Atheists and John Lennon Purists vs Cee-Lo Green

"Imagine there's no heaven," he sang, "it's easy if you try." But things got trickier around the one-minute mark. "Imagine there's no countries/ It isn't hard to do /Nothing to kill or die for," Green crooned, "and all religion is true."
"All religion is true." It's a clunky line – and one Green made up. Lennon's original lyrics don't praise pluralism or interchangeable religious truths – they damn them. Back in 1971, Lennon asked us to imagine a world without borders, possessions, hunger or greed – "and no religion too".
Atheists, agnostics and Lennon purists were quick to attack Green on Twitter. "You sang Imagine in a fur coat & expensive jewelry and changed [the lyrics] to be pro-religion," wrote one user, "#2011WrongnessSummedUp". Others were even more disappointed: "I am imagining the spin cycle inside John Lennon's grave right now," tweeted sports journalist John Giannone.
Green eventually tweeted an apology: "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys!" he wrote. "I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all." But the Gnarls Barkley singer seemed to change his mind, deleting the apology and all related posts. "Happy new year everyone!!!" he tweeted instead. "Now playing: we just disagree [by] dave mason."

ops:

"Imagine there's no heaven," he sang, "it's easy if you try." But things got trickier around the one-minute mark. "Imagine there's no countries/ It isn't hard to do /Nothing to kill or die for," Green crooned, "and all religion is true."

"All religion is true." It's a clunky line – and one Green made up. Lennon's original lyrics don't praise pluralism or interchangeable religious truths – they damn them. Back in 1971, Lennon asked us to imagine a world without borders, possessions, hunger or greed – "and no religion too".

Atheists, agnostics and Lennon purists were quick to attack Green on Twitter. "You sang Imagine in a fur coat & expensive jewelry and changed [the lyrics] to be pro-religion," wrote one user, "#2011WrongnessSummedUp". Others were even more disappointed: "I am imagining the spin cycle inside John Lennon's grave right now," tweeted sports journalist John Giannone.

Green eventually tweeted an apology: "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys!" he wrote. "I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all." But the Gnarls Barkley singer seemed to change his mind, deleting the apology and all related posts. "Happy new year everyone!!!" he tweeted instead. "Now playing: we just disagree [by] dave mason."

"Imagine" is a lousy song to begin with, no biggie

^^^^^^^^^^

it is hilarious to me that people care about this

"You sang Imagine in a fur coat"

Uhhhhhh, obv. this Lennon fan has never seen the film John + Yoko made to accompany the song

... aren't he and Yoko wondering round their mansion in fur coats?

"You sang Imagine in a fur coat" is not an Anal Cunt song.

"We just disagree (dave mason)" is.

if Ceelo singing a shitty John Lennon song in a fur coat was the worst thing about 2011 i'd say it's a pretty good year

I wouldn't have bothered, but the initial lyric change and Cee-Lo's 'apol' were so similar to Diane Abbot's....

To me it sounded like "and all religions too".

according to Rick Ross, John Lennon was buried in Louis Vuitton linen

And why would you sing "All religion is true" when you can sing "All religion's true"?

ceelo has ruined everything now

I am also lolling that Cee-Lo is apparently cool with there being no heaven but not cool with there being no religion

lol

Not all religions have a heaven.

but if all religions are true and some of them have a heaven concept attached to them...

I don't think he said that all religions are true. To me it sounded like "All religions too" - in other words, believe what you want if it makes yo happy.

The real question here is why he's listening to a Dave Mason album

somehow the funniest thing about this is "the Gnarls Barkley singer"

"We Just Disagree" is awesome

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And all religions, too

that makes even less sense than what was reported

Well, whether "All religion's true" or "All religions too", the difference in meaning is slight. I think if you take it in the context of the song, he's basically saying, Let's not kill each other over religion - believe in it if you want to, but tolerate other people's right to believe something different. It's a shift in emphasis from Lennon's lyric.

The Gnarls Barkley singer has opened a can of worms

Lennon's imagined utopia is a world without religion - Green's is a world where there is an inner truth to all religions, and when that inner truth is realized, they can peacefully coexist. At least that's how I read it.

i figured cee-lo was just being a coward - or at best overly cautious - and didn't want to be seen as bashing religion.

hence the Krusty style lyrical rewrite.

so why was he singing it then

why would the son of two ministers who got his artistic start singing in a church consider changing lyrics regarding religion, it's really a difficult thing to puzzle out

... because he didn't want to bash religion.

why sing it at all then

clearly, he enjoys singing.

haha

case closed

haha

i had honestly had forgotten about his ministerial past. it does explain why he'd personally want to change the line.

I believe he gets paid for it too (xp)

I didn't know about his personal background, but clearly there's a lot of gospel influence in his music, and I kind of figured he didn't want to alienate believers with a confrontational lyric, so he chose a more gentle route, although one that still leads away from dogmatism and intolerance.

if you don't want to alienate believers why not just pick another song

u guys, let's protest Jim Morrison failing to sing "show us the way to the next little boy"

I wasn't saying why did he change the lyric. I was asking why sing the song in the first place? Everyone knows the heaven/lines so it seems silly to sing it and change the lyrics.

or what iatee said

Because he liked the other 99% of the song and wanted to perform it? I don't know. It seems like an appropriate song for New Year's Eve.

I'm like,
"FUCK YOU!
And fuck religion too."

ha ahhaha

"why did he sing this massively popular song that almost everyone loves? it just doesn't make sense."

could it be he didn't even every single line when he agreed/decided to cover it?!

he doesn't even you

*even know

lol did we actually go over that or are you making a joke? because I 100% like kokomo better than all other beach boys jams

my thoughts on Imagine are mostly here

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS_SbacfM_dzyGgKDJmznEo2nAfPGHdIgRgZp0bp6PVoXHpEJ7KrmyyTUgi

aero's laughably pathetic dis of the Boys is here

It was nominated in the Grammy Award category: Best Song written specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1988, but lost to Phil Collins's "Two Hearts" (from the film Buster).[1]

justice

Huk's first post on that thread always makes me lol

seeing him sing this made me never want to hear him sing ever again.

ha ha! does he still post? i miss him.

xpost

the fact that this song is considered by a lot of people to be synonymous w/ Lennon and/or one of his crowning achievements is pretty fucking offensive imo

offensive to whom? is there any evidence that john lennon would be put off by the success of 'imagine'?

he's sporadically around as Dr. Superman; I mostly see him on I Love Comics

"why did he sing this massively popular song that almost everyone loves? it just doesn't make sense."

idk, this is probably the single most successful anti-religion pop song in history. there are thousands of good songs out there that everyone loves that don't alienate religious people, if that's your goal.

the fact that this song is considered by a lot of people to be synonymous w/ Lennon and/or one of his crowning achievements is pretty fucking offensive imo

offensive to whom? is there any evidence that john lennon would be put off by the success of 'imagine'?

― iatee, Friday, January 6, 2012 1:34 PM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

protip: when someone states an opinion without ascribing it to anyone in particular, it probably goes without saying that that person is stating THIER opinion and not necessarily anyone else's

maybe you should let yoko be offended for you, I'm sure she's really offended that people still like 'imagine' and totally forgot about the rest of the beatles discography

so yr offended that the vast majority of the listening public has a different opinion of this song than you do

xp

I mean it seems pretty indisputable that this is his best-known/signature song (and as I pointed out in that other thread, that it comes from his solo catalog is unique for a Beatle)

ppl have fuckin opinions here all the time, was saying "offended" instead of "smh" or whatever such a loaded term we have to have this pissing match over it

it's not exactly challops to say there are dozens of Lennon-penned Beatles tunes (and even some solo tunes) that shit all over "Imagine"

if it's not exactly challops how come 'this song is considered by a lot of people to be synonymous w/ Lennon'

anyway I have nothing invested in this I'm just bored

There's probably a reason this doesn't say "Glass Onion" or "Polythene Pam" on it:

http://redlove.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/john-lennon-imagine-memorial.jpg

Although "Polythene Pam" would've been pretty LOL.

anyway I have nothing invested in this I'm just bored

― iatee, Friday, January 6, 2012 2:02 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you do this a lot. it might make you less bored, but it's not helping anyone else fyi.

curing my boredom too.

sort of.

I LOVE Glass Onion

Everybody looking at it can be like "Oh yeah, I hadn't remembered to imagine anything today."

I never thought I'd find myself saying "lay off of iatee he's all right" on a thread but here we are

not really a "diss" of the BB on that thread Shakey Mo more me stating that most Beach Boys records sound like horrible shitty music to me but I understand that your boomer soul requires you to interpret failure to genuflect before 60s icons as a "diss"

hey he was the one board lawyering me for stating an opinion, and i laid off him the minute he admitted as much (xpost)

ya I think we're cool I was mostly the one being a dick, mostly

ok sd sorry for meta-lawyering

this whole thing was a setup to get you to come to my defense

me and sd planned it out for weeks

::high five::

lol I got owned I will go listen to the beach boys as penance

no don't

lol @ boomer soul I'm a tumblr white dude step off

sorry for meta-lawyering

thx for leaking the title of the new LMFAO

lawyer my fuckin' ass off

lovin' this xpost:

is there any evidence that john lennon would be put off by the success of 'imagine'?

― iatee, Friday, January 6, 2012 12:34 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

he's sporadically around as Dr. Superman; I mostly see him on I Love Comics

― Bam! Orgasm explosion in your facehole. (DJP), Friday, January 6, 2012 12:34 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahaha i love that that would be hilarious whether or not there was recently a poster w/ the display name 'john lennon'

I kind of think the Cee Lo line is a better lyric \o_o/

it's like if all religion is true, then really, NO religion is true - think about it

I kind of think the Cee Lo line is a better lyric \o_o/

otm but nb that "and no religion, too" is just a titanically awful piece of lyric-writing - if Cee-Lo had changed it to "nothing to kill or die for/I'd like to visit Peru" it'd still be an improvement on the original

I like it, the lennon one i mean, it has charm and he got away with it; it should only be covered in primary schools, however

"nothing to kill or die for/do you remember the Shmoo?"

http://deniskitchen.com/docs/bios/bios.shmoo.bw.jpg

nothing to kill or die for/fuck NASA

Wait, NASA?

"nothing to kill or die for/screw Flanders"

http://youtu.be/Opmq0RaRxz8

Thank you.