What bugs me is that people play and sing his song
"Imagine" as a peace song. It is anything but a peace song. It is basically the communist manifesto set to music.
no heaven, no countries, no possessions, come on join us it is easy if you try....
What I find so annoying about Lennon's little manifesto "Imagine" is its hypocrisy. "Imagine no possessions", indeed. The man had a nine-figure fortune when he died. (Wasn't that one of Chapman's reasons for killing him? That he was a 'phony' and that he was Holden Caulfield in a people-shooting hat, stalking 'phonies'?)
That said...Lennon's solo work was crap. So was McCartney's. Together, they were the best. I love the Beatles. Especially their later work.
Because we will kill you if you don't.
I always felt that song was a only slightly veiled threat.
I won a cruise a few years back. The boat's staff commented on how they were kids from all over the world from all different racial religous and economic backgrounds, united together to serve us. That part was nice and sweet. The they launched into a rendition of "imagine." On the way out, with several of the boomers barely able to contain their tears, I said to a friend "hell, we only killed 60 million plus people last century trying to 'imagine' that pipe dream. don't you think we should just give it one more chance?" The rxn to that question was what you would expect. Some laughter and smiles, some venomous looks. I swear, us boomers will be whacking each other with walking canes on the threshold of our graves over the cultural split that happened in the 60s. The fissures in our society are deep, wide and unbreachable. Thanks, John.
They pulled the song, apologized on-air, and did not play it again for months. If I never hear that song again, it will be too soon.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am a little too young have caught the Beatles wave. I only knew them in their hippy moron phase, so I never saw what was the point.