Monday, January 02, 2012

Cee Lo Green 'Imagine' Lyrics

Apparently some people are upset with the lyric change Mr. Green made to 'Imagine' at a New Year's Eve broadcast. I have no idea who Cee Lo Green is (I think he has something to do with a reality show) but I think it's must ado about nothing.

If  you haven't heard the details, he changed the 'and no religion, too' line to 'and all religions true'.

First off, I truly believe that if John Lennon was alive, he could've cared less. Lennon flubbed and changed his lyrics all of the time when performing, so he obviously didn't hold them are sacred. He even changed the 'Imagine' lyrics from 'a brotherhood of man' to the mouth-full 'a brotherhood and sisterhood of man'.

Looking at the intention of the original lyric, I believe he 'imagined' a world where, if there was 'no religion', we would be focused on the here and now.

Like all intelligent people, he was suspect of organized religion, but that wasn't the point of the lyric. In 'Working Class Hero' and puts 'religion' in the same category as 'sex and TV' as something that keeps us 'doped'. In 'God', he says that 'God is a concept'. But I don't recall him ever saying in an interview that he was a full-blown atheist.

The 'Imagine' line was not meant as a jab. Besides, he believed in karma, which is no crazier than any other unprovable belief. He was spiritual guy. He believed in magic and astrology and numerology and meditation.

Like most of us, he believed in something. But it's personal. And it's a mystery. And if you had asked him 'do you think it's possible that all religions are true?', he would've said 'maybe'.

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