Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)

Background

Together with his wife, Yoko Ono, John Lennon spent New Year 1970 in Aalborg, Denmark, establishing a relationship with Ono's former husband, artist Tony Cox, and visiting Cox's and Ono's daughter Kyoko. The visit coincided with the start of what Lennon termed "Year 1 AP (After Peace)", following his and Ono's heavily publicised Bed-Ins and other peace-campaign activities throughout 1969. To mark the new era, on 20 January 1970, the couple shaved off their shoulder-length hair – an act that Britain's Daily Mirror described as "the most sensational scalpings since the Red Indians went out of business." Having been recognised for his peace efforts in a segment on ITV's Man of the Decade documentary, and then chosen as Rolling Stone magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1969, Lennon said he cut his hair to "stop being hyped by revolutionary image and long hair." Lennon and Ono promised to auction the shorn hair for a charitable cause. This pledge followed the couple's announcement, on 5 January, that they would donate all future royalties from their recordings to the peace movement.

While in Denmark, the Lennons, Cox, and Cox's current partner, Melinde Kendall, discussed the concept of "instant karma", whereby the causality of one's actions is immediate rather than borne out over a lifetime. Author Philip Norman writes of the concept's appeal: "The idea was quintessential Lennon – the age-old Buddhist law of cause and effect turned into something as modern and synthetic as instant coffee and, simultaneously, into a bogey under the stairs that can get you if you don't watch out." On 27 January, two days after returning to the UK, Lennon woke up with the beginnings of a song inspired by his conversations with Cox and Kendall. Working at home on a piano, he developed the idea and came up with a melody for the composition, which he titled "Instant Karma!"

Lennon completed the writing of "Instant Karma!" in an hour. Eager to record the song immediately, he then telephoned his Beatles bandmate George Harrison and American producer Phil Spector, who was in London at the invitation of Allen Klein, the manager of the Beatles' Apple Corps organisation. According to Lennon's recollection, he told Spector: "Come over to Apple quick, I've just written a monster."

Composition

The song employs a descending three-note melodic progression similar to "Three Blind Mice" and an intro reminiscent of "Some Other Guy". Lennon had used a similar-sounding chord progression in the Beatles' 1967 single "All You Need Is Love". Later in 1970, he would adopt the melody of "Three Blind Mice", an English nursery rhyme, for his song "My Mummy's Dead".

In their book The Words and Music of John Lennon, Ben Urish and Kenneth Bielen write that in the first verse of "Instant Karma!", Lennon employs sarcasm as he urges the listener to "Get yourself together / Pretty soon you're gonna be dead" and emphasises "It's up to you – yeah, you!" Norman comments on the "hippie catchphrase of the moment" contained in this instruction to "Get yourself together", and he says that the warning of imminent death is "obviously not to be taken literally." Author Mark Hertsgaard cites the lines "Why in the world are we here? / Surely not to live in pain and fear" as a further example of Lennon "asking what purpose his life on earth was to serve," after his 1966 composition "Strawberry Fields Forever". According to Urish and Bielen, "Instant Karma!" conveys the need to recognise and act upon a shared responsibility for the wellbeing of humankind; the karmic rewards of this mindset are available to all, as implied in Lennon's exhortation to "Come and get your share". The same authors pair the song with Lennon's and Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single from 1971, in terms of how the song "both prods and challenges listeners before providing reassurance."

As with "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People" – Lennon singles from 1969 and 1971 – the chorus has an anthem-like quality, as he sings: "We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun." Norman describes the chorus as Lennon restating his message of "peace campaigning and non-violent, optimistic togetherness." According to Lennon biographer John Blaney, the song is an appeal "for mankind to take responsibility for its fate" and represents "Lennon developing his own brand of egalitarianism."

Recording

Although still officially a member of the Beatles, Lennon had privately announced his departure from the band in September 1969. He was keen to issue "Instant Karma!" immediately as a single, the third under his and Ono's Plastic Ono Band moniker. The recording session took place at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in north-west London, on the evening of 27 January. Lennon's fellow musicians at the session were Harrison, Klaus Voormann, Alan White, and Billy Preston – all of whom had performed at the December 1969 Peace for Christmas Concert, as part of the Plastic Ono Supergroup. The recording engineer for "Instant Karma!" was EMI mainstay Phil McDonald. Spector produced the session, arriving late after Harrison had found him at Apple's office and persuaded him to attend.

According to author Bruce Spizer, the line-up for the basic track, before overdubs, was Lennon (vocals, acoustic guitar), Harrison (electric guitar), Preston (organ), Voormann (bass), and White (drums). Lennon later recalled of the recording: "Phil (Spector) came in and said, 'How do you want it?' And I said, '1950s' and he said 'Right' and BOOM! ... he played it back and there it was." The song uses a similar amount of echo to 1950s Sun Records recordings.

The musicians recorded ten takes, the last of which was selected for overdubbing. To create what Spector biographer Mark Ribowsky terms a "four-man Wall of Sound" production, Lennon added grand piano onto the basic track, while Harrison and White shared another piano and Voormann played electric piano. In addition, Beatles aide Mal Evans overdubbed chimes (or tubular bells) and White added a second, muffled drum part. Rather than an instrumental solo over the third verse, Lennon vocalised a series of what Urish and Bielen term "grunts and moans". Lennon felt that the chorus was missing something, and so Preston and Evans were sent to a nearby nightclub to bring in a group of people to provide backing vocals. These newcomers and all the musicians, along with Allen Klein, then added chorus vocals, with Harrison directing the singing.

Although Lennon and Spector disagreed over the bass sound, Lennon was delighted with the producer's work on "Instant Karma!" White's drums assumed the role of a lead instrument, positioned prominently in the mix. Spector biographer Richard Williams wrote in 1972: "No Beatles record had ever possessed such a unique sound; Spector had used echo to make the drums reverberate like someone slapping a wet fish on a marble slab, and the voices sounded hollow and decayed." Spector wanted to add a string section to the track in Los Angeles, but Lennon insisted that the recording was complete.

Release

"Instant Karma!" ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, arriving in UK record stores just ten days after it was written. Apple Records' tagline in trade advertisements for the single read: "Ritten, Recorded, Remixed 27th Jan 1970." Lennon remarked to the press that he "wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we're putting it out for dinner." Apple issued the single on 6 February 1970 in Britain – credited to the Plastic Ono Band – and on 20 February in America, where the A-side was retitled "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" and credited to John Ono Lennon. Spector remixed "Instant Karma!" for the US release without Lennon's knowledge. Continuing the approach of the Plastic Ono Band's previous singles, "Give Peace a Chance" and "Cold Turkey", the B-side was an Ono composition, in this case "Who Has Seen the Wind?"

As with "Cold Turkey", the single's standard Apple Records A-side face label carried the words "PLAY LOUD", in both the UK and America. Reflecting the tender sound of "Who Has Seen the Wind?", the B-side label read "PLAY QUIET" (or "PLAY SOFT" in the US). The front of the US picture sleeve featured a black-and-white photo of Lennon along with a prominent producer's credit for Spector, while the reverse had a similar picture of Ono.

Promotion

Following a year of highly publicised peace campaigning by the Lennons in 1969, Apple press officer Derek Taylor was concerned that they had exhausted the media's interest in their causes. On 4 February 1970, Lennon and Ono staged a publicity stunt at the Black Centre in north London, where they donated a large plastic bag full of their hair, along with Apple's poster for the new single, to black power activist Michael X, in return for a pair of Muhammad Ali's bloodstained boxing shorts. The "final proof" of the Lennons' "overexpose[ure]", according to Taylor, was that there was a large press turnout for the event, yet "nobody printed anything."

On 11 February, Lennon and Ono filmed an appearance on BBC Television's Top of the Pops to promote "Instant Karma!", accompanied by White, Voormann, Evans, and BP Fallon. While the other musicians mimed their contributions, Lennon sang a live vocal over a mix of the song's instrumental track, prepared by EMI engineer Geoff Emerick. It was the first appearance on the program by any member of the Beatles since 1966, as well as the public unveiling of the Lennons' new cropped look. Two versions of "Instant Karma!" – known as "knitting" and "cue card" – were taped for Top of the Pops, and aired on 12 and 19 February, respectively.

The clips differ in terms of Lennon's attire and the nature of Ono's role as, in author Robert Rodriguez's description, "an onstage focal point around which all activity was staged." In addition, for the 19 February broadcast, Lennon's vocal was treated with echo. In the "knitting" clip, Lennon is wearing a black polo-neck jumper as Ono sits beside his piano, blindfolded, and knitting throughout. In "cue card", Lennon wears a flower-pattern shirt under a denim jacket, while Ono, seated on a stool, holds up a series of cryptically worded cue cards and speaks into her microphone. The cards' messages include "Smile", "Hope", and "Peace". Although Ono appears to have a more active role, she is again blindfolded and the words she utters cannot be heard.

Lennon and Ono also promoted the single with an appearance on Emperor Rosko's BBC Radio 1 show Midday Spin, shortly after the "cue card" clip aired. In response to the many letters asking about her role in the Top of the Pops performance, Ono said "the blindfold means to me like everybody in the world is like blind ... the stool was like a grove ... And everybody's sitting on the grove blindfolded and trying their best, you know." Rodriguez describes both clips as "terrifically engaging, providing suitably dynamic visuals to a powerful song." He says that the "cue card" performance "captures much more of the ambience, with frequent shots of White's stellar work and the studio dancers." In the view of media analyst Michael Frontani, Lennon's and Ono's untidy, cropped hairstyle befitted the couple's "new agenda" for 1970 – a year in which Lennon, still mistrusted by the political left for his rejection of their principles in the Beatles' 1968 single "Revolution", sought "greater confrontation with the system." Frontani writes of Lennon's appearance on Top of the Pops, that it "was a stark picture, one at odds with his Beatles past. For Lennon, ragged and ugly in comparison to the Beatle image, it was a means of breaking even more fully with his pop star past."

Commercial success and aftermath

"Instant Karma!" was commercially successful, peaking at number 3 on America's Billboard Hot 100 chart, number 2 in Canada, and number 5 on the UK Singles Chart. The single also reached the top ten in several other European countries and in Australia. The release took place two months before Paul McCartney announced the break-up of the Beatles, whose penultimate single, the George Martin-produced "Let It Be", Lennon's record competed with on the US chart. "Instant Karma!" went on to become the first single by a solo Beatle to achieve US sales of 1 million, earning gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America on 14 December 1970. Until Lennon's death in December 1980, "Instant Karma!" remained his sole RIAA-certified gold single.

Despite the stated intentions for Lennon's and Ono's Year 1 AP, the proceeds from the auctioning of their hair benefited Michael X's Black House commune rather than the peace movement; according to Beatles Diary author Barry Miles, the pledge to donate their royalties was also "discreetly forgotten." In March 1970, Lennon publicly split with the organisers of the planned Toronto Peace Festival, as he and Ono began treatment under Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy. Before heading to California in April for intensive therapy through the summer, Lennon accused McCartney of using the Beatles' break-up to sell his album McCartney, and admitted that he wished that he himself had announced the break-up months before to promote his own solo release.

Critical reception

On release, Chris Welch of Melody Maker declared: "Instant hit! John Lennon is singing better than ever. With a beautiful rock 'n' roll echo chamber on his mean but meaningful vocals and some superb drumming, it makes up the Plastics' best piece of boogie yet." Record World listed the song first on its three "Single Picks of the Week" predictions, saying: "John Ono Lennon is now produced by Phil Spector. 'Instant Karma' ... is gonna get YOU." Cash Box predicted the same success, saying: "'Instant Karma' has made it to New York, full reverb blaring and Lennon's guts pouring out in a most exciting and involving manner. The song tears out with a '50s shuffle style that really makes it." Writing in the NME in 1975, Charles Shaar Murray wrote of the song's "volcanically desperate optimism" and rated it "a classic". Shaar Murray added, with reference to "Cold Turkey" also: "I can't remember anybody else who put out two such utter killers in a row over the same period of time."

Village Voice critic Robert Christgau described "Instant Karma!" as Lennon's "best political song," while some other reviewers consider it to be the artist's finest post-Beatles recording. In their 1975 book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler describe "Instant Karma!" as a "snappy little rocker" that "owes as much to the skilful production of Phil Spector as to the vitality of the overall performance," on which "[d]rummer Alan White excels." Another to highlight White's drumming amid the "collective genius" of all the musicians on "Instant Karma!", author Robert Rodriguez concludes of Lennon's activities on 27 January 1970: "Not many days in the history of rock and roll proved as everlastingly fruitful." In 1981, NME critic Bob Woffinden wrote of the single: "It was excellent. Lennon was characteristically simple and direct, but this time on a song with one of those magically catchy refrains."

Among Lennon biographers, Jon Wiener praises Lennon's "rich, deep voice" on a recording where the sound is "irresistible". Philip Norman describes the song as "similar to 'Cold Turkey' in tempo but far more relaxed and humorous", adding that Spector's production gave Lennon's voice "a taut expressiveness it had not had since 'Norwegian Wood'." While noting the significance of the session for George Harrison's career, author Simon Leng praises the recording as being "full of urgency and sheer excitement."

Stereogum contributors Timothy and Elizabeth Bracy rated it as Lennon's greatest solo song, calling it "an exhilarating gesture and proof that Lennon didn’t need anyone — even the Beatles — in order to make timeless music."

Re-releases and live version

"Instant Karma!"'s first appearance on a Lennon album, albeit slightly edited in length, was the 1975 compilation Shaved Fish. Urish and Bielen observe that the "advertising hyperbole" inherent in the song's title, through the inclusion of an exclamation mark, is given extra emphasis on this album cover. The song has featured – often with the full title "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" – on numerous posthumous compilations, including The John Lennon Collection (1982), the Lennon box set (1990), Lennon Legend (1997), Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon (2005), and Power to the People: The Hits (2010).

Lennon played "Instant Karma!" at his last full-length concert performance – the One to One benefit shows held at Madison Square Garden, New York, on 30 August 1972. His backing band comprised the group Elephant's Memory, in addition to Ono and drummer Jim Keltner. The 1986 album and video Live in New York City contains the afternoon performance of the song.

In July 1992, "Instant Karma!" was re-released as a single in the Netherlands, backed by "Oh My Love". Originally, copies of it were given away with early editions of The John Lennon Video Collection. When released in the rest of Europe (barring the UK), this single reissue gained two extra B-sides: "Mother" and "Bless You".

Of the two 1970 Top of the Pops performances, the "cue card" version appeared on The John Lennon Video Collection in October 1992, while the "knitting" performance was remixed and extended for release on the Lennon Legend DVD (2003). The "knitting" version was also included on the 8 December 2003 UK reissue of Lennon's and Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" single.

Cover versions and cultural references

Artists who have covered "Instant Karma!" include Toad the Wet Sprocket, Paul Weller, Duran Duran, Tater Totz with Cherie Currie, and Tokio Hotel. In 2007, the song provided the title for Amnesty International's multi-artist compilation of Lennon compositions, Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, for which U2 recorded a cover version. In 2022, the American group Bleachers, formed by the singer and producer Jack Antonoff, covered the song for the soundtrack of the animated movie Minions: The Rise of Gru.

The title of Stephen King's 1977 horror novel The Shining came from Lennon's line "We all shine on." King was going to call the book The Shine, before realising that "shine" had been used as a derogatory term for blacks.

In 1988, Ono allowed the footwear and apparel company Nike to feature "Instant Karma!" in an advertising campaign, after a public outcry the previous year had forced her to withdraw permission for the use of the Beatles' "Revolution". Instant Karma Records was named after the song, and the Flaming Lips recorded their track "I Don't Understand Karma" in 2009 as a reply to "Instant Karma!"

Personnel

According to Harry Castleman and Walter J. Podrazik, except where noted:

John Lennon – lead vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, backing vocals

George Harrison – electric guitar, piano, backing vocals

Klaus Voormann – bass guitar, electric piano, backing vocals

Alan White – drums, piano, backing vocals

Billy Preston – Hammond organ, backing vocals

Yoko Ono – backing vocals

Mal Evans – chimes, handclaps, backing vocals

Scott CerJance – tambourine

Allen Klein and revellers from London's Hatchett Club – backing vocals