Why is the song imagine so controversial?

Upon its release the song’s lyrics upset some religious groups, particularly the line: “Imagine there’s no heaven”. When asked about the song during one of his final interviews, Lennon said he considered it to be as strong a composition as any he had written with the Beatles.

Is Imagine about war?

John Lennon described the song as “an ad campaign for peace”, and it is no surprise that his moving anthem is such a beacon for those who long for global harmony. “Imagine,” written in March 1971 during the Vietnam War, has become a permanent protest song and a lasting emblem of hope.

Was John Lennon anti-war?

Right up until his death on December 8, 1980, at the hands of an assassin, Lennon remained true to the anti-war activism that had shaped much of his life. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for the nation he came to call home.

Why did John Lennon write imagine?

“Imagine” was written in early 1971, a strange time in John Lennon’s career. Lennon had just bought a new piano, spray-painted white, for his wife Yoko Ono’s birthday. Soon afterwards, he wrote “Imagine” on it. “Imagine” was inspired heavily by Ono, who used the word in many of her 1960s conceptual art works.

Why was John Lennon’s Imagine banned at school?

It is known across the world as an anthem to peace. But 35 years after it was written, John Lennon’s hit song Imagine has been banned at one school for being too subversive. Pupils at the church school were prohibited from singing the song – after its lyrics were deemed anti-religious.

Is John Lennon’s Imagine an atheist song?

Published in 1971 on the album of the same name, and released as a single soon after, John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s Imagine has often been viewed as an atheist song … … for its evocation of a world without religion, without heaven or hell.

What did John Lennon say about religion?

John Lennon on religion In his Playboy interview in 1980, the year he was killed, Lennon was quoted as saying: People always got the image I was an anti-Christ or antireligion.

What is the message of the song Imagine by John Lennon?

John Lennon’s song, “Imagine” proposes NO divisions by faith, nationality, race, or any other form of irrational belief. This simple, gentle song is an anthem to a world no longer divided by mythic ideology. He represented the future, even though (like Moses) he did not survive to see it.