'Imagine': John's and Yoko's Hymn to Progressive Utopia

americanthinker.com ^ | 7/22/2017 | Bruce W. Davidson

[rktman]

For the last 15 years, I have been making good educational use of Lennon's famous song "Imagine." In one of my classes, analyzing the song helps Japanese students think critically about song lyrics. The song is very well known and popular in Japan, in part because Lennon's wife was Japanese. Yoko Ono's leftist beliefs also left their mark on the content of the song, a fact that will probably soon receive official recognition by the National Music Publishers Association.

The song's doubtful assumptions and internal contradictions make it an instructive instance of the sloppy, shallow thinking we often find in the world of mass entertainment, which unfortunately then goes unfiltered into the minds of countless consumers. Eventually, my students do an assignment in which they critique songs of their own choosing in short presentations. Not long ago, one student offered us her own critique of a Japanese pop song titled "World Peace," which calls for the extermination of the human race in order to achieve true peace on planet Earth in view of humanity's crimes against the environment. The student remarked on the strange notion of a peaceful world with no humans around to enjoy it. She had evidently not yet heard of some strains of extreme environmentalism.

[Nea Wood]

I do like the melody of “Imagine.” Just not the words.

[aspasia]

You love it, I have to move on, quickly. That’s because thinking rightly is more important to me than a momentary feeling. Besides, there’s more than enough beautiful music available that doesn’t weaken me.

[Freestate316]

You’re right about that, plus there’s plenty of class warfare/ exploitation lyrics thrown in for good measure. At least the Internationale isn’t fawned over as some sort of Utopian hymn by the loony left the way Imagine is.

[BraveMan]

I would post a link to the Rock & Roll Circus performance of Whole Lotta Yoko, but I have too much respect for the denizens of this forum to assault them in such a heavy handed manner.

[Joe 6-pack]

"HoustonPus thinks that the new Planet of the Apes movie is timely with its Earth would better off with no more humsns message. The critic is gleeful"

IMHO, that critic's analysis is pretty superficial and missed the movie's bigger point, particularly in the context of the prior two films. Saying that the POA movies were about how much better the world would be if humans are gone is as shallow a conclusion as saying the Narnia films were about how much better we'd all be if we just worshipped a lion.

There were a lot of themes and symbols incorporated across the last three POA films, but most were IMHO, didactic in intent.

The first movie was in many ways catching the Prometheus Unbound/Frankenstein story. The geneticist who was experimenting with the simian virus was doing so obsessively with the very best of intentions: to cure his father's descent into Alzheimer's. Even after his lab shut down his efforts, he continued them in secret, hiding Caesar in his home and furtively conducting experiments on his father when the virus escaped into the wild. As with Shelly's Frankenstein, the lesson is one of unintended consequences and even if something seems like a good idea backed by noble intent, one should temper ambition with caution. The respective stories may have been told by a cadaverous monster in one instance, and a genius level chimpanzee in the other, but they are no less about humanity that Aesop's fables involving tortoises, hares and foxes.

Yes, the Houston Press critic did catch Harrelson's channeling of Brando and the whole Heart of Darkness thing, but seems to entirely missed the entire retelling of the Exodus story in which Harrelson was every bit the shaved-headed Pharaoh figure and Caesar led his "people" to the promised land, only to himself, die before entering it. If there are any doubts, one need only go back to the 2011 Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In one scene, a night watchman has a TV on in the background and the movie playing is, "The Ten Commandments." Obviously this was a hat tip to Heston's role in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes film, but of all of Heston's filmography the filmmakers could have chosen from, the choice of the Mosaic role appears rather deliberate given the closing scene of the most recent film. Again, the filmmakers used apes as symbols (akin to CS Lewis's use of a lion), but retelling the Exodus story is not one of a hatred for humanity, but in fact, one of promise.

Finally the reboot was intended to set the stage for the 1968 film where Heston reaches the POA to find the only humans are mute chattel, and the latest film explains how that came to be (via the mutated simian virus), and where Caesar was the stuff of ancient legend among the apes.

In my mind, the POA movies were not about "humans need to go." They were about good and evil in all hearts and which we choose to follow.

JMHO

[Jeff Chandler]

I’ve always called McCartney a tune-ster.

And a darned good one. But Oscar Hammerstein III he ain't.

[Jeff Chandler]

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[RightField]

We are an "Imagine"-free household ... when the song comes on the radio, everyone knows to change the station.

That said, as a homeschooling family many years ago, we also used the lyrics as a teaching tool. This article unpacks ideas we hadn't thought of. (The 'music' of Beyonce and others of her ilk hadn't come on the scene yet, or we would have had more instructional material to work with.)

[moehoward]

"Of course, Lennon also wrote (and had a #1 hit with) “Whatever Gets You Through the Night”, whose lyrics are almost diametrically opposite (though both are anti-Christian)."

Oddly enough the inspiration came from a Televangelist. Point is Lennon's songs were just words he cobbled together. He said as much in the film Imagine.

Wikipedia:"The inspiration for the lyrics came from late-night television. In December 2005, May Pang told Radio Times: "At night he loved to channel-surf, and would pick up phrases from all the shows. One time, he was watching Reverend Ike, a famous black evangelist, who was saying, "Let me tell you guys, it doesn't matter, it's whatever gets you through the night." John loved it and said, "I've got to write it down or I'll forget it." He always kept a pad and pen by the bed. That was the beginning of 'Whatever Gets You Thru the Night'."

[CommerceComet]

I don’t expect much from a drugged sex addict.

Pretty hard to find a big-time musician or songwriter who isn't.

[nothingnew]

"Imagine there's no bacon..."

Look it up on youtube.

FMCDH(BITS)

[exDemMom]

Indeed.

I love the songs “Sukiyaki” and “99 Luftballons” for much the same reason—because the phonemes and musical composition combine very well. I truly do not understand a word of “Sukiyaki” and I only get the “99 -—ballons” of the second—but then, I’m not listening for the words.

[IDFbunny]

Here’s a good send up from the Kekistanis’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyS_oIZMhSw

[KevinB]

I’m a huge fan of much of John Lennon’s music and have read just about everything that’s been written about him. Mostly what I’ve learned is that he was nothing if not a hypocrite. He preached peace and love, but beat women and treated Cynthia, Julian and many others like crap. When his friend Pete Shotton asked him how he could live in the Dakota yet write a song with the lyric “imagine no possessions” John replied, “Jesus, Pete, it’s just a fookin’ song!”

[KevinB]

Two chords played over and over, with two other chords thrown in from time to time.

He used five chords from the key of C, including a dominant 7th and a major 7th, plus an E, which isn't even in the key of C. He certainly wrote a bunch of songs that were simpler than that. That said, two chords played over and over, with two other chords thrown in from time to time, represents about 90% of modern music.

[KevinB]

Here's a link to the one and only performance of John Lennon and Chuck Berry together. John idolized Chuck and it was the first time they ever met, much less performed together. Note how Yoko totally ruins it. Chuck looks like he's just been goosed when the hag starts wailing.

John and Chuck

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

I did too. When counter-protesting Leftists, and they're close enough to hear me, I've had fun satirizing their most sacred hymn. It usually goes along these lines:

Imagine there's no lib'ruls
It's easy if you try
No Haters
No Race-baiters
No one to cheer when babies die
Imagine all the taxpayers!
Living their lives FREEEEE! EE-EE-EE-EE!

And so on

[Yaelle]

Yes, he can write the music of songs very well.

[plain talk]

You are mistaken. Paul is dead. Have you ever listened to a Wings album?

LOL!

[plain talk]

"From a musical standpoint" it's an utter POS. Two chords played over and over, with two other chords thrown in from time to time.

I sort of agree but would say it differently. It is a bland song. The music is harmless and safe with a melody that can hummed. So it is not a bad song but not a good one either. Nice and bland like socialism.