Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumC Lo Green bastardizes John Lennon's song.
In singing "Imagine" at the New Year's Eve event at Times Sq., Green replaced "and no religion too" with "and all religion's true"--not only a grammatical error but a factual and literal impossibility. That of course reverses the meaning of the song. After nearly 40 years of hearing that song, maybe it ought to occur to people that Lennon meant what he said. It wasn't some metaphor for tolerance or whatever. He meant we should get rid of the artificial social constructs--nation, religion, property--that give people reasons to hurt and kill each other.
uriel1972
(4,261 posts)there was a version that went "Imagine, there's one religion" floating around the States
Bolo Boffin
(23,796 posts)onager
(9,356 posts)According to the infallible internet, people are always asking permission to change the lyrics to "one religion too" (guess which one). The request is always refused.
So CeeLo was probably seized by a massive god-gasm and just HAD to spontaneously change those lyrics without asking permission. Dope.
In the 2001 concert for 9/11, Neil Young changed the lyrics from "imagine no possessions/I wonder if you can" to "I wonder if I can."
And this was interesting...
Following the September 11 attacks, the song was included on the 2001 Clear Channel memorandum "do not play" list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_(song)
Bolo Boffin
(23,796 posts)But I saw a story on this. On his Twitter page, he claimed to be Yoko Ono's guest that night. And he claims to be about "faith" not "religion." I just can't believe she would have OKed that kind of a change.
DissedByBush
(3,342 posts)My second favorite episode is when the boss refused to give in to some local religious nuts and prohibit Imagine from being played on the air.
My first favorite was "God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)It could have just been a mistake but I doubt it. Maybe C-Lo likes god or something so he didn't feel comfortable saying the original lyrics. In that case he he should have checked with me and I would have let him know that it wasn't going to work out.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)Cee Lo Green Changes 'Imagine' Lyrics To 'All Religions,' Fights Twitter Anger
Charged with singing Lennon's famous solo-era tune on NBC's New Year's Eve show shortly before the ball dropped in Times Square , Green changed the lyrics from "Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too" to "Nothing to kill or die for, And all religion's true."
The change didn't go unnoticed, and to preempt criticism, he soon tweeted, "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all."
That did little to comfort angered Lennon fans, who lashed out over Twitter. Watch the performance below and then read the angry exchanges over Twitter.
WATCH:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ourduRjODPA
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/01/cee-lo-green-changes-imagine-lyrics_n_1178313.html?ref=entertainment
Ian David
(69,059 posts)Church of the Creator
Founded:
1973
Location:
East Peoria, IL
Profiled Leadership:
Matt Hale
Ideology:
Neo-Nazi
A self-styled religious organization, the Creativity Movement incessantly promotes what it sees as the inherent superiority and "creativity" of the white race about the only tenets there are to its supposed "theology." After the 1993 suicide of Ben Klassen, who initially formed the group in 1973 as the Church of the Creator and wrote a number of foundational texts, new leader Matt Hale renamed it the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) in 1996. The group, largely composed of racist skinheads, developed a reputation for the rampant criminal violence of its members and the verbal violence of Hale. After Hale was convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal judge in 2004 and the group was ordered to change its name because of a ruling in a copyright infringement trial the once-formidable outfit now known as the Creativity Movement all but collapsed, leaving only weak remnants.
In Its Own Words
"We gird for total war against the Jews and the rest of the goddamned mud races of the world politically, militantly, financially, morally and religiously. In fact, we regard it as the heart of our religious creed, and as the most sacred credo of all. We regard it as a holy war to the finish a racial holy war. Rahowa! is INEVITABLE.
No longer can the mud races and the White Race live on the same planet."
Founder Ben Klassen, 1987
More:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/creativity-movement
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)... is a concept
By which we measure
Our
Pain
I'll sing it again...
God is a concept
By which we measure
Our
Pain
Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)I'm not in a place to play clips right now, but what about..
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
How is that to be reconciled with "All Religion's true" (or "and One Religion Too" ) or were those words changed as well?
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)I just listened, and he did that right. Go figure.
Goblinmonger
(22,340 posts)DO NOT fuck with Lennon/McCartney songs. Ever.
pink-o
(4,056 posts)This is how it works, Folks. Don't. Ever. Touch. Lennon/McCartney songs. Don't cover them. Don't sample them. Don't remix them (unless you are the reincarnation of George Martin, which none of us here believes so even then!) You don't mess with perfection, nobody who knows anything about music wants to hear anyone else sing a Beatles' or a Solo song by a Beatle. Leave it the f**k alone.
Response to pink-o (Reply #13)
Armin-A This message was self-deleted by its author.
Armin-A
(367 posts)best comment i saw
progressoid
(49,999 posts)onager
(9,356 posts)Since you both seem to be Beatles Fundamentalists.
Sorry, couldn't help myself. Too much time reading R/T...and I'm usually something of a B.F. myself.
e.g., that misbegotten "Sgt. Pepper" movie always makes me want to do an Elvis on the TV. Complete with Elvis' alleged comment as he blew away an electronic Robert Goulet: "That'll be about enough of that shit."
Anyway, I wondered what the two of you thought about The Smithereens Beatle projects. I like them myself.
In 2007, The Smithereens released "Meet The Smithereens!," on which they covered all the songs from "Meet The Beatles."
In 2008, they followed up with "B-Sides The Beatles," a collection of single B-sides like "Thank You Girl" and "P.S. I Love You."
These were clearly labors of love, and not a dorky Vegas-style hack job. For "P.S.," they even used the original 1962 EMI session drummer, Andy White. (Ringo Starr was sidelined for that recording, filling in on tambourine and maracas.)
Here's an article with some detail on why they did it:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/17299269/ns/today-entertainment/t/smithereens-pay-beatles-back-unusual-way/
oberliner
(58,724 posts)Not sure if you were confused about that.
pink-o
(4,056 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)It's amazing that he has outlived two of the four Beatles.