“Imagine” by John Lennon - Overrated or deservedly praised?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Haristar, Oct 18, 2018.

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  1. Diamond Star Halo

    Diamond Star Halo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Vancouver
    You’re right, your rant is not hyperbole, it’s beyond that - it’s fanaticism.

    It’s just a song. Get a grip.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2018
    blutiga likes this.
  2. drbryant

    drbryant Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    I agree entirely. It may be a great song, and clearly a lot of people like it, but it's just a song, and Lennon is just a guy who writes songs. The desire to hold pop stars to some higher standard is closely related to the way that some people look at pop stars as being prophets or ideological leaders. It's ridiculous. Most rock stars never graduated from college; people should enjoy their talent for what it is, but not look to pop stars for wisdom on how to live, or hold them to unrealistic standards. Anyone who does so is bound to be disappointed, even upset.

    It's like that scene from the Imagine sessions video where Lennon talks to the stalker who's been sleeping in his yard - Lennon tells him "I'm just a guy who writes songs".
     
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  3. Wright

    Wright Forum Resident

    I think you overestimate the amount of Lennon fans in the world.
     
  4. Byrdman77

    Byrdman77 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leigh On Sea, UK
    The song is not overrated but the album is.
     
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  5. angelees

    angelees Forum Resident

    Location:
    Usa
    It’s baffling to me how John the rocker boy’s best known song is a syrupy ballad that sounds somewhat affected and condescending. The song is OK, but I believe something like Julia, Across The Universe, Jealous Guy and even Instant Karma, much more than the put-on idealism of Imagine. I’m not saying John didn’t want these things, most people do, but it just strikes me as a song that was orchestrated more so than many of his best works. John’s strength as an artist is in his instinctual and emotional immediacy. Imagine just doesn’t cut it in my book.
     
  6. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    It has all the makings of an anthem of peace, tolerance, and coexistence and it has that quality that makes people want to sing along. I like it.
     
  7. Larry Mc

    Larry Mc Forum Dude

    "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
    I hope someday you will join us, and the world will live as one"
     
    john lennonist likes this.
  8. Veni Vidi Vici

    Veni Vidi Vici Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL
    So, who here has given away all their possessions and renounced their nationality?

    You see, that’s why it’s a dream. And not reality.
     
  9. MySweetFork

    MySweetFork Pete Best

    Location:
    Liverpool
    I don't think it's overrated. I think the meaning has changed in today's society and people think it's outdated.
     
    joy stinson likes this.
  10. BeatlesObsessive

    BeatlesObsessive The Earl of Sandwich Ness

    Actually his quote was more along the lines of "more people get what I, a writer of simple pop songs, am about than they seem to get from the example Jesus provided for how to live their lives.". In his apology he says I'm not saying we're better and I could have said tv or cornflakes... but more people are at peace with the concept of jumping up and down to She Loves You, laughing at Jed Clampett, or putting milk in a bowl of cereal than embracing the message of universal brotherhood even with a thick book explaining the latter. If 20,000 girls had started running through Shea Stadium beating the stuffing out of everyone else because Ringo started singing THEN Lennon would have been out of line.
     
    ralph7109 likes this.
  11. BeatlesObsessive

    BeatlesObsessive The Earl of Sandwich Ness

    Well it was worse for Peter Green who besides his mental issues has been irked by Mick Fleetwood saying he wanted to give all of Fleetwood Mac's money away at the time he left the band. In retrospect, Green claims that he was shocked to find that the Mac had had British record sales greater than the Beatles at points in 68 and 69 and that such success was unimaginable to him and surely such an amount of money was far more than they could have needed. It was a dream true... especially when one considers how much wealth the members of the Mac currently possess. I'm pretty sure the ex members of the band marvel at the site of Lindsey Buckingham driving from one multi-million dollar mansion to million dollar studios at each members house or at the houses of each producer or engineer to wrangle over cutting an album over the course of years while millions are paid to lawyers and managers. One has to wonder whose dream is less credible or sustainable.
     
  12. dkurtis

    dkurtis sonoftheFather

    Pro or Con, the song challenged an entire generation to think. That is success on many levels.
     
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  13. Hexwood

    Hexwood Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    It's as overrated as Bohemian Rhapsody, i.e. very.
     
  14. Mr. Pleasant

    Mr. Pleasant Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Didn't overlook that fact at all because it was a different time and a different type of revolution. It was a revolution for self-determination not a revolution to completely remake the political system of an existing country. A lot has happened in the centuries since. In the modern vernacular revolution has come to mean marxist/communist revolution. And the current and real threat is actual marxists/communists (Antifa, Revcom USA, CPUSA, Socialist Workers Party, Open Society Foundations, etc.) protesting and rioting in the streets and not a bunch of tea party grannies and grampies yelling at kids to get off of their lawn.

    Just today there were communists waving communist flags protesting and disrupting mail service outside of a Canada Post depot in Ottawa because of an ongoing labour dispute. Granted, there weren't many of them but they were there all the same. Make of that what you will but they were communists not tea party.

    Anyways, this conversation is impossible to continue without getting too political so I bow out. Your points have been well made and civil unlike some of the snarkier and condescending posters.

    A final point about the song - good music, regrettable message. IMHO.
     
  15. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    That may be your interpretation of what he said, which you're of course entitled to, but why are you are putting your interpretation in quote marks as if Lennon said it? He didn't.

    Apologies are all about damage control. Off the cuff remarks are all about what people really think with no filter. I'd say Imagine is all about that too, when it comes to Lennon. Of course a millionaire preaching "imagine no possessions" in his best-selling hit whilst riding around in his Rolls with the psychedellic paint job is what "opiate of the masses" is all about.
     
    tteal likes this.
  16. musicfan37

    musicfan37 Senior Member

    I feel the same way.
     
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  17. Larry Mc

    Larry Mc Forum Dude

    I got in trouble over this thread, so I will leave you with a note.

    I guess my usefulness and participation in this forum is no longer.
    I need a vacation, maybe like Mudbone or milesSmiles have done.
    I'm tired of my youthful lifestyle be ridiculed all the time. I'm an
    aging hippie, I wasn't charles manson, I didn't hug trees, I believed
    in love and trying to live with nature, but if you messed with me I
    would beat you down. I didn't want to, I don't like violence. If I
    challenge you for disrespecting me, they delete my post. Most of you
    will think this note is silly, but I feel better now that I wrote it, I
    needed to vent.
    Enjoy the music, everything else is just jibber jabber.
    LJMc
     
    blutiga likes this.
  18. Kill Uncle Meat

    Kill Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Overplayed? Yes. Overrated? NO way. I remember being a kid and those piano chords, John's godly reverbed voice and its lyrics sounded so hypnotic and big and important to my innocent ears. I'm older now and maybe not so sensitive to its effects after hearing it infinite times, but I really think it deserves all the praise it gets.
     
    jamesmaya, blutiga and Zoot Marimba like this.
  19. Mr-Beagle

    Mr-Beagle Ah, but the song carries on, so holy

    Location:
    Kent
    I can't understand why my post re- Lennon's hypocrisy and that of politicians was singled out and deleted for 'bickering.' There are plenty of instances of that elsewhere on this forum.
     
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  20. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    If it's any consolation, my posts supporting the sincerity of Lennon and the enduring granduer of this song also got deleted for bickering :)
     
    Mr-Beagle likes this.
  21. awsop

    awsop Forum Resident

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Mine was also deleted for bickering. It was just a short factual correction. Not that impressing, but I get picky when people take a walk with the facts.
     
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  22. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Good job he wasn't a Marxist then.
     
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  23. Vangro

    Vangro Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Dozens of my posts were deleted but I was bickering, so I can't complain :biglaugh:
     
    blutiga likes this.
  24. Smxx777

    Smxx777 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Moscow
    It's good. But being a hardcore Beatles/Lennon fan, I'm pretty upset that MOST of people think about solo John Lennon: "Oh, the Imagine guy!". Even in my favotire movie "Forrest Gump" I hate the Lennon episode, cause it's also about "Imagine". As if John Lennon was a one-hit wonder. While he wrote tons of great songs in his post-Beatles days...
     
  25. ralph7109

    ralph7109 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Franklin, TN
    And the dream is over.
     
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