Mention John Lennon’s solo output and his 1971 hit “Imagine” becomes an integral part of the conversation. Indeed, it often is the only conversation. But one of the things I find most fascinating about Lennon was how he was able to impart more blunt, but still timeless wisdom about our lives while struggling to make sense of his.
“Instant Karma” was one of those harder-edged message songs, a terrific tune that’s all the more remarkable given the way it was put together in January 1970: Lennon famously remarked that he “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner.” Actually, “Instant Karma” was completed in one session, then released a little over a week later – but that was still a veritable wind sprint, even back then.
Lennon assembled his Plastic Ono Band for the project, the ever-changing group made up of whoever he could pull together at the time. For this flash project, he called in Billy Preston on grand piano, Klaus Voorman on bass guitar and backing vocals, Alan White on drums, George Harrison on electric guitar and backing vocals, Yoko Ono on backing vocals and Beatles assistant Mal Evans on chimes and handclaps. John Lennon himself handled the lead vocals, acoustic guitar and electric piano.
With all that instrumentation, you’d think this was a leftover track from Abbey Road, but the ironic beauty of this song is that it’s not very Beatles-esque at all. The guitars are way back in the mix, and the insistent piano chords, along with White’s drums and the handclaps, are out in front – forming a powerful, head-nodding, body-swaying rhythm.
Lennon’s lead vocals are most at front, though, his finger-pointing lyrics made all the more poignant by the booming, reverberating mic set against the stark, almost demo-like soundscape. As was usually the case when Lennon was feeling it in the songwriting department, the words are philosophical but flow out so naturally, you can almost finish his lines as he sings:
Instant karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together, darlin’
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughing at fools like me
Who in the hell you think you are?
A superstar?
Well, right you are
And how many other pop songs do you know of have drum fills inserted in the brief pauses between lines of lyrics? It was as if John Lennon wanted to stick some exclamation points at random times.
There really wasn’t a song that sounded anything like it before, and even today, there’s a freshness to it that is a product of the no-nonsense production (provided by that Wall of Sound guy Phil Spector, of all people), the strong message and Lennon’s own sincerely impassioned rendering.
The confrontational, stripped down approach that defines “Instant Karma!” pointed the way for Lennon’s masterpiece Plastic Ono Band album later in 1970, and would occasionally reoccur for the rest of his career. Even the posthumous single “Nobody Told Me” follows much of the same sonic template established in this early solo hit.
The genius of John Lennon didn’t become realized overnight, but in the case of “Instant Karma!,” it did happen during the day. One, single day, in January 1970.
- Luca Gelli Organ Trio – ‘Shorter Notes’ (2024) - December 28, 2024
- Joe Fonda Quartet – ‘Eyes On The Horizon’ (2024) - December 27, 2024
- Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (Exit) Knarr – ‘Breezy’ (2024) - December 26, 2024
