A song that always feels profound to you no matter how often you've heard it?

It was a knee jerk in jumping to the intellectually weak "hater" label and relies on continued statements of nonsense.... as proven again right here in this post.... as you say yet again:
"me imagining there is no freakin Heaven or all countries being one takes deep thinking."
Imagining that does not take deep thinking. It's so completely, utterly simplistic.... nothing profound whatsoever about that. Heck, it's easy if you try!
Hell, you don't even have to try. It really takes no thought at all. What takes thought is whether or not that is feasible and whether or not it actually leads to the desired outcome. That takes profound thought.... all of that is absent here.

If you really have to strain that hard to imagine such a thing, it's no wonder you find this simplistic tripe to be profound.

 

You can imagine anything and say it's not profound. You can imagine you only have one leg instead of two or that I'm really a girl instead of a guy. That's not the point. The song suggests we try something totally out of the ordinary, something that is the polar opposite of everything we've come to know as our reality. Maybe you can give an example of a lyric that is indeed profound. Seriously, no sarcasm. What lyric do you claim to be deep? The OP also mentioned The Times They Are A Changin'. That's a song where Dylan is letting us know what he believes will happen so in that we are imagining it taking place. No different than Imagine. Of course, many of Dylan's lyrics were prophetic but at the time of it's release it still was profound before any of it occurred. Someone said What's Going On. All Marvin Gaye is doing there is stating the obvious of the political climate. Certainly that can't be profound if we already know it. If one says that Dylan and Gaye are dealing with issues of the day, so is Lennon. He's not saying to Imagine based on anything different than Dylan and Gaye are talking about. If things were fine in the world Lennon would never suggest us to imagine anything. That's why I believe you're a hater of Lennon or the over exposed song. You're not attacking other similar examples.

 

Marathon by Rush

 

Nowhere Man

 

But when you say totally out of the ordinary, there are two problems with that.... everything Lennon says in the song has been tried in multiple utopian societies throughout history, and there are immutable reasons why they have failed. He's just rehashing things that don't work. Second, the imagining is so very weak, simply chucking everything, the good with the bad. So this is not just addressing the issues of the day because it's not really addressing anything.... it's just running away from the issues of the day. Not profound. You see, my statement has nothing to do with whether or not something has been known or done before, it's whether or not it's even being done now. Lennon's song is actually doing less than what's been done before.

But hey, it touches the heartstrings.

I think there's very little in the world that is truly profound. There are lots of lyrics which speak to me, but I really hesitate to use the word "profound" with most of them. Neil Peart probably comes closest with something like Entre Nous or Natural Science or the Fear trilogy. Someone mentioned Aqualung, and while I might not choose that particular song, I do think the album as a whole makes a profound statement. Every once in a while, Ray Davies's wry English wit slips into profundity.

 

I Don't Remember Loving You...John Conlee

 

Badfinger - Name of the Game gets me every time.

 

And again, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On is no different in addressing the issues of the day. He says we need to find a way to bring some lovin' here today, while telling us that brothers are dying, mothers are crying, and that war is not the answer. Most then and today believe that song is profound just as they do Imagine.

 

He Ain't Heavy.

 

I haven't said one thing either way about What's Going On.
If most people think Imagine is profound, then most people are far too easily impressed. Nothing can change the fact that no real thought or intellectual depth is present there. No matter how beautiful a sentiment it may be, that doesn't make it profound. In fact, the very deliberate avoidance of anything beyond the most superficial thought makes it anti-profound. I'm not saying it doesn't have meaning. Simple things can be meaningful. That doesn't make them profound.

 

Gil Scott Heron- Home Is Where the Hatred Is.

 

ohio

 

One of your examples. I mean folks could just as easily poke fun at
that cliche cosmos rambling that people on weed do.

We are secrets to each other
Each one's life a novel
No-one else has read
Even joined in bonds of love
We're linked to one another
By such slender threads
We are planets to each other
Drifting in our orbits
To a brief eclipse
Each of us a world apart
Alone and yet together
Like two passing ships
Just between us
I think it's time for us to recognize
The differences we sometimes feared to show
Just between us
I think it's time for us to realize
The spaces in between
Leave room
For you and I to grow
We are strangers to each other
Full of sliding panels
An illusion show
Acting well-rehearsed routines
Or playing from the heart?
It's hard for one to know

Is that so different than someone trying to make us view things a different way as

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 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...

 

My religion is one of the best things in my life if not THE best thing, so imagining a world without it makes me shudder. I’m not sure I could face it. But I don’t object to being asked to imagine how the human condition could be better. That’s never a bad idea. I don’t know if it’s a fair criticism or not to judge a work of art in light of the author’s personal life, but some people are uncomfortable with this song knowing about some sentiments in it that are not in congruence. That matters to some people, not to others. Whether it’s completely successful or not as a work of art, I do agree that the subject matter it attempts to take on IS profound.

 

Yeah, I'm sure most hear the song and imagine a world without any religion except for their own. One live lyric was even changed recently to And All Religion True. lol. Totally missing John's point about all the blood shed in the name of religions, both in the east and west.

 

The difference is that much of what Peart is saying has never crossed most people's minds. Again, not only is Lennon not saying anything new, he's actually saying something LESS than what has already been said (or tried and failed). The other big difference is that Peart's lyric puts a lot more thought, more depth, into the presentation where Lennon's is utterly superficial. Peart also effectively employs a variety of metaphors to provide multiple ways of thinking of the subject matter.

So this is just way more than trying to get us to think in a new way... and Lennon doesn't even do that because again, much of that had not only been imagined, but also attempted and failed, so again not only is he not profound, he's actually moving backwards!

 

Not missing the point of all the harm done by religion at all. That is quite clear and there's no missing it.
The problem is that doing away with it entirely also does away with the positives, which for many, have been incalculable.

And I say this as someone who's not at all religious. But Aqualung deals with this far better than this mindlessly simplistic throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater approach.

 

Some people think the world would be worse than it is without religion, some think it would be better. Maybe the reactions and debate are an argument for the song being more profound than one might assume. Me, the lyrics to Entre Nous are much more to my taste than Imagine - but do people passionately defend or criticize Entre Nous to the degree they do Imagine? Just having the debate is worthwhile, I think. Deciding whether to be a theist or not has to be the most critical decision of anyone’s life, doesn’t it? It’s the kind of decision that affects every other decision you make in life. That’s profound, if you ask me.

 

Being nice for the sake of being nice and not because you're supposed to because your religion says so is a point of Imagine.

 

I don't think around 1971 the "Christian" west thought all that all that much about there being no religion or that the proud patriots of their countries imagined them not existing. And t most imagining no heaven is down right scary. Maybe you'd be more comfortable with Lennon's Across The Universe lyrics as profound?

 

For The Benefit OF Mr Kite. Lennon took a poster and wrote a song based on the poster

 

A point I wholeheartedly agree with. But see my last post. Throwing away the whole thing because you don't like some parts of it is part of the simplemindedness of this song that makes it hopelessly un-profound.

 

Speaking of Rush, I almost said the entire Grace Under Pressure album, but if I had to pick the most moving song on it lyrics-wise, I’d vote for Between The Wheels.

Far Cry from Snakes and Arrows pushes some of the same buttons in me.

Mission from Hold Your Fire is another that really moves me.

 

Into the Mystic- Van Morrison

Galveston- Glen Campbell

Morning Dew- Grateful Dead