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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Fisking John Lennon's "Imagine" |
| 2006-09-28 |
| by Mark Shea, Catholic Exchange Rolling Stone recently informed us what the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" are. Of course, in a culture with the historical memory of a fruit fly, Rolling Stone meant "rock songs" and not, for instance, ancient ballads like "Greensleeves" or ancient hymns like "Adeste Fidelis" which predate immortal works like "Muskrat Love" by some time. Rock culture is preternaturally concerned with the Now and therefore sees the '60s as Pleistocene antiquity before which all the ages were formless and void. I like Rock as much as the next guy. But let's face it: Rock specializes in the Big, the Loud, the Grotesquely Dionysian, and the Strongly Felt, not the Small, Nuanced, Proportional, or Considered. Consequently, in the world of Rock, a ballad is often thought to be Deep, when it is really just Not Blaring. It's a sort of Pavlovian acoustic response that conflates mere noise reduction with contemplation. That is why, I'm convinced, a song as stupid as "Imagine" by John Lennon can still be regarded by millions as both profound and moving to the degree that it is the Number Three Greatest Song Ever according to Rolling Stone. You can see imbeciles swaying to this tune, eyes closed in beatific bliss, at everything from school assemblies to soccer matches to September 11 commemorations. How does it honor the dead to "Imagine there's no heaven"? How does it honor the firefighters who sacrificed their lives to mewl about "Nothing to...die for"? Indeed, it is sung by earnest churchgoers, even at Catholic Masses, who seem to perceive no particular contradiction between the liberating wonder of imagining there's no Heaven and the prayer which begins "Our Father who art in heaven." It seems to be because the words of the song are more or less treated as sonorous replacements for singing "La La" to its pleasant tune. Me, I pay attention to words. That is why I have always thought of it as a sort of anthem to Original Sin — fallen man's infinite capacity to believe he can create Heaven on earth if he's just permitted one more chance to get it right. Everything the song advocates and hopes for as a supreme good was the fountainhead of all the horrors of the 20th century. . . . Hit the link and read the rest of it. An aging hippie wrote Mr. Shea to register her disagreement with his article. He fisked her argument to within an inch of its wretched life on his blog: As Dostoyevsky says, "If there is not God than everything is permissible." John Lennon, when you boil it down, is wishing for a world in which Everything is Permissible. That is the essential folly of the song. . . . He was advocating, in an intellectually lazy way, a wish that all that stuff would just go away and not bother him anymore. So instead of bothering to find out what causes social injustice, he just wished for a world where nobody had any possessions (except him and his $25,000,000). Telling a starving man that you hope he has nothing is not a glowing and poetic sentiment. It's a sloppy cop out from the hard work of recognizing that it is sin, not possessions, that is the problem. Telling a victim of genocide that "above us, there is only sky" is another way of saying "the death of you and all you love means nothing in the grand scheme of things, all that matters is power. The regime that slaughtered your people wins!" "Imagine" is a poem by a dilettante who wants to fancy himself a philosopher, but doesn't want to be bothered with the hard work of thinking. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #26 lotp: you my kinda people! You familiar with Andy M. Stewart or Dougie MacLean as well? |
| Posted by: Mike 2006-09-28 23:20 |
| #25 Yoko singing = cat in a dryer |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-09-28 22:26 |
| #24 Yoko Ono - ahsd in "Oh NO She's going to sing!" |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-09-28 22:22 |
| #23 oops - that was last summer's concert, so he's still cranking |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-09-28 21:04 |
| #22 If you Zep fans haven't followed Plant and Page after the breakup, you're missing out. I took my kids, 21-16 yrs old, to Plant's concert on the bay, and they were hooked. His last couple CD's were great! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-09-28 20:58 |
| #21 Think: Trailer hitch. Chrome. Gone. Hoover. Oblivion. T'was a wonder and a boggle. Too much information, .com - or not enough, depending on one's I'll back up Frank G's taste in music. But I'll refrain from adding any more of my faves to the list -- not enough bandwidth. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-09-28 20:45 |
| #20 I guess that music didn't take for me, although it was around at the right time for my generation. My favorites are of a different flavor now, groups like Battlefield Band and Boys of the Lough. ;-) |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-09-28 20:40 |
| #19 Agree Frank, Zeppelin is my favorite band of all. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-09-28 20:33 |
| #18 I like em. I never tried to make their music my life's message. Also a Dead fan, Led Zep fan (bigtime), Cream fan, Los Lobos fan, Dave Alvin fan.... pretty much a musical |
| Posted by: Frank G 2006-09-28 19:37 |
| #17 Arrrghhh! I've been outted! Lol, exJAG. :-) |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 19:35 |
| #16 Check it out, I found this old pic of .com: |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-09-28 19:33 |
| #15 Spot-on, anon. Indeed - music's almost as powerful as smell, though not limbic, in triggering memories. The Pepper intro does that for me, too. I'm in this hippie chick's apartment, lolling about on throw pillows, my hands full of her waist-length hair, [insert Molly Bloom's soliloquy here*]... Good enough, heh. * "...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes." |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 19:22 |
| #14 yeah, that's true. I really liked Long and Winding Road and Sgt. Peppers. The intro to Sgt Peppers brings floods back good memories of childhood. |
| Posted by: anon 2006-09-28 19:02 |
| #13 Revolver and Sgt Pepper really changed the game. They were damned good, both musically and lyrically. I still find myself humming In My Life, Blackbird, I've Just Seen A Face, Fixin' A Hole, and recently When I'm Sixty-Four, lol. Even Why Don't We Do It In The Road pops into my head at stop lights... I hum it aloud, but she doesn't take the hint, damnit. :-) |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 18:54 |
| #12 hah - the Beatles were just the first Boy Band. Their greatest legacy is just that they were first and thus we believed they would last forever. Ah, but a talented Boy Band they were. Their music always brings me back to a beautiful day on the beach warm sun, warm sand, the smell of the sea, hamburgers and coconut oil. Paul was my favorite. None of their stuff was really profound - though we thought so at the time. |
| Posted by: anon 2006-09-28 18:47 |
| #11 Lol, exJAG. Since I take it you're femalian, then I confidently assert you can't accurately judge the issue, lol. Think: Trailer hitch. Chrome. Gone. Hoover. Oblivion. T'was a wonder and a boggle. Heh. |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 18:31 |
| #10 Wow, .com. Seven extra years just for BJs? I still find it hard to accept that we wimmin have that kind of power. (But it does give me an idea, heh heh.) Anyway. Yoko. BJs. Eeeeeeewwwww!! Seems to me that's one of those images you hang on to when you need to last a few more minutes, like Eleanor Roosevelt or Ernest Borgnine. |
| Posted by: exJAG 2006-09-28 18:24 |
| #9 Actually the song was recorded in the early 70's not the 60's IIRC (I think it was off of Double Fantasy). I think it was John's view of a utopian society as I recall he was a socialist (if not a pseudo-communist) at the very least. However, I don't know for sure what his thought was behind the recording as he's been dead close to 25 yrs. He also had a hard-on for the Catholic Church as evident from passages in the book "the love you make." Therefore I find it infinitely amusing that this tune is sung at any Mass as Lennon disliked organized religion and even went so far as to go to india to study budhism w/the rest of the band and the dalai lama maha rishi (sp?). He even found that a fraud when he caught the lama trying to ball one of the females in his retreat party. Thus inspiring the song "sexy sadie." I loved Lennon/McCartney as song writers (even though they morphed into weirdos in their own right - Paul's a veggan - go figure) and IMHO the Beatles were easily one of the top 3 rock bands of all time and the album "revolver" one of the top 5 rock albums of all time. I'll never understand the Yoko thing either. However, I think the overall good the Beatles did w/their music for young jerks like me far outweighs one song, though I am not embarrassed to admit that though I think the song is fancifully naive I do like the melody line to "Imagine". I'm surprised any writer really bothered analyzing this song, and I think Shea really over analyze's it. Plus, who gives a rat's ass what Rolling Stoned thinks - they've been lefty idiots longer then Danny Glover. I've been playing guitar for over 20 years now. Played in bands throughout high school/college etc. So when it comes to music and musicians I think I have some credibility. Another thing about Rolling Stoned - I remember when they did the "100 greatest guitarists of all time" and Eddie Van Halen didn't even crack the top 75. Fricken morons. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2006-09-28 17:45 |
| #8 It reminds me of a comment in a documentary about the 60s: a guy (I forget who) was scoffing at the "All You Need Is Love" mantra as easy to live by if you have a hand painted Bentley, as opposed to some acid-hazed barefoot teen living on the street in Haight-Ashbury who actually wants to believe it. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2006-09-28 17:36 |
| #7 I suspect the attraction was something you couldn't see - something you'd have to experience yourself to fully understand. Heh. Hell, I stayed married for an "extra" 7 YEARS because of a particular talent... |
| Posted by: .com 2006-09-28 16:27 |
| #6 I still blame him for inflicting Yoko on us for these oh so many years. That alone completely destroys him in my eyes. If he was so damn deep and smart, how'd he get hooked up with that friggin nightmare? And why did he foist it on us? Bastard! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-09-28 16:21 |
| #5 The dream is over, what can I say... The dream was over yesterday ... |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-09-28 16:11 |
| #4 Imagine = the Communist Manifesto set to a simplistic tune. The world described in it is a dystopia, not a utopia, and literally anyone who believes otherwise should be considered at least mentally ill, probably dangerous. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2006-09-28 14:52 |
| #3 what a smackdown the fisk was. hee, hee. Twit. Ah, the 60's. It was all peace love and rock and roll and we just imagined that Stalin's dead, Pol Pots dead and the piles and piles of skulls and bones stacked by the tyrants never existed in our little wonderbread world. |
| Posted by: anon 2006-09-28 14:16 |
| #2 Typical very liberal song. Trouble is, there are lot of Liberals who really believe there's nothing worth sacrificing for. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2006-09-28 14:00 |
| #1 Excellent! I will have to remember this next time I meet the lefty Catholics who revere this song and Lennon. Good shoorting Mr Shea, center mass and tight shot group as well! |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2006-09-28 13:11 |