John Lennon – Instant Karma

This track is so alive. Lennon’s voice as always cuts through as always and Lennon’s sense of rhythm is different as always. He wrote and recorded this song in one day. John enlisted George Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston to help him record the song. He also got Mal Evans, a Beatles road manager, to do the chimes, handclaps, and backing vocals. He is playing tambourine in the video below. The song was recorded on January 27, 1970, and released to the public on February 6, 1970.

I always tell people that I prefer John’s early albums to his later ones and to Pauls early ones. John had an edge to him that Paul didn’t have until Band on the Run… to me anyway.

The chorus was made up of Mal Evans, Yoko, and a small group of strangers Lennon rounded up from a West End pub called Hatchetts.

The song peaked at #3 in the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, #4 in New Zealand,  and #5 in the UK in 1970. Phil Spector produced this track with great results. John kept it simple and Spector produced an exciting record and didn’t overproduce it because John reigned him in. The drums are really in your face in this recording.

Stephen King has said the novel The Shining got its inspiration from this song with the chorus of “We all shine on.”. Before Lennon would let Spector touch the Let It Be tapes…he tried him out on this song to see if he could not overproduce something this sparse and have a hit.

Yoko caught a lot of heat in 1993 when she let Nike use this song in a commercial. I will give her credit on this one… she took the $800,000 that Nike gave her, and gave it to the United Negro College Fund. Nowadays no one says anything about it as much because it’s much more commonplace now.

John Lennon: “I wrote it in the morning on the piano. I went to the office and sang it many times. So I said ‘Hell, let’s do it,’ and we booked the studio, and Phil came in, and said, ‘How do you want it?’ I said, ‘You know, 1950’s.’ He said, ‘right,’ and boom, I did it in about three goes or something like that. I went in and he played it back and there it was. The only argument was that I said a bit more bass, that’s all, and off we went.”

Yoko Ono: “It’s like, ‘Let’s all be together and anybody who’s out there who’s not in this game, why don’t you join us?,'” she told Uncut in 1998. “And to say that ‘We all shine on,’ it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing, instead of saying some people are shining and some people are not. It’s a really uplifting song.”

Instant Karma

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you

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
Laughin’ at fools like me
Who in the hell d’you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev’ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you’re ev’rywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Come on and on and on on on
Yeah yeah, alright, uh huh, ah

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
On and on and on on and on

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

28 thoughts on “John Lennon – Instant Karma”

    1. Yes…on this one Spector did well…now he didn’t use his Wall of Sound for this…so that is why it’s so clear.

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  11. Great record, I didn’t get to hear this one till 1975 so I was a bit of a late convert! (I was out the country in Singapore) so I missed the one and only actual John Lennon Top Of The Pops performance, doh! Good thing it was saved, most other Top Of The Pops shows up to 1975 were wiped by the BBC. Still fuming!

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    1. Just to save video tape….which was a downright shame! I think The Beatles first performance on there was wiped also…someone has found a filmed television copy of it somewhere from someone’s home.

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      1. yes I saw that clip, you never know more might pop up – Ive seen some on youtube with a copyright banner across the screen so the BBC cant claim them back – they get ridiculously obsessive about copyright – I got told to take a picture of one of my artworks of a TARDIS off one website, it’s a review of one 1965 episode of Doctor Who with a drawing I did aged 7 at school in my schoolbook. I couldnt be bothered to go into argument and removed it, but it’s all mine and it belongs to me not the BBC, so I happily plaster it over the internet just to annoy them. Certainly in the USA legally I can as it’s a review not using anything they created. Good thing I just laughed at them being so petty 🙂

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      2. That is awful that they actually wanted you to take it down…So it’s legal in the US? If not I’ll put one up!
        I stopped watching Doctor Who when Matt Smith left…I watched Peter Capaldi some but lost interest..it changed…the writers or something…I just didn’t like it anymore.

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      3. Yes in the USA it’s legal to use material for reviewing purposes (and it was an American company Redbubble) so I was legally fine there, but not in the UK if I was offering it up for sale as a card (I would have made about 25 cents if anyone had bought one) 🙂
        I really loved Peter Capaldi’s era but it’s been pretty naff ever since, and don’t get me started on the flying baby-eating magic pirate-flying-ship goblins on the new mega-woke Disney Doctor Who episode that just aired. Slushy music, and very very silly with a script full of plotholes you could fit a giant flying pirate ship through, hah!

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      4. LOL…I’m SO with you on the Woke stuff…don’t get me wrong…I welcome diversity…but NOT forced diversity… and they are more about messages than the story…I’m glad my kid is 23 now….
        I unsubscribed to Disney and will stay that way…I hate PC, Wokeism, or any name you put to it. I was watching a program on it when I was typing this!
        I think people now are fighting back…The BBC just elected a supposedly anti woke person as chariman.
        https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/samir-shah-announced-bbc-chairman-094103172.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABik0bNuTcT-no60QuD1QciFHkvMKHyhmV_kz1MDX2WUH76Ijng_TaUGDV-tOtnEnhYkS_qhTYmJI03AnBRHpg1IMbrs58HAqMMR4W1NJp-t2_6ejxSwkiVXOGDRmXHDrJnWwWq1UAaSjosbhNmDB4e8-1n8BrvWTnd0yMmYljtv

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      5. I think most people believe in fairness and equality, but it’s ironically the lack of tolerance to anyone questioning aspects of anything – such as scientific facts being actual reality – that annoys most people who are being forced to sign up to things that are opinions or superficial gloss not reality (and that applies across the political and social spectrum). In the end its counter-productive for everyone. Being grown-up and discussing things openly without getting angry and abusive is an ideal that the internet struggles with…! It goes straight to vitriol and hyperbole. I love Ringo’s Peace & Love message when he Tweets or offers condolences…yay Ringo!

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      6. I totally agree with you…it boils down to one thing…common sense and the lack of it.
        In America we have some companies with DEI…and I’ve known a couple of IT people that worked in those…they got out of them and warned me never to work at any company with that. Hiring on merit…goes out the door… I believe in equality but not quotas.

        Now days you are either considered hard left or hard right….I’m neither….I try to stay in the middle…but the craziness makes it hard.
        Ringo has the right idea.

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