'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.

[Hot Tabasco]

I loathed this POS song from the first time I heard it.

Me too, extreme communist to the bone! Yuck!

[poconopundit]

Good start.

A Lee Greenwood needs to write a MAGA version and we can appropriate the tune to our cause.

[Rastus]

I just don’t get the attitude. I listen to and try to understand the lyrics to every single song I hear. If someone sets the Communist Manifesto to music, as Lennon did with Imagine, I’m not just going to smile and say, “Yeah, but listen to how he merges the words with the melody!” If someone’s extolling the virtues of Satan in a musically pleasing way, should I kick back and enjoy that as well? I listen to plenty of liberal artists, but when they use their craft as a platform, I’m out.

[x]

Towards the end, Lennon was watching televangelists and writing to Oral Roberts.

He was different at the end of his life from what he was years before.

Who's to say what he would have been if he'd lived longer?

[rktman]

LOL! Like csny and "Ohio"?. We tried doing a concert one time at MGM in Vegas but by the 3rd song we were headed out. Past the AIM t shirt tables selling shirts for $35 and up while bitching about the white man and capitalism. 🐎💩💵👹

[Fiji Hill]

John must be related to Vladimir.

[AAABEST]

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.

Lmao. Good perspective.

I would add that socialism is nice and bland at first, until it becomes un-nice and unsafe and ruinous... then cue the lyrics for Lennon's "Cold Turkey."

[plain talk]

I would add that socialism is nice and bland at first, until it becomes un-nice and unsafe and ruinous... then cue the lyrics for Lennon's "Cold Turkey."

Yes. Perfect.

[daniel1212]

Is that image from you? I'd like to use it. Vivid warning of a sobering reality.

Imagine there's no heaven, revised version:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you lie
In hell below us
Wishing they could die
Imagine all the people damned by what I say

Imagine there's no countries
Following one not true
None else to live or die for
The devil's nothing new
Imagine all the people whose punishment does not cease

You may say I'm a demon
But I'm not the only one
We hope some day you'll join us
That the devil's will be done.

And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. (Revelation 13:12)

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:11)

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Revelation 20:7-9)

And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

[Elsie]

How many folks missed Heaven because of...

 Hare Krishna Mantra Lyrics

"Hare Krishna Mantra"

My sweet Lord
Oh, my Lord
My sweet Lord
Oh, my Lord

I really wanna see You
I really wanna be with You
I like to see You, Lord
Oh, it takes so long

My sweet Lord
Oh, my Lord
My sweet Lord

I really wanna know You
I'd like to go with You
I wanna show You Lord
That it won't take long, my Lord
(Hallelujah)

My sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)

I really wanna know You
I really wanna see You
I'd like to see You Lord
I wanna see You Lord
It takes so long, my Lord
(Hallelujah)

My sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)
Oh my sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)

I really wanna know You
(Hallelujah)
I'd like to go with You
(Hallelujah)

I'd like to show You, Lord
(Hallelujah)
And it won't take long, my Lord
(Hallelujah)

My, my, my Lord
(Hallelujah)
My sweet Lord
(Hallelujah)
Ooh hoo hmm
(Hallelujah)

Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna
Krishna, Krishna
Hare Hare

Hare Rama
Hare Rama
Aah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Hallelujah
(My sweet Lord)
Hallelujah
(My sweet Lord)

Hare Krishna
(My sweet Lord)
Hare Krishna
(My, my, my)

Krishna, Krishna
(Hey, my sweet Lord)
Hare Hare
(My sweet Lord)

Gurur Brahma
(Oh my Lord)
Gurur Vishnu
(Oh my sweet Lord)

Gurur Devo
(My sweet Lord)
Maheshwara
(My sweet Lord)

Gurur Sakshaat
(My sweet Lord)
Parabrahma
(Oh my sweet Lord)

Tasmayi Shree
(My, my sweet Lord)
Guruve Namah
(My sweet Lord)

Hare Rama
(My sweet Lord)

My sweet Lord

[dfwgator]

[dfwgator]

He also threw in “Hare Krishna” in “It Don’t Come Easy.”

[Elsie]

He DID?

“It Don’t Come Easy”

It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy.

It don’t come easy,
You know it don’t come easy.

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don’t come easy.
You don’t have to shout or leap about,
You can even play them easy.

Forget about the past and all your sorrows,
The future won’t last,
It will soon be over tomorrow.

I don’t ask for much, i only want your trust,
And you know it don’t come easy.
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time,
And you know it just ain’t easy.

Open up your heart, let’s come together,
Use a little love
And we will make it work out better.

(ah -)
(ah -)
(ooh-ooh)
(ah-ooh-ooh)

Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues,
And you know it don’t come easy.
You don’t have to shout or leap about,
You can even play them easy.

Peace, remember peace is how we make it,
Here within your reach
If you’re big enough to take it.

I don’t ask for much, i only want your trust,
And you know it don’t come easy.
And this love of mine keeps growing all the time,
And you know it don’t come easy.