tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post8329393575385998197..comments2024-03-26T14:20:38.103-04:00Comments on The Thought Criminal: John Lennon Is Dead His Song is StupidUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-78264141103533438352019-06-26T19:01:46.510-04:002019-06-26T19:01:46.510-04:00A dumb song becomes popular when it resonates with...A dumb song becomes popular when it resonates with some deep human yearning... in this case, I suppose the yearning for "us nice & reasonable folks" to somehow overthrow the rule of The Evil Them. Yearning too much, alas, can incline people to overlook the fine print. <br /><br />Even though "Everybody knows, the war is over/ Everybody knows, the good guys lost," our prolefeed media serve us up big heaps of entertainment in which the good guys win by hours of [necessary & justified, they insist] violence. Restoring, in the end, the same old illusion of "getting back to normal life" -- which seems to be the best we're culturally permitted to seriously imagine. forresthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13861950371962268402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-80421030738512091402013-01-04T05:49:51.660-05:002013-01-04T05:49:51.660-05:00I wonder just who was the "us" we were b...I wonder just who was the "us" we were being invited to join and if he was intending to turn The Dakota into some kind of free hostel for all of those other dreamers. <br /><br />Wasn't ever a Beatles fan, I was listening to Martha and the Vandellas instead. My British invasion was Dusty Springfield and Joe Cocker. Though I listened to a lot more jazz. A Genuine Tong Funeral and Escalator Over The Hill, Carla Bley's music, especially as performed by Gary Burton and other musicians in that bunch. "Imagine" is music waiting to be licensed to a financial services corporation. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4764506766343254616.post-54978998513652794382013-01-03T14:00:51.243-05:002013-01-03T14:00:51.243-05:00Never thought much of the song, either. Certainly...Never thought much of the song, either. Certainly not the best thing Lennon ever wrote ("And so this is Christmas/War is Over" is a bit of a seasonal favorite because I have a recording of it with local Austin artists performing; but it's pretty banal, too, all things considered).<br /><br />Lennon did better work with McCartney than either ever did solo. And Harrison's work has more depth and spirituality than anything Lennon ever thought about.<br /><br />I've always loved the idea that if everybody just thought like "us," everything would be hunky-dory. I mean, didn't we all get over that in grade school? If that's the best sentiment you've got, even "Kumbayah" is a more serious plea for harmony and world peace.<br /><br />And really, all things considered, "Kumbayah" gets a bad rap. But this returns us to one of my favorite topics, that religion is concerned with culture and community, not with being the one-size-fits-all answer to all of humankind's questions. "Imagine" is right in line with the 60's cliche that "Christ is the Answer!", to which, at least in the Peanuts cartoon, Snoopy (a/k/a, the "Christ figure" of the strip, according to Robert Short) carried the response: "What is the question?"<br /><br />Exactly.Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.com