"Gimme Some Truth" is a protest song written and performed by John Lennon. It was first released on his 1971 album Imagine. "Gimme Some Truth" contains various political references emerging from the time it was written, during the latter years of the Vietnam War.
Origins
Work on the song began as early as January 1969 during The Beatles' Get Back sessions, which would eventually evolve into Let It Be. Bootleg recordings of the group performing songs that would eventually go onto the members' solo recordings feature a few performances of "Gimme Some Truth".
Lyrics
The song expresses Lennon's frustration with deceptive politicians, with hypocrisy, and with chauvinism. The song encapsulates some widely held feelings of the time, when many people were participating in protest rallies against their governments. "Gimme Some Truth" uses a reference to the nursery rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard" as verb. The song's mention of "soft-soap" employs that slang verb in its classic sense − i.e., insincere flattery that attempts to convince someone to do or to think something, as in the case of politicians who use specious or beguiling rhetoric to quell public unrest or to propagandise unfairly. According to Robert Christgau, the song "unites Lennon unmasked with the Lennon of wordplay as it provides a rationale for" a preceding track on the album, "Jealous Guy". Lisa Wright of NME ranked it as Lennon's 5th greatest solo song, stating that in the song Lennon "tried to sift through the maelstrom of media bullshit to find the light at the end of the tunnel" and concluding that "scorn never sounded so good.
Recording
Lennon recorded "Gimme Some Truth" on 25 May 1971 at Ascot Sound Studios. Overdubbing of his lead vocal on 28 May 1971 was also captured on film.
Generation X recorded it as B-side to the single "King Rocker" in 1978. It appeared on the USA release of their eponymous first album and also appears as a bonus track on the remastered version of 1979's Valley of the Dolls
The Wonder Stuff included "Gimme Some Truth" on the expanded version of the 1989 album Hup.
Sam Phillips recorded a version for her 1994 album Martinis & Bikinis.
Ash released it as a B-side to "Angel Interceptor" in 1995.
Travis's version is a B-side to "More Than Us", released in 1998, and also appears on the various artists compilation "Causes 1" released in 2011.
Pearl Jam has covered this song live on numerous occasions.
Lydia Canaan internet released a cover of the song as a single in 2014.
Drive By Truckers covered this song live at the 40 Watt club in Athens Georgia on 2/16/2017 and 2/18/2017.
Cheap Trick released a cover of "Gimme Some Truth" as a single in 2019.
On December 8th 2019 The Full Story Band, featuring KT Tunstall, released a version of "Gimme Some Truth" in aid of the War Child charity.
On July 2, 2020, Billie Joe Armstrong released a version of "Gimme Some Truth" via his Instagram page as part of his and Green Day's No Fun Mondays series. https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCH7Llgla6w/?utm_source=ig_embed
Other works named after the song
A 2000 direct-to-video documentary film showing the recording sessions and evolution of Imagine took its title, , from this song.
Jon Wiener took the title of this song for his 1999 book, Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files, about Nixon's attempt to deport Lennon in 1972.
