"Imagine No Possessions...."
Posted on 05/23/2006 11:11:37 AM PDT by pissant
The world is full of bad songs and horrific singer-songwriters. Just tune in to any radio station, be it country, top 40, "classic rock", or alternative and you are bound to have your ears offended in short order.
But there is NOTHING more irritating than hearing some lunatic, left-winger try to elevate the pop song into some kind of overt, intellectual commentary on the evils of America or the glory of being a hippie. Sure, some artists managed to cut a decent song. I still like the Mommas and the Poppas "California Dreaming", for example. But the whole genre wreaks to high heaven.
The List:
7. We are the World -- Various Artists. An utterly hideous attempt to feed starving Biafrins. If these idiots would have just given the money it took to assemble, to produce, and advertise this turd and donated it to the charity, it would have saved us alot of misery.
6. White Bird -- It's a Beautiful Day. Sappiness, your name is White Bird. Don't even know what the song is about exactly. I turn the station too fast.
5. Sky Pilot -- Eric Burden and the Animals. While I generally liked this band, this song is unlistenable, and unintelligible.
4. What's Goin On -- Marvin Gaye. In my estimation, this was the beginning of the downfall for a talented Motown star. It was apparent that he had no clue of "what's goin on".
3. Big Yellow Taxi -- Joni Mitchell. I liked Joni's early, breezy brand of folk pop. Her album Blue is still likable. The problem is not the tune here, it's the insipid lyrics. Uhg.
2. Eve of Destruction -- Barry McGuire. Complete idiocy. Apparently influenced Algore and John Kerry. Apparently that was a long "eve" he was carterwauling about.
1. Imagine -- John Lennon. This was proof to me that Paul McCartney was the real talent in the Beatles.
I love Dylan too. It was a pretty decent effort for twenty one year old kid. But he disowned the protest movement and deprived it of all the talent it had. LOL
The SNL spoof on that was great with Murphy and Piscapo
PINGer
"Society's Child", "Where Have All the Flowers Gone"
"Imagine No Possessions...."
But "We're the cops of the world, friends, we're the cops of the world..."
Then there's this one from REM:
These bastards stole their power from the victims of the Us v. Them years.
Wrecking all things virtuous and true.
The undermining social democratic downhill slide into abysmal
Lost lamb off the precipice into the trickle down runoff pool.
They hypnotized the summer, nineteen seventy-nine.
Marched into the capital brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
heartless, and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever,
mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The information nation took their clues from all the sound - bite gluttons.
Nineteen eighty, eighty-four, eighty-eight, ninety-two too, too.
How to be what you can be, jump jam junking your energies.
How to walk in dignity with throw-up on your shoes.
They amplified the autumn, nineteen seventy-nine.
Calculate the capital, up the republic my skinny ass.
T.V. tells a million lies. The papers terrified to report
anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon,
I'm just profoundly frustrated by all this. So, f--- you, man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
If they weren't there we would have created them. Maybe, it's true,
but I'm resentful all the same. Someone's got to take the blame.
I know that this is vitriol. No solution, spleen-venting,
But I feel better having screamed; don't you?
They desecrated winter, nineteen seventy-nine.
Capital collateral. Brooding duplicitous, wicked and able, media-ready,
heartless and labeled. Super U.S. citizen, super achiever,
mega ultra power dosing. Relax.
Defense, defense, defense, defense. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ignoreland.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Agreed! I don't get the appeal of the guy. But those that watch him think he's really hilarious. Why???
From the National Lampoon's "Letters FROM The Editors"
section, early 80s:
Dear Sirs:
Imagine no possessions. What a terrible, terrible thought.
Yoko Ono
New York City
Letterman: Maximum edginess, minimum talent.
And who can forget George Carlin's great folk protest song...
Don't want no war
Don't want no war
Don't want no war
----
Don't want no job either
by Danny and the Demonstrators??
>>"Not Ready to Make Nice"
A protest song...
They're protesting the fact that people aren't buying their singles and albums anymore (at least not in the country
realm) because of that on-stage comment in London
How could you not include this insipid POS written by the King of the Commie Folksingers, Pete Seeger?
WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone for husbands everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time passing?
Where have all the husbands gone, long time ago?
Where have all the husbands gone?
Gone for soldiers everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Words and Music by Pete Seeger (1955)
(c) 1961 (renewed) by Sanga Music Inc.
Neil Innes, during a Monty Python tour in the 70s: "This next song is a protest song....Oh, ladies and gentlemen, I've suffered for my music. Now it's your turn....
(Blows horrid harmonica and sings in Dylanesque voice)
"All the prophets of doom
can always find room
In a world full of worry and fear
Tip cigarettes and chemistry sets
And rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
So I'm goin back to my little old shack
And drink me a bottle of wine
That was mis en bouteille before my birthday
And have me a f---in' good time
...Rain on a tin roof sounds like a drum
We're marching for freedom today
Yeay
Turn on your headlights and sound your horn
If people get in the way"
"You are blind as a bat and I have sight..."
Ewww! I remember that song. Ugh. First time it has crossed my mind since the 1970. I thought it was lame then, and my friends told me I wasn't "cool." Didn't think much of cool then, and don't today.
That only applies to OTHER people, don't ya know.
I regret to admit that I missed that little ditty;)
That reminded me of the verses often left out of Guthrie's This Land is Your Land
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
Several of those songs I've never even heard. We Are The World and Imagine are the only two that I know.
The REM tune? Yeah, it was on Automatic for the People. And from the Green album (and they weren't singing about a soft drink):
Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now its time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me
From Wikipedia:
"The song's lyrics refer to the Vietnam War, in which lead singer Michael Stipe's father served as a helicopter pilot.
The chorus of the song...
seems to refer to young people being drafted, with threats of arrest or accusations of cowardice if they refused to serve.
"It is thought that the song depicts a helicopter attack using lethal insecticide or other. The reference "another one on the waves tonight coming in, you're home" also sugggests rescue of wounded and collection of dead"
"Though Michael Stipe's lyrics are always oblique, it is thought that the title of this song refers to Agent Orange, the defoliant/herbicide used by US forces during the Vietnam War. Alternatively, "Orange Crush" may refer to Napalm, a widely used flame weapon that burns orange/red."
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