December 09, 2003

INSTANT KARMA

Imagine there’s no John Lennon. It’s pretty easy to do, considering he’s been dead for 23 years. But his music lives on.

Damn it.

The Weekly Standard’s Joel Engel, as a Lennon shooting anniversary treat, blasts a few holes in Imagine, everybody’s favourite kindergarten-piano-intro peace/nihilism anthem.

Posted by Tim Blair at December 9, 2003 01:21 AM
Comments

hey yoko, i need a few bucks...

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at December 9, 2003 at 01:28 AM

I think WIlliam Buckley did something along these lines 20 or so years ago. I don't care for Lennon or the Beatles but this is a bit too fish in the barrel for me.

Posted by: O. Cromwell at December 9, 2003 at 02:46 AM

That would be Shaved Fish in a barrel, Mr Cromwell.

Posted by: tim at December 9, 2003 at 03:01 AM

Yeah, well. For an avowed "Marxist" Lennon didn't make out too badly, leaving a $500,000,000 estate. Imagine.

Posted by: JorgXMcKie at December 9, 2003 at 03:05 AM

Clearly, all right-thinking people prefer the Stones.

Posted by: Anne Cunningham at December 9, 2003 at 04:21 AM

I'm tempted to fisk Mr Engel's fisking of Lennon or further suggest he turns his trenchant columnist's eye on even more geopolitically incorrect lyrics ("We All Live in a Yellow Submarine". Over to Mr Engel: "This is not, in fact, the case. And if it were, who would be keeping an eye on Cuba? Or planting corn, I ask you? Would Yoko agree to live in a yellow submarine?. I think not. Although when I refer to "yellow" this is not, of course as I hasten to add, about her ethnic origins").
"Somewhere Over The Rainbow" - not by Lennon, I know - is surely also due for a damn good hiding? Very dumb piece by Engel.

Posted by: Jody Tresidder at December 9, 2003 at 04:54 AM

Didn't Thatcher use Imagine as her campaign theme in the 80s? How she must have laughed.

Posted by: Pig head Sucker at December 9, 2003 at 10:14 AM

How do you fit the Beatles in an MGB?

Ringo and Paul in the front seats, George and John in the ashtray.

How do you re-unite the Beatles?

Two bullets and Mark David Chapman.

Posted by: Habib at December 9, 2003 at 10:31 AM

Yeah, the piece was dumb, but only because the song is so stupid that it doesn't warrant such nitpicking extrapolation.

Posted by: Russell at December 9, 2003 at 03:20 PM

As I recall, didn't John Lennon also say
"I am the Eggman
We are the Eggmen
I am the Walrus
Goo-goo-g'jook g'goo goo g'jook g'goo goo g'jook"?

Posted by: National Party Headcase at December 9, 2003 at 05:41 PM

National Party Headcase:

The exact words from the nonsense Beatles song "I Am The Walrus" are:

Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob

At least, that's how Lennon wrote it.

And Engel poking fun at an old pop song is kinda lame.

Posted by: SGM at December 10, 2003 at 03:23 AM