How much do we need people to speak out, protest and ask the questions?? Where’s today’s Lennon??
John Lennon‘s imagine turns 50 today – we explore the love and the hate within his sophomore masterpieceFULL STORY: https://rb.gy/or6m1o
As the medieval fanatics of the Taliban advance into the cities threatening to take over the country and throw everyone back into the stone-age it made me think of this song.
These religious thugs want to force their distorted views on to everyone else. They are ignorant imbeciles who believe in a abhorrent philosophy. Religion is bad enough but this takes it to a different level.
They want to ban music.
They want to destroy art and architecture.
They want to erase history.
But worst of all they want to dominate and completely subjugate half of humanity – women. They want to chain them in the house as slaves. They want to prevent them being educating, working or assuming any position of power. They insist they had to be covered from head to foot in robes and veils. They want them obeying their husbands, churning out babies and doing menial work. They wish to treat women worse than dogs.
If that isn’t worth opposing I don’t know what is.
John Lennon recognised how bad things were for women in the Western world – let alone this barbaric idiocy. He deliberately used the word nigger because of the power that was in it.
Fifty years on woman is still the nigger of the world and in Afghanistan it’s about to get a lot lot worse!
Woman is the nigger of the world
Yes, she is, think about it
Woman is the nigger of the world
Think about it, do something about it
I love this stripped back album full of raw energy and truth. Everything that Rock should be. I think he only had three albums that were great – this, Imagine and Shaved Fish.
Imagine is a great track but I’ve heard it a million times. The rest of the album is brilliant. In my opinion John only produced two brilliant albums – Imagine and Plastic Ono Band – three if you count Shaved Fish. The rest of his stuff is OK but not up to that standard. I love the bare emotion and unrestrained impetus. He was doing and saying what he liked. Freedom.
I’ll enjoy this today.
John
The vibe died.
Peace had no chance.
We lacked the imagination.
War was over,
If we wanted
But we preferred stagnation.
We cold turkeyed
On jealousy and greed
Playing mind games instead of love.
We had nine dreams
All across the universe
With missiles from above.
Instead of starting over
Wanting some truth
We put ourselves in isolation.
It’s time to break out,
Get out of the bag –
For instant karma across the nation.
Opher – 9.10.2020
It was John’s birthday today. He would have been eighty. Half his life he never had. The Beatles getting back together – we were deprived of.
He and Yoko decided to use his fame and her performance art to promote peace.
They used whatever means they could, bags, beds, acorns, to convince world leaders that there were better ways. War was bad.
This was as the Vietnam War was still raging.
They were scorned, pilloried and abused, hounded and pressured, threatened and despised.
I think it drove him to drink and out of music for a while.
Yes, he became fey and affected, but he was a force for moral good and someone who tried.
I miss him.
I first went to New York in 1971. Even that was long after it’s sixties highlights. But it was still alive. The sixties underground was still in full swing. We had a great time, met some new friends, hung out and tried some different food. They were the days of sixties camaraderie. There might not have been Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Buffy St Marie or Joan Baez hanging out in Gerdes Folk City but there was still a vibe.
We visited again in 2010 and it was a bit of a tourist attraction. But it was interesting to search out the places where those guys had all played – a bit of Rock archeology.
I sure would have liked to have gone back four or five years later to catch CBGBs and the start of the Punk scene.
The Apollo where the likes of James Brown and Buddy Holly played.
The Dakota where John Lennon was murdered.
The infamous Bob Dylan cover.
A good bit of nostalgia for the old folks.
‘Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.’
I’ve always believed that. Most people do not want to even contemplate or discuss it.
They like to label people as ‘left wing’ or ‘insane’ or ‘nutty’. But they are part of a mad machine, run by greedy, self-centred madmen, that is destroying the world.
So who’s mad?
These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!
They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.
Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97
Stanzas and Stances – £5.59
Poems and Peons – £4.33
Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98
Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60
Vice and Verse – £4.15
Well Nobody told me either. Not that we’d have Trump and Brexit.
When I first heard this album I thought it was light. I did not think it said much. I’ve changed my mind. It says a lot
I never thought I’d see days like this.
“Nobody Told Me”
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — strange days indeed
Everybody’s runnin’ and no one makes a move
Everyone’s a winner and nothing left to lose
There’s a little yellow idol to the north of Katmandu
Everybody’s flying and no one leaves the ground
Everybody’s crying and no one makes a sound
There’s a place for us in the movies you just gotta lay around
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — most peculiar, mama
Everybody’s smoking and no one’s getting high
Everybody’s flying and never touch the sky
There’s a UFO over New York and I ain’t too surprised
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — most peculiar, mama