I love a ton of songs. I like the most generic dance-pop songs of the late-00s, the garage rock-indie invasion of the early-00s, the corniness of the 80s, the beginnings of glam rock and some Britpop and Elvis. I really don’t care when people diss a song I like because oh well, I’ve heard it before.
The song that I hate though, without any microcosm of guilt, is Imagine by John Lennon. Not because its an awful song, most of it is borderline beautiful, but anyone who likes this song; says is because its so easy. Its like saying Abraham Lincoln is your favorite President.
Its also horrifically condescending, John Lennon (and I’m as liberal as you can get) is the type of liberal that people hate. People think Bono is annoying for his annoying schtick as “white guy who thinks he can save the world if people cared”, but Lennon was so much worse. He’s the type of guy that goes to Occupy Wall Street and rails on the people there for wearing clothes or for not caring about Myanmar or something. He would’ve also been one of those guys that every time you go “ahh damn, I lost my keys” he would respond “YEAH WELL YOU SHOULD BE MORE OUTRAGED ABOUT DRONES”.
Imagine is the apex of awfulness especially from people who will unabashedly claim that its the greatest thing ever and John Lennon was some type of visionary. He was, I agree, but there’s a cult on this song that make it impossible to like. This is the go-to song that every American Idol contestant does to try and earn critical acclaim or at least a nod from the judges as Randy Jackson goes “that was deep, dawg”.
I also know that as soon as I submit this, people will go like “oh dude, Imagine is the BEST SONG EVER, YOU LIKE THE STROKES SO WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?”; well screw that, you don’t see me calling Last Nite the greatest thing ever.
How dare the dude go “imagine no possessions”. I don’t buy for a second that this song is about him creating some world where this doesn’t exist, because everything he stands for is in this song. World peace, no need for hunger, etc. is pretty much what he tried to rail into everyone’s minds. He’s not saying “Man, this world would be pretty sick if there were no possessions!”, he’s just calling you an asshole.
The song is also boring and I almost feel like Lennon’s lecture on why you are awful was just created so people could fawn over him more. He has such an amazing catalogue of songs but people only talk about this one because it makes me people feel guilty and then they use that guilt to preach about commercialism because that’s easy.
Ugh.
Satirical Thoughts 