Imagine Lennon A Communist?

[robob8706]

Imagine

by: John Lennon

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,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Imagine no possesions,
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 'Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.


Was John Lennon a communist?

[Faceless]

commies dont live in mansions.

actions speak louder than words

;)

[Subversive Pessimist]

If he followed the words he wrote, yes. If he didn't, no. Beautiful poem though.

[Kurai Tsuki]

No, just a hippie.

[Kurai Tsuki]

I would say the song sounds more anarchist than communist.

[Louis Pio]

He supported different left groups financially. For example the Militant, he never became member of one though

[RJRevolution]

I'm a huge fan of Lennon and in many ways I do believe he was a communist.

Lennon himself said that during his teens, he red "Das Kapital" and "The Communist Manifesto" and was interested in Marxism at an early age. During the height of Beatlemania, he showed even more Marxist views during the filming of "Help". During shooting in Bermuda, he was disgusted at the living conditions of prisoners, lower class people, and cripples in prisons and insane asylums.

Also his songs provide even more evidence of Marxist idealogy. One of his most famous solo songs was called "Working class Hero" in which he puts down the comfortable lifestyles and says "A working class hero is something to be". Also songs like "Imagine" and "Give Peace A Chance" identify with the anit-war Leftist philosophys of the time.

And another song he wrote is aptly called "Power to the People":Power to the people.
Power to the people.
Power to the people.
Power to the people.
Power to the people.
Power to the people, right on.

Say you want a revolution,
We better get on right away,
Well you get on your feet,
And out on the street.

Singing power to the people,
Power to the people.
Power to the people.
Power to the people, right on.

A million workers working for nothing,
You better give 'em what they really own,
We got to put you down,
When we come into town.

Singing power to the people,
Power to the people.
Power to the people.
Power to the people, right on.

I gotta ask you comrades and brothers,
How do you treat you own woman back home,
She got to be herself,
So she can free herself.

Singing power to the people!

In 1971 Lennon left England forever after "Imagine" and moved to a small apartment in Greenwich Village, NYC. There he conspired and met with Left-Wing supporters and members of the Socialist "Yippie" movement. He staged many anti-Nixon administration rallies, Marches, and concerts. He held concerts at Attica State Prison and other places calling for the release of imprisoned political prisoners. All of this culminated in his very political "Sometime in New York" album, which criticized British imperialism in Ireland, called for political reform, and Woman's and worker's rights.

[refuse_resist]

Calling Lennon a communist is a little extreme. Even though he might have been into Marxism at one time, it doesn't make him one. After all, wasn't he a Ghandi worshipping hippie during the last years of his life?

[RJRevolution]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2004, 06:47 AM
Calling Lennon a communist is a little extreme. Even though he might have been into Marxism at one time, it doesn't make him one. After all, wasn't he a Ghandi worshipping hippie during the last years of his life?
no he wasnt. During he last years he spent raising he newborn son Sean. (1975-1980). And by "Ghandi-worshiping hippy" you mean he was anti-war, yes he was anti-war, but he was throughout his whole life. I dont think he was a total communist (after all, he was a millionare) but i do believe he did have very good ideas about the world, and many relate to communism/marxism.

[refuse_resist]

nd by "Ghandi-worshiping hippy" you mean he was anti-war, yes he was anti-war, but he was throughout his whole life.

Actually, I should of just said "ultra-pacifist", but oh well, same difference. :P

[Postteen]

He was not a communist!How could he be a communist?But I've read that when in 1971/72 was in New York,he found a leftish party in which he participated.He called himself "leftish".Unfortunately he said that communists haven't really done anything important.In his song "Revolution"he says:"But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"GRRR!!!

[James]

Unfortunately he said that communists haven't really done anything important.In his song "Revolution"he says:"But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"GRRR!!!



He does have a "point". Communists tend to be "everything or nothing" people, they only really achieve revolutions, or nothing. Nothing being the more common achievement.
"They" tend to alienate themselves from the people (like by carrying pictures of mao).

Alternatively (or in addition), he may have simply been attacking the totalitarianism of china etc.

[James]

i've just read the lyrics for the first time - the meaning of that one line is more obvious when taken in context
:)


You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out?

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

You say you've got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We are doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
All I can tell is, brother, you'll have to wait

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You'd better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow

Don't you know it's gonna be
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?
Alright?

[hawarameen]

he was a great man, i dint think he was a commie and he stated so a few times I'm not sure he would even call himself a socialist, he wasn't into 'isms' (read the lyrics to give peace a chance).

but he despised capitalism (even more so with yoko) and i think came under the umbrella of socialism, where exactly under this umbrella his views lied i dont know and i dont think he even knew himself but what drove him was his love for mankind.

for a fuller insight into his political beliefs read 'last interview' by David Sheff.

[James]

Two, one two three four
Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

C'mon
Ev'rybody's talking about Ministers,
Sinisters, Banisters and canisters
Bishops and Fishops and Rabbis and Pop eyes,
And bye bye, bye byes.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Let me tell you now
Ev'rybody's talking about
Revolution, evolution, masturbation,
flagellation, regulation, integrations,
meditations, United Nations,
Congratulations.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Ev'rybody's talking about
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer,
Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna,
Hare, Hare Krishna

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

[Postteen]

Here's a part of an interview John gave in 1971


JL: I've always been politically minded, you know, and against the status quo. It's pretty basic when you're brought up, like I was, to hate and fear the police as a natural enemy and to despise the army as something that takes everybody away and leaves them dead somewhere.
I mean, it's just a basic working class thing, though it begins to wear off when you get older, get a family and get swallowed up in the system.
In my case I've never not been political, though religion tended to overshadow it in my acid days; that would be around '65 or '66. And that religion was directly the result of all that superstar shit - religion was an outlet for my repression. I thought, 'Well, there's something else to life, isn't there? This isn't it, surely?'


The magazine "Mojo"(May issue) says in the beginning of the interview:

...Their inquisitors were Taqir Ali and Robin Bluckburn,two pillars of the so-called New Left who had cut their teeth in the insurrectionary atmosphere of 1968:Anti-Vietnam protest[........]Their questions were not the standard stuff of rock interviews.[...]To finish Ali dropped the big one:"How can do you think we can destroy the capitalistic system,John?"
[...............]Marxist logic,one suspected,was never going to contain him.
[......]Given John&Yoko's recent swing left-wards,New York offered yet more attractions,focused on the sureally politicised counter-culture that had grown out of hippiedom.If the Lennons' brief spell as UK activists had sown a deep scepticism about the British left's dour,(etc)

This article says some other interesting things too,but I can't copy it all.And Guess what!There's a photo of John in an anti-vietnam war rally with JOHN KERRY!!(yuck)



Here's the interview! (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob12.html)

[tepatoken]

"imagine" is one of the most anarchist song i ever listen "no state" "no religion" "no posession" "NO COUNTRIES", i think is very clear

[Fidelbrand]

To live exactly like a communist (like his lyrics) is suicidal in this fucking capitalised world and would be cancelled out wastefully, given his fame and influence to do "leftist" things with his funds earned via capitalist means. He is a singer , but he used his $ to fund leftist groups.

... just give him a break.

[Archpremier]

Ever heard the White Album song 'Piggies'?


Have you seen the little piggies
playing in the dirt?
And for all the little piggies
life is getting worse
Always having dirt
to play around in.

Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around in.

In their styes with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking.

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.

[RJRevolution]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27 2004, 10:26 PM
Ever heard the White Album song 'Piggies'?


Swing and a miss.

that would be an interesting point refuse_resist. But Piggies wasnt written by Mr. Lennon. Piggies was written by George Harrison, the Beatle's lead guitarist.

[wet blanket]

Did he have good ideas? Sure. Was he a communist? Nope.

[noland]

Lennon and the rest of the Beatles were awarded M.B.E.s in the summer of '65, but lennon sent his back to the Queen in '69 to protest the actions of the British government. He wrote a letter and sent identical copies to the queen, the prime minister, and the secretary of the general chancery. He wrote:

I am returning this MBE in protest against Britain's involvement in the Nigeria - Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts.
(signed)with love
John Lennon.
John Lennon of Bag

About his actions he later said," Neither of us [Yoko and I] want to make the mistake that Ghandi and Martin Luther King did, which is to get killed one way or another. Because people only like dead saints, and because I refuse to be a saint or a martyr. So I'm just protesting as a British citizen with his wife against British involvement in Biafra, and voicing the protest in the loudest way I can."

That doesn't make him a communist, but it does show that he did not see himself any different than anyone else and that he did the best he could to protest in the same ways an average citizen should. Leftist and a good guy, but not seeing communism in his actions.

[hawarameen]

on a slightly different note, anyone heard revolution 9?

shit man that is weird, it kinda freaks me out.

i believe its the only 'song' by the beatles that hasnt been done by anyone else.

[RJRevolution]

haha! I love revolution #9. Not as good as Revolution I, but i dig that freaky avant-garde shit. A favorite of mine on the White Album.

[Postteen]

Power to the People
John Lennon

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
A million workers working for nothing
You better give 'em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
I gotta ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now
Oh well, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Yeah, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

love this song!