Millionaire hypocrisy: Three artists who hated John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’
When the Covid-19 pandemic began, Gal Gadot and a list of other celebrities came together to record a cover of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’. Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, and many other famous faces sang and spoke lines from the track in what was supposed to be a display of unity and support in troubling times. The reaction was supposed to be heartfelt, but instead, people ridiculed the video.
There was a huge hypocrisy to the performance. As people across the world were losing loved ones and their jobs and panicking about how they were going to afford rent the next month, having millionaires reach out and essentially say, “We’re all in this together,” was out of touch and patronising. A millionaire who has absolutely everything that money could buy preaches messages of imagining no possessions—how ironic. Sound familiar?
While John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ is now considered by many to be one of the greatest peace-preaching songs of all time, the reaction to it when released was similar to how people reacted to Gal Gadot and friends. Lennon was seen as a hypocrite because he told people not to think about possessions or money while he was rich beyond most people’s wildest dreams.
Some people sat and stewed at the hypocrisy. Meanwhile, some artists decided to use music as their own form of expressionism to show how much they hated the song.
Artists who hated ‘Imagine’
Steely Dan
When Steely Dan locked themselves in the studio to write their complicated and experimental songs, no topic was off limits. Scouring through their discography, you can find themes of love, loss and the absurd. However, when John Lennon released ‘Imagine’, they decided to take the time to write a song that poked fun at the supposed hypocrisy of it.
One of the most intoxicating and popular tracks on their 1972 album Can’t Buy A Thrill is ‘Only A Fool Would Say That’, a fun, upbeat number with lyrics that poked fun at Lennon. The opening line sums up the image that the band had of Lennon and his peace-preaching songs, as they said, “Our world become one, of salads and sun, only a fool would say that.”
Elvis Costello
In 1991, Elvis Costello released the song ‘The Other Side of Summer’, which was well-received by his fans and had a good run towards the top of the charts. The song has a number of elements that people enjoy, but one that drew the ears of the curious was the apparent digs at Lennon.
In the song, apparently taking a similar stance to Steely Dan, Costello sings, “Was it a millionaire who said ‘Imagine no possessions?’” Costello didn’t stop at Lennon either, as the song also poked fun at Roger Waters and David Bowie. He sang, “A poor little schoolboy who said ‘We don’t need no lessons?’ / The rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop.”
Elton John
Elton John was never a man to shy away from using his wit, regardless of whether it was at his own expense or the expense of somebody else. For instance, when Bernie Taupin’s wife referred to John as a “Bitch,” he was happy to spin that into a song.
When he heard the song ‘Imagine’, he also decided to spin some criticism into a song, as he poked fun at Lennon in a slightly more jovial way than Steely Dan and Elvis Costello. In a bid to tease the Beatle, John wrote a song that made fun of John Lennon’s extravagant shopping habits. He wrote, to the tune of ‘Imagine’, “Imagine six apartments, it isn’t hard to do, one is full of fur coats, another’s full of shoes.”
