While it has a beautiful Melody "Imagine" is on my list of most hated songs. Written by a pompous hypocrite who screamed of equality while living in The Dakota above those "average people". Mr. Peace and equality also not only cheated on his first wife but was known for beating her at will. He abused and neglected Julian, would go on violent, drunk benders for periods of a time and also stood in the face of other musicians spouting vile hatred. Such behavior is of course par for the course for some musicians and stars and to be honest it is not that behavior I am condemning but rather the blatant hypocrisy the man portrayed.
The song "Imagine" in my mind is such a polarizing attack at religion and in a way subverts the message he is trying to instill. Because the problem is not religion (and in full disclosure I am not religious in any way) but rather the followers of said religions that hold a viewpoint that cannot be changed. Kinda like John's....It is hard to write a song about acceptance while asking the listener to imagine a world without a method of life that the majority of the planet hold dear to their hearts. But I guess we aren't as smart as John and can't make decisions for ourselves.
Strangely enough Neil Young's politics are on par with Lennon's and 180 out from my own but this song is the song "Imagine" hoped it would be. It is a cry for tolerance without denouncing any particular race, religion or country while asking. Neil's genius is using that deity's, who causes so much strife in the world, viewpoint to question the beliefs that followers of said deity hold so true. He isn't saying that God is a bad thing, nor is the belief and dedication to him. I think Neil is saying that the man himself doesn't care. I think that he presents his questions of religion in simply that, a question and not a demand; and does so in terribly simple, beautiful verse.
Did he give me the gift of love
to say who I could choose?
Did he give me the gift of voice
so some could silence me?
Did he give me the gift of vision
not knowing what I might see?
Did he give me the gift of compassion
to help my fellow man?
It sings like a lullaby. It makes one think right there on the spot the beautiful attributes of man and what we do with them. It makes one think of how fortunate we are and how incomprehensibly intelligent a being would have to be to create us with said attributes. How we can chose who we love instead of being forced by blind genetics. How we can see beauty and more so horrible sights that will certainly change us because we have free will.
In the end my beliefs of what God is like is that of a parent, he puts some ideals into our heads and lets us run wild without restraint hoping that we will act steadfast to those principles. We can or we can't but he isn't going to make us do either. And this is the reason why I love this song and these idea and keep them close to my heart. True tolerance is tolerance. Period. I'd like to imagine a world where this was true. And that means that because I don't think homosexuality is a way I would want to live my life or my children live theirs I am not a bigot. It also means you shouldn't push that life style on me or my children because they are mine. Like God I will instill ideals in their minds and if they chose to live as a homosexual I will be happy for them. It means that because I don't think dogs should be in the house that I hate dogs, nor do I think you should keep them out of yours.
Three days ago I was walking down Worth Street here in Manhattan and a man wearing a Texas Rangers hat and jersey was walking in the other direction. In my mind it is fully acceptable to hit that person on the back of the head with a solid steel pipe and watch him fall to the ground. And the reason why is because he is doing it on purpose, he doesn't like the Rangers that much. What he wants to do is start controversy. That man is not unlike the Gays parading down Fifth Avenue shoving their beliefs in our faces or the Muslims trying to build a Mosque when 80% of the people don't want it there. That is not tolerance. That is not trying to live peacefully with one another and that is exactly what Lennon does in "Imagine"
Neil on the other hand leaves it for us all to decide and he does it more beautifully and with more class than any before. He does it coming from a somewhat radical background of political activism but a background devoid of hypocrisy and hatred. A background of true tolerance, from such a background it is no wonder he is such a beautiful man and artist.
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