"God"

-by john lennon

God is a concept
By which we measure our pain
I'll say it again
God is a concept
By which we measure our pain
I don't believe in magic
I don't believe in I-ching
I don't believe in Bible
I don't believe in tarot
I don't believe in Hitler
I don't believe in Jesus
I don't believe in Kennedy
I don't believe in Buddha
I don't believe in mantra
I don't believe in Gita
I don't believe in yoga
I don't believe in kings
I don't believe in Elvis
I don't believe in Zimmerman
I don't believe in Beatles
I just believe in me
Yoko and me
And that's reality
The dream is over
What can I say?
The dream is over
Yesterday
I was the Dreamweaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus
But now I'm John
And so dear friends
You'll just have to carry on
The dream is over

This towering song rips away...everything, really. "Imagine" was already embedded in my spirit when i heard this, and it almost doesn't seem fair that one artist could write two songs that would be so immeasurably impactful on one person (to say nothing of millions). Is it only towering because of how we felt about "john lennon"? To hear john discard the Beatles, without hesitation or remorse, is just searing. Yet he tucks that message into an infinitely larger context, perhaps the only way he could have made it credible. If you were to look at the lyrics before you heard it, you might think there's no way it's a good song. It resembles a tedious laundry list. And then you hear it, and musically it's almost disturbingly sparse...but then in an instant you understand the howling torment john probably endured during the "bigger than jesus" storm...how he bit his tongue and backed away from his words, when his better angels were telling him to shove his truth right down the idiotic gullet of the beast that "Beatles" had become. In the hypnotic "I don't believe" section, the percussive piano starts to feel like the keys are being thumped directly on your heart, and you're holding your breath, because you never imagined you'd hear a song as honest as this.