Nope, doesn’t wash. It’s still a multi-millionaire asking people a lot worse off then he is if they can imagine no possesions.
Still hypocracy.
Just realised - however could I have forgotten Sandi Thom?
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In seventy-seven and sixty-nine revolution was in the air
A punk rocker? With flowers? Bwa ha ha ha
The worst of it is, the alternative - hippy chick - would scan just as well and actually make sense.
I keep wondering, too, WTH was supposedly happening in 1977?
I don’t see your problem. the lyrics make perfect sense to me.
So explain where the hypocrisy comes in. What is Lennon telling others to do that he doesn’t do himself? Are you saying that he secretly refuses to imagine?
One that’s always bugged me, though it is pretty minor, is on Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys:
“You try to knock me you’ll get mocked / I’ll stir fry you in my wok / Your knees’ll start shaking and your fingers pop / Like a pinch on the neck of Mr. Spock.”
Would it really have been that hard to say from?
Spot the difference?
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with safety-pins in my nostrils…
hmm, somehow doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Er, I know the difference. Her point is she was" born too late" for either of the recent “youth” revolutions, punk and hippy.
She’s simply merged the two with the song’s first line , while identifying with both.
On the subject of Sting, I would like to state (as an Englishman), I like my toast done on BOTH sides. I have never met anyone, nor heard any stories of anyone, who only does on one side.
. . . unless of course he (or more accurately Jim Steinman) was subverting the phrase to make a point. Memories are rarely actually closer than they appear.
God, all you need is a cake left out in the rain.
The Chi-Lite’s Have You Seen her is one of my favorite songs but whenever I hear:
Why, oh why
Did she have to leave and
Go away?
I always think, because she couldn’t very well leave and stay, could she?
(I realize you’re not asking me, but…)
Thanks to you* I’ve already softened my criticism from “hypocritical” to “naive”, but it still irritates me so I’d like try answering your question.
No. He’s urging others to share his vision, naively overlooking the fact that 99.9% of his audience can’t possibly share the position/perspective from which he sees it.
In other words, “That’s easy for him to say” (which was essentially Allen Ginsberg’s reaction to “All You Need Is Love”).
*
Well, if you hold him to that standard, it prohibits him from saying pretty much anything.
Okay, so what if Lennon weren’t a millionaire when he wrote the song, suppose he had been poor instead? Then you could say “Imagine no possessions? That’s easy for him to say! He’s got nothing to give up anyway!” 
I’d certainly find the statement less annoying, though still somewhat sanctimonious.
Now, if he had written “Imagine no possessions, I wonder if I can…”
He’s a champagne socialist (or gives every appearance of being one), and I have no patience with that type.
Don’t get me started on Lennon’s thuggish side and violent tendencies… 
Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road bugs the shit out of me.
“a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line”
ok, some copper line is fine, but NOBODY, no matter how much moonshine they are making, needs a hundred pounds of yeast. You usually don’t need any yeast. What you need a hundred pounds of is sugar.
One that makes me cringe is Jackson Browne’s “they look at life with such disregard”. If you’re looking at it, you’re regarding it!
Wishy-washy lyrics from “Under the Bridge” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers and from “Cumbersome” by Seven Mary Three:
Oh, no, no, no- yeah, yeah
makes me chuckle every time I hear it.
Maybe I missed it, but I did search each page and I didn’t see anyone mention the granddaddy of them all:
*Tell her to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Without no seams nor needlework
Tell her to find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
Between salt water and the sea strands
Tell her to reap it in a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme
And gather it all in a bunch of heather*
Written deliberately to be a list of impossible tasks for the lover to perform.
Smokescreen. We’re not talking about him saying “anything”; we’re talking about him being a fabulously wealthy and famous pop star preaching to commonfolk about the virtues of poverty.
No. Then you would say “Imagine no possessions? That’s silly for him to say! He doesn’t have to imagine it!”
Your serve.
.
Agreed.
You’re telling me. That’s what bothers me so much about the beatification of John. IMO, he was a great man and artist, but he was also a man with profound emotional problems, and was certainly no saint.
.