June 29, 2011 - 9:58 am
From the Toronto Sun:
John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death – according to the tragic Beatles star’s last personal assistant.
Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon’s death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.
Buzzsawmonkey, other PJM contributors and readers… have at it!
Does this news and the song Taxman mean that the Beatles were actually Anarcho-Capitalists?
Taxman is technically Harrison, but Lennon helped him with lyrics.
Mark Steyn had an excellent piece on this song. Unfortunately, it’s no longer available online. Steyn’s argument was that rock stars don’t like being taxed, but they embrace very expensive political agendas (green, 3rd world assistance, etc.) that effectively kick the tax down a generation or two. Not exactly fiscal conservatives or, as you said Anarcho-Capitalists.
I do remember reading an article that had nothing good to say about Fred Seaman. Of course, this means nothing in these days of “elastic truth.” Still, we may get some corroborating testimony, or some kind of assurance Seaman is telling the truth.
Shocking claim in some ways, but maybe not so shocking if you actually pay attention to the lyrics to “Revolution,” which basically mocks the whole ’60s radical claims for reinventing society.
“But if you go carryin’ pictures of Chairman Mao,
You ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”
The man obviously never met Anita Dunn or Barack Obama.
Yes. The seeds are there in several places to be seen. Aside from the John and Yoko Club, I don’t think he had much patience for any club that wanted him as a member.
Sounds a lot like me and a lot of other Republicans I know.
Imagine
—apologies to John Lennon
Imagine no derision
Towards religious belief
Tolerance for diverse visions
Bolstering joy and soothing grief
Letting each denomination
Find its separate way
Imagine patriotism
And genuine national pride
Helping to heal false schisms
We’re really all one side
Imagine recognition
Of what we have achieved
You may call me a turncoat
But I’m not the only one
I hope like me you’ll wake up
And undo the damage we’ve done
Imagine deregulation
I wonder if you can
No governmental meddling
In people’s private plans
Imagine what we could build
With less bureaucracy
You may call me a turncoat
But I’m not the only one
I hope like me you’ll wake up
And undo the damage we’ve done
Quick and to the point. Poetry Does serve a purpose.
Imagine … re-imagined. I like it.
It’s not just Tax man. What about the song revolution? Beatles songs don’t exactly tout the left wing line.
And don’t forget “Working Class Hero”: “And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/But you’re still [expletive] peasants as far as I can see…”
I think this has been covered before:
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/stop-imagining/
Thanks. Good article.
We can go overboard with sea-change of 60′s radicals who abandoned those ideas (or never quite fit the mold to begin with), the Dylans, Lennons, and various Byrds and Buffalo Springfields and McGuires and Guthries. Most of them became not conservatives, but nonliberals (or “postliberals,” as I say). It is worth noting that the disillusioned tended to be the earlier rockers and hippies – later versions (Don Henley) tended to be the most reflexive and doctrinaire liberals.
Lennon may have written Imagine from the perspective of his younger, naive self, inflated with youthful dreams of realizing via peaceful socialist movements a veritable heaven on earth. He no doubt realized how much the song would appeal to the young and naive. But at the last verse, with “…you may say that I’m a dreamer…” he would be addressing his grown-up, disillusioned, mature self, and signaling to the adults that he wasn’t a complete fool (or a useful idiot, etc.).
I knew it all along!
I’ve had this dream of John, having never been murdered, of being interviewed in 2003 as to why he wasn’t protesting the Iraq war, with him responding, “I may be daft, but I’m not styooo-pid!”
IMAGINE, RE-IMAGINED
——————–
Imagine no Jihadis
It isn’t hard to do
No murder in the name of Islam
No hatred for the Jew.
Imagine all the Arabs
Living safe and free…
You may say that I’m a dreamer,
But I know it can be done.
Take away their evil rulers,
And the long war can still be won.
Well, John and Yoko were investing heavily in Holstein cows, and that was not a charity drive for India.
Assuming that John was actually smart, of course he turned capitalist.
Paranoid theory #43,778: That’s why “they” shot him. Come on, connect the dots, you idjuts.
I remember the October, 1980 Esquire piece on John just before he died that lambasted him for being worth 480M. The hippies couldn’t believe it. John was smart enough to see the billions going to freeloading, cheating and stealing that were putting the poor in permanent retrograde. Just like Hemingway opening his eyes to Socialist Fascism – John saw Freedom beats Fascism any day of the week.
Why does anybody listen to the Beatles? Did they do bluegrass?
‘nuf said…
I want to believe this badly, but I would like some more evidence. Where can I learn more?
Folks never seem to even wonder why John Lennon was living in New York when he was shot, rather than in England (his homeland). That’s because in the 1970s England decided to try to tax “rich” rock stars and soccer players at 90% of their income. Rather than pay such as outrageous tax, they all left the country and lived elsewhere.
Folks on the left also ridicule Atlas Shrugged, but if the left tried to tax the “rich” in America at such outrageous rates, the left would be shocked to find that the rich would all just “go Galt” and also leave the country. And the poor lefties wouldn’t have any clue as to where all the wealth had gone.
chicopanther
I don’t remember Lennon ever saying anything in an interview that would lead me to believe he was stepping away from socialism. Which doesn’t mean he wasn’t.
But he’d hardly be unique in being hypocritical about it. If he was serious about socialism, maybe he wouldn’t have recorded the “Imagine” video at a grand piano in a mansion…”Imagine MY possessions, peasants!”
There is the old saying that anybody who is not liberal when they are young has no heart, but anybody who is not conservative, or libertarian, when they get older, has no brain. I made the journey completely, being liberil until I was 30, then conservative, and now libertarian/conservative. I think Lennon went through the same journey, except I think he went from liberal to libertarian/moderate.
The songs “revolution” and “the Taxman” certainly were not friendly to the left. I think the Beatles spoke to all of us, of all political pursuasions, as any good musician should.
He also had a brief encounter with Jesus and being born again but Yoko fixed that too – http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/januaryweb-only/001-22.0.html?start=1
Imagine no abortions
It’s easy if you try
No wombs cut open
Just healthy newborn cries
Imagine all the babies
Free to breathe and play
Imagine there’s no death tax
It isn’t hard to do
No taking wealth to transfer
And no tax shelters too
Imagine all the people
Leaving heirs in peace
You may call me a “teabagger”
But I’m not the only one
And if everyone will join us
The Constitution will live on
Imagine no corruption
I wonder if you can
No need for union thuggery
Or forced contribution
Imagine all our leaders
Serving as they should
You may call me a “teabagger”
But I’m not the only one
And if everyone will join us
The Constitution will live on
That surely confirms Winston Churchill when he stated, “If you’re not a Liberal at 20, you have no heart; if you’re not a Conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
Now that the secret’s out, what are Liberals going to do with it next? Deny it to our faces? Sue whoever said that into oblivion? (Remember, this totally destroys the golden image of Liberal Lennon into smithereens.)
Would anyone go crazy enough to suggest John Hinckley should be freed? Who knows!
This story is BS. If you believe this, you’ve been had.
Believe it or not based on further evidence. I do remember Lennon reading about his frustration with the big charity concerts he was involved in that ended up in complete financial chaos, and saying he had decided to adopt a radical new position on his charitable giving — he was going to tithe a percentage of his income and leave it at that.
One tug on a thread and the whole blanket can unravel.
I think that ‘Imagine’ is nothing more or less than a love song to Yoko. He’s singing everything he knows she wants to hear and basking in the glow of her approval. I don’t think he cared a fig for the actual ideas in the song.
He did it to get laid. It’s what guys do!