Editing John Lennon (section)

===Initial solo success and activism: 1970–1972===
[[File:John Lennon Imagine 1971.jpg|thumb|left|Advertisement for "[[Imagine (song)|Imagine]]" from ''Billboard'', 18 September 1971]]
{{quote box|width=23em|When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system's game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they've got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don't know how to handle is non-violence and humor.|salign=right|source=—John Lennon<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/playing-the-governments-g_b_8913516 |title=Playing the Government's Game: When It Comes to Violence, We All Lose |date=6 January 2016 |website=HuffPost}}</ref><ref name=goodreads>{{cite web |last1=Lennon |first1=John |title=Quote by John Lennon |url=https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7163202-when-it-gets-down-to-having-to-use-violence-then|access-date=10 October 2019|archive-date=12 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112043203/https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7163202-when-it-gets-down-to-having-to-use-violence-then|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
Between 1 April and 15 September 1970, Lennon and Ono went through [[Primal therapy#John Lennon|primal therapy]] with [[Arthur Janov]] at Tittenhurst, in London and at Janov's clinic in Los Angeles, California. Designed to release emotional pain from early childhood, the therapy entailed two half-days a week with Janov for six months; he had wanted to treat the couple for longer, but their American visa ran out and they had to return to the UK.<ref name="auto">Madinger, Raille, Lennonology, Open Your Books 2015 {{ISBN|978-1-63110-175-5}}</ref> Lennon's debut solo album, ''[[John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band]]'' (1970), was received with praise by many music critics, but its highly personal lyrics and stark sound limited its commercial performance.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|pp=144, 146}} The album featured the song "[[Mother (John Lennon song)|Mother]]", in which Lennon confronted his feelings of childhood rejection,{{sfn|Harry|2000b|pp=640–641}} and the Dylanesque "[[Working Class Hero]]", a bitter attack against the bourgeois social system which, due to the lyric "you're still fucking peasants", fell foul of broadcasters.{{sfn|Riley|2002|p=375}}{{sfn|Schechter|1997|p=106}}

In January 1971, [[Tariq Ali]] expressed his revolutionary political views when he interviewed Lennon, who immediately responded by writing "[[Power to the People (song)|Power to the People]]". In his lyrics to the song, Lennon reversed the non-confrontational approach he had espoused in "Revolution", although he later disowned "Power to the People", saying that it was borne out of guilt and a desire for approval from radicals such as Ali.{{sfn|Blaney|2005|pp=70–71}} Lennon became involved in a protest against the prosecution of ''[[Oz (magazine)|Oz]]'' magazine for alleged obscenity. Lennon denounced the proceedings as "disgusting fascism", and he and Ono (as Elastic Oz Band) released the single "God Save Us/Do the Oz" and joined marches in support of the magazine.{{sfn|Wiener|1990|p=157}}

{{Listen|type=music|filename=Imagine.ogg|title="Imagine"|description=Sample of "[[Imagine (song)|Imagine]]", Lennon's most widely known post-Beatles song.{{sfn|Harry|2000b|p=382}} Like "Give Peace a Chance", the song became an anti-war anthem, but its lyrics offended religious groups. Lennon's explanation was: "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."{{sfn|Harry|2000b|pp=382–383}} }}

Eager for a major commercial success, Lennon adopted a more accessible sound for his next album, ''[[Imagine (John Lennon album)|Imagine]]'' (1971).{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=146}} ''Rolling Stone'' reported that "it contains a substantial portion of good music" but warned of the possibility that "his posturings will soon seem not merely dull but irrelevant".{{sfn|Gerson|1971}} [[Imagine (song)|The album's title track]] later became an anthem for anti-war movements,{{sfn|Vigilla|2005}} while the song "[[How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon song)|How Do You Sleep?]]" was a musical attack on McCartney in response to lyrics on ''[[Ram (album)|Ram]]'' that Lennon felt, and McCartney later confirmed,{{sfn|Goodman|1984}} were directed at him and Ono.{{sfn|Harry|2000b|pp=354–356}}{{refn|group=nb|Lennon softened his stance in the mid-1970s, however, and said he had written "How Do You Sleep?" about himself.{{sfn|Harry|2000b|pp=354–356}} In 1980, he said that rather than the song representing a "terrible vicious horrible vendetta" against McCartney, "I used my resentment and withdrawing from Paul and the Beatles, and the relationship with Paul, to write 'How Do You Sleep'. I don't really go 'round with those thoughts in my head all the time."{{sfn|Peebles|1981|p=44}}}} In "[[Jealous Guy]]", Lennon addressed his demeaning treatment of women, acknowledging that his past behaviour was a result of long-held insecurity.{{sfn|Sheff|2000|p=210}}

In gratitude for his guitar contributions to ''Imagine'', Lennon initially agreed to perform at Harrison's [[Concert for Bangladesh]] benefit shows in New York.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2010|pp=48–49}} Harrison refused to allow Ono to participate at the concerts, however, which resulted in the couple having a heated argument and Lennon pulling out of the event.{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=44}}

Lennon and Ono moved to New York in August 1971 and immediately embraced US [[Far-left politics|radical left politics]]. The couple released their "[[Happy Xmas (War Is Over)]]" single in December.{{sfn|Allmusic|2010f}} During the new year, the [[Presidency of Richard Nixon|Nixon administration]] took what it called a "strategic counter-measure" against Lennon's anti-war and anti-Nixon propaganda. The administration embarked on what would be a [[#Deportation attempt|four-year attempt to deport him]].<ref name="DeMain">{{cite web |url=http://performingsongwriter.com/john-lennon-fbi-files/ |title=John Lennon and the FBI |work=Dangerous Liaisons: The FBI Files of Musicians |publisher=Performing Songwriter | access-date=19 January 2013 |first=Bill |last=DeMain | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117225323/http://performingsongwriter.com/john-lennon-fbi-files/ | archive-date=17 January 2013}}</ref>{{sfn|Glenn|2009}} Lennon was embroiled in a continuing legal battle with the immigration authorities, and he was denied [[Permanent residence (United States)|permanent residency in the US]]; the issue would not be resolved until 1976.{{sfn|Wiener|1990|p=204}}

''[[Some Time in New York City]]'' was recorded as a collaboration with Ono and was released in 1972 with backing from the New York band [[Elephant's Memory]]. A double LP, it contained songs about women's rights, race relations, Britain's role in Northern Ireland and Lennon's difficulties in obtaining a green card.{{sfn|BBC News|2006a}} The album was a commercial failure and was maligned by critics, who found its political sloganeering heavy-handed and relentless.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2010|pp=95, 180–82}} The ''[[NME]]''{{'}}s review took the form of an [[open letter]] in which [[Tony Tyler]] derided Lennon as a "pathetic, ageing revolutionary".<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Hunt|editor-first=Chris |title=NME Originals: Beatles – The Solo Years 1970–1980 |year=2005 |publisher=IPC Ignite! |location=London |page=65|title-link=NME}}</ref> In the US, "[[Woman Is the Nigger of the World]]" was released as a single from the album and was televised on 11 May, on ''[[The Dick Cavett Show]]''. Many radio stations refused to broadcast the song because of the word "[[nigger]]".{{sfn|Harry|2000b|pp=979–980}}

Lennon and Ono gave two benefit concerts with Elephant's Memory and guests in New York in aid of patients at the [[Willowbrook State School]] mental facility.{{sfn|Badman|2001|p=81}} Staged at [[Madison Square Garden]] on 30 August 1972, they were his last full-length concert appearances.{{sfn|Rodriguez|2010|pp=56–57}} After [[George McGovern]] lost the 1972 presidential election to Richard Nixon, Lennon and Ono attended a post-election wake held in the New York home of activist [[Jerry Rubin]].<ref name="DeMain" /> Lennon was depressed and got intoxicated; he left Ono embarrassed after he had sex with a female guest. Ono's song "[[Death of Samantha (song)|Death of Samantha]]" was inspired by the incident.<ref>''LennoNYC'', PBS Television 2010</ref>