No, this is why it sucks

Monday, December 13, 2004

Rolling Stone has had its top 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time issue out for a while. The list--from a poll of industry people--is fairly conventional. Anyone who cares about music will have countless quibbles, but, as such lists go, it'll do.

However, I've noticed a couple bloggers complaining about #3, John Lennon's "Imagine." ("Like a Rolling Stone" and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" are #1 and #2--they both deserve to be high up so we'll let 'em be.) I don't even think it should be on the list, but I disagree as to why.

James Lileks notes, correctly, it doesn't rock. But, even though this is a list of rock songs, they don't all have to rock.

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, Jim Lindgren complains the song is a recipe for totalitarianism. Well, yeah, but that's part of its brilliance. Lennon could write simple anthems of love and peace ("Give Peace A Chance," "All You Need Is Love," "The Word") with the best of them, but "Imagine" is a more complex Marxist plea for worldwide understanding, where he tries to cut away at the thicket of the modern world that blocks utopia. Of course it wouldn't work. Lennon hadn't figured that out yet (though he sure wasn't giving away his possessions before everyone else did), but you can still admire the straightforward, no-nonsense idealism that takes on the theme in such a distinct way.

Here's why the song is no good: the tune stinks. It doesn't fit the lyric at all. Lennon wants to be ethereal but ends up lugubrious, almost morose. The chords, the tempo, the piano, the echo--it sounds spooky, even creepy. This melody would be perfect if he were writing about the last days of Bela Lugosi, and couldn't be less fitting for an exploration of utopia.

Also, points off for rhyming "one" with "one."