Imagine No Bad Songs

Inspired by the mayor of New York City, who said the song “Imagine” was an inspirational song about treating each other better, writer Matthew Walther suggests that the unifying banner under which we can all gather could be disdain for this song.

Start with the word salad of Marxism, anarchism, and existentialism. Nowhere is there even the faintest hint of how any of the hypotheticals we are being asked to consider might be realized. Instead Lennon does the political equivalent of telling us that the real magic was inside us all along.

This terrible song offers “a vision of a reality in which ‘lol nothing matters’ is elevated to a first-order principle.”

I’ve always hated “Imagine.” It’s as silly a song as “Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime.” It’s abyssmal. I can barely listen to Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Bewitched, bothered and bewildered” has to be about singing under the influence–does anyone like that one?

Let’s unite in our disdain for overly popular songs. What’s your pick? (via Prufrock)

5 thoughts on “Imagine No Bad Songs”

  1. I generally agree, but I think I need to challenge you to a duel in defense of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.” I learned somewhere online that it was Number One on the Hit Parade the week I was born. Perhaps my fondness for it is because it was one of the first songs I ever heard. Regardless, I find the song pretty, and the lyrics clever. It’s about falling in love.

  2. I listened to Ella Fitzgerald sing it, which must be a double long edition, and halfway through I cut it off. Sure, she’s in love, but she goes on and on about it.

    That’s no dig at you, no, sir.

  3. Totally agree! Pure drivel. With Lars I always thought the Bewitched etc song was catchy and clever. But now I cringe at anything that tries to make the occult acceptable. As for songs that deserve scorn I nominate Eve of Destruction and In
    The Year 2525, and yes, Muskrat Love.

    1. I didn’t think of the occult in that song, but I generally dislike that too. “That old black magic has me in its spell” and “that voodoo you do so well” (I’m not looking up the song titles). I hate both of those songs.

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