i dream of genius

If you were watching a New Year’s Eve show last night two things came as no surprise. First, that Time Square was packed like a sardine can (not a New Yorker to be found) and second that John Lennon’s iconic “Imagine” would be preformed as the lead up to the ball drop. The song has become a Time Square staple along with Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and Ray Charles’ “Wonderful World”. This year, Cee Lo Green was to preform the late Lennon’s classic ballad. What did come as a great surprise was as Mr. Green sang the song his lips let loose the most peculiar sentence. Here’s the second verse Cee Lo sang last night:

Imagine there’s no countries

It isn’t hard to do

Nothing of kill or die for

And all religion’s true

Imagine all the people living life in peace

Did you catch it? In case you missed it, the lyrics had been changed from “And no religion too” to the seemingly less divisive, “And all religion’s true”. This minor change might seem quaint and well intended, but it’s far from it.

What does it mean that all religions are true? How far are we going back? Are we including antiquity? Is he giving equal weight to ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans?  Are Jesus and Muhammad on equal footing with Dionysus and Poseidon?

So, what did Cee Lo mean by his line, “And all religion’s true”?Here’s what he said on twitter, “Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyrics guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that’s all.”

Here’s the problem with that; we already live in that world and it’s far from a place of peace and love. The reason there are certain conflicts and unrest in the world is due in no small part in the belief that religions are true. No one is strapping explosives to their chests or committing themselves to militant movements because they’re pretty sure their religion is true.

A world without religion, in Lennon’s — and a growing number of — our minds, would be a place where no person or group would be judged or discriminated because of some fairy tale in a book written and translated like a bad game of telephone over thousands of years (that is not to say we are naïve to think there would be no conflict, just that it would be harder to convince good people to do or say horrible things without the fuel of religion). This is an important voice and important line in the song that should be echoed rather than altered.

To be clear, our problem with Cee Lo isn’t that he had a different opinion or even that he chose to alter a previous piece of art. You’d be correct to point out numerous artists and influential beings whose entire careers centered on covers, copies, and reproductions. The most obvious would be Andy Warhol. But, the important distinction is that what Cee Lo said is fantasy. You can’t have your cake and pray to it too. If it’s all true, then it’s all false. They cancel each other out. Believing otherwise is naïve, immature or just plain stupid.

Next time Cee Lo, imagine there’s no need to change the song. It’s easy if you try.

by hazart