No marks for Lennon.
I watched one of Channel 4's "100 greatest" shows last night. It was the 100 greatest Number One singles. The show was actually a repeat. As I hadn't seen it when it first came out, I didn't know the rankings, but as the show went on, I began to get nervous about the song I hadn't seen. Number Four was 'Dancing Queen' by Abba. Number Three was 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles. Number Two was 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen and inevitably, Number One was 'Imagine' by John Lennon.

Such lists are of course entirely subjective but I can't help hoping for a "worthy" winner. I found it hard to swallow that anything by Madonna could appear higher on the list than Marvin Gaye's 'I heard it through the Grapevine' but perhaps I'm just keen on the latter because it was Number One on the day I was born.

It seems to be some sort of modern heresy not to put Lennon and his music at the top of any of these lists. When MTV did a list show of 'Rock's most shocking moments', his murder was top of that list too. He was even in the top ten of the Greatest Britons - a BBC show that aimed to discover the people considered to have made the greatest contribution to the country. I felt that his inclusion (and that of the late Princess Diana) made a mockery of the whole thing. It would have been so easy to have had a rule prohibiting the inclusion of anyone born after 1900, in order to allow for some sense of perspective.

Lennon seems to be regarded as some sort of visionary of fairness and equality. I don't know how this is, given that he wrote one of the most sexist pieces of music ever written: a song called 'Norwegian Wood'. It's a song about a man who is invited back to a girl's house only to discover that she doesn't want to sleep with him. Naturally he sets fire to her living room the next day.

A conspiracy theorist even wrote a book claiming that Lennon was killed in a CIA plot, to prevent him organising a rally against Ronald Reagan's policies. While it's believable the CIA was monitoring him, it's hard to see that Lennon would be a serious threat to a president who had just comprehensively crushed Jimmy Carter. One site that promotes the idea of a conspiracy quotes a now-dead DJ as saying: "It was a conspiracy. Reagan had just won the election. They knew what kind of president he was going to be. There was only one man who could bring out a million people on demonstration in protest at his policies -- and that was Lennon."

I find this ludicrously far-fetched, but to a radio DJ it probably isn't. Who else thinks that pop stars have that kind of influence? Who else thinks that pop music is that important? If you want to check it out for yourself, go to:

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/Lennon.htm

or Click here

As for 'Imagine', I guess it's a reasonable song. I have to agree with its first verse:

"Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people living for today... Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace..."

But I have my doubts about verse two where he sings:

"Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man, Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope some day you'll join us, And the world will live as one."

'Imagine no possessions"???? Hey John, nobody forced you to buy a Rolls-Royce!