Neil Young sings IMAGINE at Hollywood show for victims

Fox News | 9-21-01 | None

[OKSooner]

This morning on Fox News, they ended a segment with a clip of Neil Young, in his old cowboy hat, singing IMAGINE. This was at last nite's show in Hollywood to presumably benefit the families of the victims of the act of war in New York.

[William_Rusher]

I stand on the stairway
My back to the dungeon
The doorway to freedom
So close to my hand
Voices behind me
So bitterly damn me

For seekimg salvation
They don't understand

Lord help me to shoulder
The burden of freedom

And give me the courage
To be what I can
And when I am wounded
By those who condem me
Lord help me forgive them
They don't undseratand

Lord help me to shoulder, the burden of freedom
And give me the courage
To be what I can
And when I am wounded
By those who condem me
Lord help me forgive them
They don't underastand

Their lonely frustrations
Decending to laughter

Erases the footprints
I leave in the sand
But I'm free to travel
Where no one can follow
I seach of the kingdom
The don't underatnd.

Lord help me to shoulder
The burden of freedom
And give me the courage
To do what I can

And when I am wounded
By those who condem me
Lord help me forgive them
They don't underatand

K. Kristoferson

[Erasmus]

I guess we could pick apart just about any song lyrics and interpret them the way we see fit.

< asbestos >
Sort of like the Koran.
Or the Bible.
< /asbestos >

[MarkL]

Faith Hill has a fabulous voice. Celine Dion really belted out her song. Wyclef Jean and his group were decked out in the most patriotic fashion of any of the groups there.

I agree... I didn't recognoze Wyclef Jean... Where was Faith Hill? I must have missed her (rats!!!) You're right about Celine Dion... Awesome voice. My favorites were The Dixie Chicks and Billy Joel.

Mark

[MarkL]

I'm a more heavy rock kind of guy, and prefer classics from Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, etc, etc. But I get the strange feeling if some here had the power to censor these lyrics some would in a heartbeat because of the interpretation of the song is about communism. That is the sad part of it all.

Did you hear those guys butcher the Pink Floyd classic, "Wish You Were Here?" I don't know who they were, although I think the singer was Fred Durst from "Limp Bizkit."

Mark

[Brian Allen]

Can these people not do anything without injecting racism in it?

No.

"These people" ["Racists," sexual deviants -- or whoever] see everything through the distorting lens of their own self loathing and impugn us with their own malaise.

Endemic Morbidly Psychopathological Projection -- its institutionalization -- and the consequences of that institutionalization; when combined by the tyranny that is "political correctness;" may very well pose the most serious threat with which Our Fraternal Republic and Western [Human, that is!] Civilization are presently confronted!

[humblegunner]

Eagles Up!!

[OKSooner]

Yo Rock. Re your post #185. You'll notice that I started this thread, but wasn't involved in any of the commentary that followed. I noticed that you made several posts, with the general theme that John Lennon was a cool, peace-loving guy, and that if everyone would only be reasonable and see everything the way John Lennon did the "whole world would live as one." What bliss.

Then, when you left, for those who had "criticized" you, Your closing words were "SCREW YOU". Then two sentences later you say "Peace."

I only saw one post that attacked you personally. If you can't take some criticism, stay over at DU.

Isn't it a little bit, uh, HYPOCRITICAL of you to say "SCREW YOU" and "PEACE" in the same breath?

I fear that you've shown your true colors.

I suggest that you go have a long talk with yourself. You're a hypocrite just like the capitalist millionaires John Lennon and Neil Young.

[zoyd]

Judging from the majority of posts on this thread, you'd think the artists were raising money for Bin Laden... and not disaster relief for fellow Americans.

Ease up and take the bit out of your mouth for a second to breathe.

[Shooter 2.5]

I saw some of the posts before I started to watch the show. I can't understand why they are contributing to the United Way except that they have a very low overhead that allows more money to the effort. They are anti-gun but what do you expect.

I'm guessing that for the program they went to the top stars no matter what their political agendas. some of the stars couldn't read a teleprompter like someone pointed out but they were getting choked up so that's excusable. I was shocked to see Clint Eastwood in a raggety ill fitting jacket like he rolled out of bed. Maybe he did and that's the only way he was able to appear.

I did miss the National Anthem. It is the only song that is the most appropriate for what happened. Our banner yet waves.

[FormerLurker]

I never cared for John Lennon, but that sure as hell doesn't put me (and others) in a category with bin Laden and his ilk.

You didn't get the gist of what I wrote. I had said that the song is about peace and fellowship amongst men. I had said bin Laden probably didn't like the song either. Now if you want to expand that into putting yourself into the same category as him, that is your own interpretation. Funny how a song that was meant to bring people together has created so much discordia.

From reading about the "gala" which I'm glad I didn't watch, it would appear that Karl Marx would have appreciated the evening immensely.

They were raising money for the victim's families. Is that such an awful thing to do?

Was my favorite junior senator there?

I don't think so, but then again I only saw about a half hour of it. I don't recall seeing ANY politicians there though.

[Huck]

That was the closing them for the movie, "The Jack Bull", wasn't it?

Yes. "Ring Them Bells", from Dylan's album entitled "Oh Mercy". Gordon Lightfoot did a nice version of it on his album "Waiting for You", which is a fine album in its own right.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

"Imagine" is particularly inappropriate now, because we've all been living in fantasy land for years and we need to face some serious facts to fight these terrorists. The terrorists spit on our philosophies, intellectuals, our words and ideas and values mean nothing to them. They will kill us, quickly and without concern for any "human rights." Parents are sending their children off to fight one of the cruelest foes we've ever had to face, firefighters are mourning deeply and want a safe free country. And our brave military men and women will face this wretched and cruel bunch in a hostile land even for you. Imagine-FAH! We need to grow up.

[VOA]

I was shocked to see Clint Eastwood in a raggety ill fitting jacket like
he rolled out of bed. Maybe he did and that's the only way he was able to appear.

LOL! I remember him saying in an interview that he bought most of his clothes from
J.C. Pennys.

Clint may not be a paragon of virtue, but I love about 90% of his films...and he was
a stand-up guy to challenge some of these burdensome regulations about accomadations
for the disabled (when his hotel on the California coast got sued).
Like some others (Kurt Russell, James Woods, Tom Petty), he didn't belong with
the likes of Julia Roberts.

[Twodees]

Gordon definitely has the better voice of the two. I'll get that CD if it's still available. I haven't bought a Gordon Lightfoot cover in a coon's age, but he's great.

[Romulus]

(Some of my best friends are witty atheists.)

Sure, but would you want your sister to marry one?

[TLBSHOW]

THE UNITED NATIONS WITH THE HELP OF YOKO HAS HIJACKED IT AS THEIR SONG. ONE WORLD OF UNITED NATIONS...........At the time Lennon wrote it he didn't believe in anything except himself and Yoko. God or Beatles or hell or heaven. That was '69/70/71.

[babyfreep]

Like some others (Kurt Russell, James Woods, Tom Petty), he didn't belong with the likes of Julia Roberts.

I don't know alot about Russell or Woods, but Petty definitely belongs in there with JR.

I really hate the fact that it is so difficult to view some artists and entertainers like I used to. :-(

...growing up...[sigh]

[Zionist Conspirator]

Imagine isn't just stupid, loopy, or sentimental. It's downright sinister. I never hear it but what my skin crawls. Why? Well . . .

It's not just the line "Imagine there's no Heaven." It's the idea that without G-d, without Heaven, "peace" is still an ideal. Or that any ideal is legitimate. It is only because of G-d that right and wrong, justice and injustice can even exist. If there is no G-d to define peace and to declare it good, to define war as evil, then all such ideals are just personal hangups with no objective worth. None whatsoever. Why would a war that killed millions of people be any different from a war between anthills that killed millions of ants? And despite the fact that the left constantly cackles that "humans are just animals," they obviously don't really believe it. If they did they would realize that one has no more meaning than the other. But just as they demand a worldwide totalitarian government run by humans, so they demand an idealism of humans that no animal is burdened with. And no amount of shouting "humans are just animals" can cover the huge gap between what they say and what they act on. In other words, "imagine there's no heaven" as a prelude to any kind of ideal is an oxymoron. It's nonsense.

The other contradiction in the song is that while dreaming of a world with "nothing to live or die for," it is the song of a man who is living for something and wants other people to live for it too. It's an anti-idealist idealism that is such an absolute contradiction that anyone who can think logically at all would probably crash like one of those computers Captain Kirk used to talk into nervous breakdowns.

And finally, "you may say I am a dreamer / But I'm not the only one / We hope some day that you join us" screams the question: WHO IS WE????? The Illuminati? David Rockefeller? Le Roi du Monde? The Lucis Trust??? I mean, come on, people! And these people, whoever they are, have derived some sort of absolute meaning from what they proclaim to be the absolute meaningless of the world. I mean, think about it. If there is no Heaven, and if you really want nothing to live or die for, why not do like the "other animals" and just go out and graze our lives away instead of embarking on meaningless "moral crusades"????? And this is really the closest thing to Communism in the song, for the most maddening thing about Communism is not this or that plank in its platform but the very idea that in a random, meaningless world made only of matter, there can be any kind of moral mission whatsoever. This is the ultimate contradiction of Marxist, Nazi, and all Hegelian world interpretations. Life is assigned a meaninging in the absence of G-d. And why there is a need for "peace," "socialism," "justice," or "scientific racial idealism" in a meaningless, self-existent universe is something they never get around to explaining. Because they can't.