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Thursday, December 2, 2010

John Lennon - Imagine

John Lennon's "Imagine"; it's hard to imagine today, in our times, how brave he was to release this song in the time that he did. I'm not a fan or a viewer of American Idol, but I did hear about our boy wonder from Utah "covering" this song on that show and leaving off the first verse- how shallow and cowardly. He should have left John's message intact, whether he agrees with it or not, or not sung the song. I didn't really appreciate John Lennon, his solo material, his politics, or what he tried to do until I saw the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon. I found the film itself to be a bit lacking in its execution, pacing, and conclusion, but I'm still glad that I watched it because it showed me that despite being a rich musician, John Lennon also seemed to be a genuinely good human being who was trying to do what he could to make the world a better place.











Imagine
by John Lennon

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

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

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

4 comments:

  1. http://youtu.be/FrueVp_kuZ8

    this one is good too, actually one of my favorites

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  2. Thanks for the blog, Russell. "Imagine" is a favorite song of mine, indeed. I recently uploaded an original song of mine to YouTube titled "Freedom from Religion," which was dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. It's at http://youtu.be/mZYWUDCXN0E if you'd like to check it out.

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  3. James are amazing. I was watching them in Bournemouth, UK last year for the umpteenth time. They played Ring the Bells. Before this song, Tim Booth, the lead singer, stated that they were playing a Greenpeace gig and after the song a group of 5 kids came up to him, telling him they were all in a Christian cult and found that this song helped them escape. Nice.

    The pertinent lyric is:
    “Got to keep awake to what is happening.
    I can't see a thing through my ambitions,
    I no longer feel like God is watching over me
    Got to tell the world we've all been dreaming
    This is not the end, a new beginning
    I no longer feel my God is watching over me.”

    Ring the Bells - awesome song.

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