ‘Imagine’ Book Due

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A new 320-page hardcover book, titled Imagine, will be published Oct. 9—which would have been John Lennon’s 78th birthday—by Grand Central Publishing in the United States and Thames & Hudson in the U.K. Credited simply to John and Yoko, the book explores the making of the acclaimed 1971 album by John Lennon.

Pre-order in the U.S. here; in the U.K. here.

“A lot has been written about the creation of the song, the album and the film of Imagine, mainly by people who weren’t there,” says Yoko Ono in an announcement, “so I’m very pleased and grateful that now, for the first time, so many of the participants have kindly given their time to ‘gimme some truth’ in their own words and pictures.”

The full announcement reads as follows:

“In 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono conceived and recorded the critically acclaimed album Imagine at their Georgian country home, Tittenhurst Park, in Berkshire, England, and in the state-of-the-art studio they built in the grounds and at the Record Plant in New York. The lyrics of its title track were inspired by Yoko Ono’s ‘event scores’ in her 1964 book Grapefruit, and she was officially co-credited as writer in June 2017.

A section of the John & Yoko Imagine book

“Imagine tells the story of John & Yoko’s life, work and relationship during this intensely creative period. It transports readers to home and working environments through artfully compiled narrative film stills, Yoko’s closely guarded archive photos and artefacts, and stitched-together panoramas taken from outtake film footage that recreate the interiors in evocative detail. Each chapter and song is introduced with text by John & Yoko compiled from published and unpublished sources and complemented by comments from Yoko today. Fresh insights are provided by musicians, engineers and staff who took part, many of whom feature on the inner sleeve’s enigmatic picture wheel, in which the identities are finally revealed. All the minutiae is examined: the locations, the key players, the music and lyrics, the production techniques and the artworks—including the creative process behind the double exposure Polaroids used on the album cover.

“With a message as universal and pertinent today as it was when the album was created, Imagine cements John and Yoko’s place in cultural history.”

Watch the classic video of John Lennon’s “Imagine”