Posted on 07/22/2017 6:06:48 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I call BS. To wit:
"Just what is so wrong about Yoko Ono?"
As Yoko Ono prepares to take the stage at Fuji Rock Festival on July 26, a BBC video of her performing the 1969 Plastic Ono Band track “Don’t Worry Kyoko” at this year’s Glastonbury festival has racked up nearly 2 million views, largely from people tuning in to see the “worst live performance of all time.”
Comments on the Japanese Twittersphere largely followed the pattern set overseas, garnished with an added frisson of national shame. Some placed her raw performance alongside the mewling antics of disgraced politician Ryutaro Nonomura in the pantheon of “Those Who Have Shamed Japan.”
If Lennon thought “no possessions” were such a good thing, why didn’t he give away his own possessions? I read that he and Yoko actually had two apartments at the Dakota, one to live in and one to hold all their stuff. In an interview once, Paul McCartney said that when he and John sat down to write songs, John would say, “Let’s write a swimming pool,” or whatever he wanted to buy at that time. Nothing wrong with that, but then he shouldn’t have turned around and lectured others that they shouldn’t want possessions.
I don’t expect much from a drugged sex addict.
LOL! But isn’t that “their” MO? Eschew possessions while hoarding the crap out of stuff for them? “You sacrifice. We’re too busy saving the world. For us. Not you.” ;-)
I don’t care for the meaning of the song words, but from a musical standpoint its a good tune. If I cared about or following the meaning of most songs, I would have a very short list of music to listen to. While I do enjoy Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and others from the Classical and Baroque periods, I will generally listen to most music. However there is some noise that I won’t listen to.
I always considered it to be the national anthem of communism and atheism.
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
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). I suspect that he didn’t really mean the lyrics to Imagine (though Yoko might have liked them) but just wanted to make a pop ditty and it got away from him and became an anthem.
Yoko got her start in a ‘roughie’ feature sex film in the 60s called Satan’s Bed
- Elvis Costello
I absolutely love that song. Every time I listen to it, I can’t help but be amazed by the contrast between the way the catchy tune and upbeat word-sounds harmonize with each other to form a sublime composition, and the utter desolation contained within the actual lyrics.
I do not listen to most music for its lyrics. Often, if I look at the lyrics for a song, I am surprised by what they say—and this is true even if I sing along with the song every time I hear it. Much of the time, I can’t even understand the lyrics. (Why does Fleetwood Mac sing about a one-wing dove, anyway?)
There are several songs that I love, but which have appalling lyrics. Such is the way of music.
That's just another manifestation of the ages old meme of 'I've climbed the ladder of success, now I want to pull that ladder up so no one can follow me'. See all the time in entertainers and politicians.
Hmmm. One wing dove flies in circles. Or not at all. ;-)
Most of McCartney’s post-Beatle songs are delightful but the lyrics sound as if they were written over breakfast.
Out of curiosity, I looked up “Don’t Worry, Kyoko.” I couldn’t find a live performance, but I found the soundtrack with a static picture of Yoko on youtube.
It is bad.
I am reminded of a recital that I saw a few years ago, where Yoko was performing in a museum or something. Most people who came to see her left after a few seconds, although a handful stuck around for several minutes. The performance was horrific, periods of silence interspersed with her tremolo screech.
Ugh, if it weren’t for her association with John Lennon, she’d be hidden by the same obscurity that hides most people who have no musical talent.
Bingo !
Imagine no Imagine
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