Did John Lennon make reference to the movie Rosemary’s Baby on the cover of the Imagine album?
Released in
1971, the Imagine album was John’s
second solo album and contains the song that is considered his signature work, Imagine. The song Imagine is his most popular solo compositions and one of his most
controversial. On his official website
(johnlennon.com) the song is described as “a call to idealism that has provided
solace and inspiration at every moment of social and humanitarian crisis since
it was written.” Many consider Imagine
an anthem for world peace and justice, a utopian song. But there are just as
many people who consider it an anthem of subversion, a dystopian nightmare. To
imagine a world with no heaven or hell and religion is blasphemy and the
worship of false idols.
Album covers
have been used in the past to convey messages and The Beatles’ are no stranger
to that! Over the course of music history no albums have been the subject of
more interpretation and decoding than Beatle albums. In the 1960’s fans began
to notice death clues on Beatles’ albums and messages of death in Beatles
songs. The death clues of The Beatles became a phenomenon that continues to the
present day. In the search for death clues fans slow down and speed up their
music, play songs in reverse, analyze lyrics for meaning, album covers are
examined in great detail, viewed through mirrors, read upside down and
backwards, words are searched for anagrams, all in the search for clues
foretelling the death of a Beatle.
Music and art
go hand in hand and it’s said you can judge a book by its cover. The Imagine album jacket is the simplest
design with only two pictures of John, one picture on the front cover and one
on the back and three words – Imagine John Lennon. But the simple can sometimes
have complicated meaning. A few years ago, claumusic33
from Argentina posted a YouTube video titled john lennon prophecy. The video is only 19 seconds, a little
blurry, but its message is clear.
The author
links the picture of John on the back cover of the Imagine album with the
advertisement photo of Mia Farrow (Rosemary) used in the Roman Polanski movie
Rosemary’s Baby. When I first viewed the
video I thought it was curious and believed it to be true. John was making a reference
to Rosemary’s Baby. But like many of the messages the Beatles’ were sending out
this one appeared veiled. The picture of
John on the back cover facing upwards is suggestive of Rosemary’s Baby but
cryptic at best. What’s not so clear in the
video is the style of lettering used on both the Imagine album and in the promotion
of the movie Rosemary’s Baby. When you look closely at the lettering, if you
read the fine print, it all comes into focus.
The date
John chose to release the Imagine album fits well with the jacket design,
September 9, 1971. John had very good knowledge of the occult and numerology.
He was obsessed with the number 9 and believed it held special meaning
throughout his life. September is the 9th month, on the 9th day, in the year
1971 (1 + 9 + 7 + 1 = 18 = 9). The number 9 holds powerful significance and
symbolism in the occult where the power of words and numbers are amplified in
reversing, mirroring and inverting them. When the number 9 is turned upside
down you get the number 6, the number of the beast (666) in the Bible’s book of
Revelations. September 9, 1971 = 999 inverted to 666. It was also the 252nd (9)
day of the year.
The messages
John was sending out with the Imagine
album is a perfect storm of clues (or for those who don’t believe, a super
coincidence). In 1971, Rolling Stone Magazine called the Imagine album, John’s
self-portrait. Had John used the Imagine
album to portray an image of self and reveal personal secrets the message is
clear. His reference to Rosemary’s Baby on the album jacket (a movie about the
occult and Satanism and a man making a deal with the devil), the album release
date of September 9, 1971 (in numerology 999 becomes 666), and his anthem in
the song Imagine of imagining a world
with no heaven or hell and no religion, a song John admitted was anti-religious.
It was all intentional. The bigger question is why would John use such
symbolism on the Imagine album? Who
was he sending a message to and why? The answer to both these questions may be
Paul McCartney and the Ram album. To answer the question we have to look and
see what messages and symbolism Paul used on the Ram album to evoke a response
from John. There may have been more messages being sent back and forth by Paul
and John than either would admit. The design of the Imagine album, the release date, as well as the song Imagine may have all been a response to
Paul and the Ram album.
THE END
