Posted on 01/28/2023 11:27:55 AM PST by nickcarraway
“I still believe that love is all you need,” Paul McCartney continues to proclaim, “I don’t know a better message than that.” And yet John Lennon took that love-uber-alles ethos to such an extreme in the 1970s that even his old rose-tinted mate was retorting, “Too many people preaching practices.” So it’s no surprise that the sardonic duo in Steely Dan rolled their eyes when they heard the ‘Smart One’s’ prayer for peace with ‘Imagine’ and a string of pious talk show appearances in the early 1970s.
Steely Dan’s bold response to Lennon’s all-white evangelism signified that the prominent days of the ‘Fab Four’ were waning. They may well have reached such a lofty height that they were steadfast to transcend society forevermore like counterculture Christs, but the age of atheism was now dawning, so to speak. How could it not?
The problem that The Beatles faced was the same one that all religions must reckon with, at one point faith surely has to sort this shitshow out. Try as ‘Imagine’ might, Lennon’s attempt to set the world to rights didn’t do much. It was becoming clear that love would only get you so far, but you’re going to need a whole lot more. At least creeds have promised eternities to deal with that quandary, The Beatles did not—they had a break-up and questionable dualities.
In 1971, Lennon appeared on The Dick Cavett Show alongside Yoko Ono. In an army overshirt, he spoke of peace and love. Outside the Regis Hotel where it was filmed, things were falling apart in a rainy New York City. Between 1969 to 1974 the former bohemian utopia lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs. Subsequently, a million homes depended on welfare, rapes and burglaries tripled, drugs ran rampant, and murders hit a high of 1690 a year.
In a wider sense, the American war offensive in Vietnam intensified. Charles Manson’s sentencing relived the horrors in the headlines. The post-war income gains began to drift from the median in favour of the 95th percentile for the first time. Jim Morrison’s excesses caught up with him. And the children of the revolution were faced with reconciling the fact that loads of lovely songs had, in fact, failed to stop a string of assassinations and other atrocities.
It is, of course, easy cynicism to scoff at Lennon’s pledge for a pristine paradise of borderless dreams, but that’s an open goal that Steely Dan and millions of others were happy to score in. It was their considered opinion that even having your heart in the right place can be a folly if you’ve failed to read the room. While Lennon would argue that he was promoting hope and some much-needed spiritualism to act as a beacon in these dark times, Steely Dan opined that “only a fool would say that”.
Their 1972 track, ‘Only a Fool Would Say That’ was written in response to Lennon’s parade of peace. It looks at idealism through the practical eyes of folks on the street. “You do his nine to five,” they sing, “drag yourself home half alive, and there on the screen, a man with a dream.” And with that, you get a sense of how grating and vacuous they thought that Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ campaign had become.
However, importantly, it wasn’t just the man on the street who identified with this tone. It was the kids coming through wondering what their place in the world would be. You see, it’s a reality that we’re still getting nostalgic over and no doubt will do forevermore: the 1960s were a cultural zenith akin to the great renaissance period confined to about seven short years from Bob Dylan’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963 to Woodstock in 1969. These might seem arbitrary, but that’s the legacy of culture—these things require an arc. Given that the height of the first renaissance was about 465 years earlier, it was dawning that it might take some time before things reach the frenzied heights of the Summer of Love again.
By the time Steely Dan began pointing their fingers at misplaced idealism in the fallout from that prelapsarian slide of flowery dreams to the nitty-gritty side of realism, a new cultural outlook was seeding. The kids searching for their own identity out in this grim new dystopia and a sort of cynical academic approach seemed like the answer. Their parents had come of age in the days of ‘White Rabbit’ but now they were spending their old hashish money on white goods, accepting the fruits of capitalism and the home comforts of commerciality.
This was asserted by one of the flower power eras’ most beloved stars no less. “You watched that high of the hippie thing descend into drug depression,” she said. “Right after Woodstock, then we went through a decade of basic apathy where my generation sucked its thumb and then just decided to be greedy and pornographic.” Once more, it must be said that this is awful harsh and cynical, but that was the angle being drummed up and it was an easy tune to march to.
It was as though the 1960s had been hoisted by their own petard, faced with the turn-coat tag of converting to reality or the oblivion of endless idealism. Lennon chose the latter, but sadly he didn’t give up quite enough possessions or clean up his pitfalls enough to be canonised a saint, and this made him a target for the likes of Steely Dan and Frank Zappa who criticised his preaching. Their comical satire was more akin to the disdainful ways of Kurt Vonnegut than any conventional philosophers. The didactic ways of Lennon were often the punchline to their acerbic idealism-defying opinions.
“. . . cultural zenith akin to the great renaissance period confined to about seven short years from Bob Dylan’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963 to Woodstock in 1969. ‘
I enjoyed the hell out the ‘60’s, but “great renaissance period”? - give me a break - there’s a lot to be said for music that’s fun and readily-available weed, but that’s a far cry from an intellectual zenith, and typical of a counter-culture that took itself way too seriously.
I’ll take Oingo Boingo
Capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with the capitalism
There’s nothing wrong with free enterprise
Don’t try to make me feel guilty
I’m so tired of hearing you cry
There’s nothing wrong with making some profit
If you ask me, I’ll say it’s just fine
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to live nice
I’m so tired of hearing you whine
About the revolution or bringin’ down the rich
When was the last time you dug a ditch, baby?!
[Verse 2]
If it ain’t one thing, then it’s the other
Any cause that crosses your path
Your heart bleeds for anyone’s brother
I’ve got to tell you you’re a pain in the ass
You criticize with plenty of vigor
You rationalize everything that you do
With catchy phrases and heavy quotations
And everybody is crazy but you
[Chorus]
You’re just a middle class socialist brat
From a suburban family and you never really had to work
And you tell me that you’ve got to get back
To the struggling masses (whoever they are)
You talk, talk, talk about the suffering and pain
Your mouth is bigger than your entire brain
What the hell do you know about suffering and pain, you dumb f___?
Apples and oranges really. Steely Dan’s music was more jazz influenced, a different style altogether from the Beatles IMO.
Both were great in their own, unique way.
You a big De La Soul fan?
Took their name from a William Burroughs “character.”
Took their name from a William Burroughs “character.”
‘Imagine’ wasn’t a prayer for peace; it was a atheistic neo-Marxist anthem that, as usual, refused to acknowledge our fallen human nature. By this author’s reckoning then, that would put Steely Dan firmly in the Judeo-Christian camp. Only a propagandist would call ‘Imagine’ a prayer.
Thing about people who think Steely Dan sucked, they’re idiots copping a position to be “controversial”.
Just me, but I did not care for the music of either of them.
Well, get back Jack, do it again...
Yes, one has heard that story.
My favorite song from “Can’t Buy A Thrill”, is “Turn That Heartbeat Over Again”, only Steely Dan could do a song like that.
Go back Jack and do it again.
Sure it’s a bit of a troll, but I mean it.
I hate most of that late 60’s, 70’s Rock.
It also ties in so much with codification of the liberal left establishment that’s become totalitarianism today.
LOL
I was wanting him to get around to Zappa’s opinion of it all. That must be in the sequel.
Almost not a bad song.
There is certainly explosive talent and creativity in the collaborative power of these duos.
But Lennon and Waters' solo efforts are pretty...well...weak. In contrast, Macca and, to a lesser extent, Gilmour's solo content is strong.
Camille Paglia nailed it, when she said any creative or whimsical fire in John got snuffed by Yoko. Indeed, Lennon's best solo output came during his Lost Weekend.
John is in the Rock Hall and I'm not, so your mileage may very.
The Beatles were comprised of the greatest singer songwriter of all time, Paul McCartney, and his John-George-Ringo backup band.
Difference is Waters did the vast majority of the writing, Gilmour wrote very few PF songs. Even after Waters left, Gilmour’s wife actually wrote a lot of the post-Waters PF songs.
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