Dissing the bard

Well, I’m a little late to the barbecue, but I just learned that on New Year’s Eve, Cee Lo Green sang John Lennon’s “Imagine.” Only thing is, he changed the words. He changed “Nothing to kill or die for / And no religion too” to “Nothing to kill or die for / And all religion is true.”

I’ve always loved “Imagine.” The melody is beautiful, the lyrics simple but profound. And the line Green changed is the crux of the song. Or at least, that’s what I’ve always thought. And apparently so have thousands of other people who went bananas after they heard Green’s version. Lennon fans and atheists love the song precisely because of its atheistic world view.

Cee Lo Green doesn’t have the résumé to take liberties with the work of someone like Lennon. It’s past time for him to take his 15 minutes (the song “Forget You,” which originally bore the classy title “F*** You”) and go back to his rapper friends.

Imagine

Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today…

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one