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.
Yes, one always liked Zappa.
That all being said, it would have been interesting to see how John would have changed over the years, since apparently he liked Reagan, ever since Reagan took the time to explain to John the rules of American football when they both appeared on a Monday Night Football game, around 1975.
There is a reason that billionaires don’t set up funds to buy health insurance for people who don’t have it. In reality, they don’t care.
Tubular Bells is awesome, it’s way more than just the part they play in The Exorcist.
I think John would have succumbed to RightThink. It’s the only way to stay relevant.
Not the same song for 5 hours
This is completely lost on me. I have never looked at pothead musicians and their lyrics for any kind of guidance whatsoever. I mean, do people actually do that?
Well Yoko would have made sure.
Which is why I have a theory that Yoko might have had something to do with John’s murder.
“I’m just a singer in a rock and roll band.”
"Imagine" was an idealistic utopian fantasy. One reason to oppose and reject the idea of "utopian ideals" is that they often involve unrealistic and impractical expectations for human nature and society. Utopian plans and ideologies have been used in the past to justify oppressive and authoritarian systems, such as those implemented by Stalin and Mao, which led to widespread suffering and human rights abuses. Additionally, the pursuit of utopia often involves the forced imposition of a particular vision of society on individuals, which can lead to the suppression of individual freedom and diversity.
Another reason to reject utopian ideals is that they can be used to justify the neglect of present problems and injustices in the pursuit of an unattainable future. This can lead to a lack of action and progress in addressing real-world issues.
A common fallacy associated with utopian ideals is the "perfect solution" fallacy, which is the belief that a single, perfect solution exists for a given problem, and that all other alternatives are inferior. This fallacy ignores the complexity and multifaceted nature of social and political issues, and can lead to rigid and unrealistic thinking.
In short, utopian ideals can be problematic because they are often unrealistic, impractical and may be used to justify oppressive and authoritarian systems. They also can lead to neglecting present problems and may be based on the "perfect solution" fallacy.
I’m going to hire Kurt Vonnegut to write a paper about Kurt Vonnegut
“Hey Kurt, can you read lips?”
I’ll tell you this: I don’t know who wrote that paper but whoever did write it doesn’t know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut!
Thanks for posting this very strangely written piece.
I am left hoisted by the petard of Charles Manson’s questionable relived dualities, steadfast to transcend society forevermore but always eager to goal in.
Thing about the Beatles is, they were the original Backstreet Boys with their matching suits and almost too long hair selling vacuous pop songs to teenage girls for a buck and a quarter a piece. Not bad stuff but nothing serious. A few years, several acid trips, pounds of pot and an Indian guru or two later they become the pied pipers leading a generation of drug addled, hippies into leftist retardation. They released some interesting stuff in their acid head period but a lot of garbage, too. As individual artists, they are each pretty average.
The 60s were no Renaissance, our society today is completely shot through with the ills birthed in that unfortunate decade.
No. Read the lyrics.
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today, I
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
Well said. Before all that crap we didn't need to MAGA...we were great.
Steely Dan was better than the Beatles in every respect.
L
“Love Is All You Need”
Says the multimillionaire with 6 different homes and a private jet. Yeah, OK buddy.
Music artists are best when they “Shut Up and Play”, and sometimes not even then. Lennon’s cheese had obviously slipped off his cracker by ‘67, a pompous twit who couldn’t even write catchy tunes any longer, for the most part. Stay away from drugs, kids.
This.
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