# I pit Cee Lo Green **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 3, 2012, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247 "2012-01-03T08:13:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/1 "2012-01-03T08:13:03Z")
So Cee Lo sang a few songs at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and he decided he’d do a cover of John Lennon’s absolutely perfect and timeless humanist anthem “Imagine”. That’s all well and good. _Except…_ [QUOTE=CNN Belief Blog] Instead of “Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too,” Green sang, “Nothing to kill or die for, and all religion’s true.” [/QUOTE] [http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/02/my-take-let-lennon-be-lennon-and-forget-cee-lo-green/?hpt=hp\_c2](http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/02/my-take-let-lennon-be-lennon-and-forget-cee-lo-green/?hpt=hp_c2) What the fuck, Cee Lo? The point of “Imagine” is a world where people live for the day and work together because they’re not worried about either a supernatural reward or punishment for what they do on Earth. Your little revision not only undermines the entire meaning of the song, it just plain doesn’t make any SENSE when you leave the first verse “Imagine there’s no heaven…” intact. I’m willing to accept that you may be a religious person, and you might have a problem with singing about a world where there’s no religion. You know what? If that’s a problem you have. then DON’T TRY AND DO A COVER OF “IMAGINE”. Look, I _like_ you as a singer. “The Lady Killer” is one of my favorite albums to come out in recent years. I liked you when you were with Gnarls Barkley. I liked the track you did with Carlos Santana. I even found some of your old hip-hop stuff on the internet and it’s not bad. But this is the kind of shit that would make me want to delete your tracks off my computer, throw your albums in the garbage, and refuse to listen to any of your future work on principle. Performing a cover of a song is supposed to show that you respect and admire the artist you’re covering, but in this case all you’ve done is piss all over John Lennon’s grave. If he knew what you’d done, he would not be pleased. Oh, I heard you messin’ all round with the song I love, and i’m like, fuck you, I guess the words that John Lennon wrote just weren’t good enough, and i’m like, fuck you, and uh, no religion too… ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/2 "2012-01-03T08:22:14Z")
I’ve heard, although I have no proof, that it’s common for christian singers to sing “and one religion, too.” So, at least he’s not discriminatory. (I haven’t heard any of his work with the exception of the Fuck You song, and as funny as that was, I’m totally willing to believe he is, philosophically, a pretty empty guy.) ---
**Author:** ![mister\_nyx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@mister\_nyx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mister_nyx)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/3 "2012-01-03T08:24:52Z")
Yeah, I get what you mean, man. I see him driving 'round town with the girl I love, and I’m like, fuck him. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/4 "2012-01-03T12:52:20Z")
I don’t even like that line in the song. It’s too anti-religion even for me. But it would have ruined the song for me to have altered it (well even more than it already was ruined by being a mediocre song.) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/5 "2012-01-03T13:15:35Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > So Cee Lo sang a few songs at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and he decided he’d do a cover of John Lennon’s absolutely perfect and timeless humanist anthem “Imagine”. gag ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/6 "2012-01-03T13:24:22Z")
…and Johnny Cash if you’re going to sing a NIN song, sing it right, it’s “ **I wear this crown of shit.** Upon my liar’s chair. Full of broken thoughts. I cannot repair.” not ‘thorns’… ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/7 "2012-01-03T14:03:23Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I don’t even like that line in the song. It’s too anti-religion even for me. But it would have ruined the song for me to have altered it (well even more than it already was ruined by being a mediocre song.) I don’t like that line either – because it sucks grammatically. “… and no religion \*\*\*either \*\*\*…” - although, that does sort of fuck up the rhyme scheme. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/8 "2012-01-03T14:32:50Z")
And what exactly does “all religion’s true” mean? Does it mean that Judaism, which explicitly rejects Christ’s divinity, is true, and Christianity, which is based on it, is also true? Or is this just a big “Fuck You” to Lennon? Imagine (it’s easy if you try) an atheist singing a hymn, only instead of “Bless you, Jesus, for blessing us” it was “Fuck you, Jesus, for fucking us”–how twisted would Christians’ undies get at the arrogant blasphemy? (How much grief can I expect for even suggesting that Christians are hypocritical on this issue?) ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/9 "2012-01-03T15:09:53Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Oh, I heard you messin’ all round with the song I love, and i’m like, fuck you, > I guess the words that John Lennon wrote just weren’t good enough, and i’m like, fuck you, and uh, no religion too… I guess the change in his pocket just wasn’t enough. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/10 "2012-01-03T15:16:08Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I haven’t heard any of his work with the exception of the Fuck You song You must have heard [“Crazy”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w&ob=av2e). It was a huge hit when it came out five years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/11 "2012-01-03T15:32:41Z")
I don’t want to get too worked up over this because at the time, I didn’t notice the change. (The performance was that captivating.) But it was a stupid change, and his explanation of the change is equally stupid. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/12 "2012-01-03T15:38:48Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > …and Johnny Cash if you’re going to sing a NIN song, sing it right, it’s “ **I wear this crown of shit.** Upon my liar’s chair. Full of broken thoughts. I cannot repair.” > > not ‘thorns’… Meh, I can’t get mad about that since [Johnny’s version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmVAWKfJ4Go) was the better one [by far](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjwgYvzQWS4). OTOH, Cee-lo Green did not preform it better (you can’t really improve perfection); plus he changed the lyrics to be **the exact antithesis** to the original. WTF. John Lennon would have hated that change. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/13 "2012-01-03T15:44:16Z")
_All we are saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaying Is give our police action a chance!_ Imagine \*yourself \*an army of ONE. [Goarmy.com](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_rot)! P.S. What it is with black guys and desecrating “Imagine”? ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/14 "2012-01-03T15:52:31Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > (I haven’t heard any of his work with the exception of the Fuck You song, and as funny as that was, I’m totally willing to believe he is, philosophically, a pretty empty guy.) It’s fine to say you don’t know who he is, but to say you haven’t heard any of his work is IMHO disingenuous.. How would you know? How would you deduce that he is “philosophically a pretty empty guy” from the limited information you have about him? > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > You must have heard [“Crazy”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w&ob=av2e). It was a huge hit when it came out five years ago. To be fair, this was when he was half of Gnarls Barkley with Danger Mouse, not as a solo artist so Inner Stickler may not have made the connection. As far as the change to the song goes, it’s ridiculous. Whether you like the song or not it is contrary to the “meaning” of the entire song. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/15 "2012-01-03T15:53:06Z")
I don’t really give a shit - I think the change is stupid and incoherent, but whatever. He sang a song titled ‘fuck you’, so I’m not inclined to think that he even understands how the song originally meant the line in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/16 "2012-01-03T15:57:43Z")
> [@Sparky812](#): > > How would you deduce that he is “philosophically a pretty empty guy” from the limited information you have about him? You weren’t referring to me, but I figured since I didn’t know a whole lot about him, it’s applicable. My opinion of his philosophical deepness is now linked to this change in the song. The evidence I have is his mangling the ‘imagine’ song by changing a phrase and rendering the meaning incoherent. All religions cannot be true since quite a few of them are mutually exclusive. Is he a talented artist? Yeah, I find his stuff catchy. I don’t recall finding any of his material particularly deep. Please correct my ignorance if he has produced anything of philosophical depth. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/17 "2012-01-03T15:58:27Z")
Considering that Lennon knew he’d just lie in the ground and rot after he died I don’t think he’d care much about people pissing on his grave. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/18 "2012-01-03T16:05:43Z")
Eh… when you have the Bieb going all Kidz Bop on **Let It Be** , Cee Lo changing the words to **Imagine** is not the biggest tragedy in Times Square on NYE and loses some of it’s RO. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/19 "2012-01-03T16:10:57Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > …and Johnny Cash if you’re going to sing a NIN song, sing it right, it’s “ **I wear this crown of shit.** Upon my liar’s chair. Full of broken thoughts. I cannot repair.” > > not ‘thorns’… “Crown of thorns” sounds better in the line, flowing better with the vowel sounds around it, and is symbolically meaningful. “Crown of shit” just doesn’t sound as good or sing as well. Furthermore, although it doesn’t sound good, “Crown of shit” still might suit a young singer (e.g. Trent Reznor) whose job is to, well, sound like a young guy being edgy singing to young people who want him to be edgy. The Cash version is sung by an old man, in the voice of an old man, and “Crown of thorns” just works better for that voice, especially as a contrast to “liar’s chair.” The genius of the Cash version is that it’s the same song, but he’s telling a different story, and “crown of thorns” works better for that story. As Trent Reznor himself has signed off on the Cash version with a smile on his face, I’d say the Man in Black nailed it. Conversely, the Cee Lo Green change doesnt make sense at all. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247/20 "2012-01-03T16:30:28Z")
OMG! Did you hear what Wierd Al did to some song? I am like, sooooooooo way outraged that someone sang a song and the words weren’t right. I suggest an amendment to the Patriot Act to deal with this issue. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-cee-lo-green/608247.md?page=2)