Moving.
Disturbing.
Very well done.

And, yes, I believe he would indeed.

My name is John and I approve of this.

//Granted, I approved of it when it came out several years ago.

If I may take a moment to make a reasoned* argument:

I approve of this mostly because I sincerely believe this is how Mr. Lennon would have recorded it nowadays. It's downbeat with a small strain of hope. It's exactly how someone (who's not stoned) would see things today as compared to the seventies.

* reasoned: i'm drunk and I'm defending something I enjoy immensely.

Dark but well done.

Con_Authority: Dark but well done.

It's the minor key that makes it awesome.

Moving.

This, combined with their cover of Mitchell's "The Fiddle and the Drum" tends to make me they they might be on to something with this whole "war is bad" thing.

Very good, haunting and disturbing. The switch to minor makes the song so much darker. But the imagery is fitting and the core of the song still rings very true.

Let me be the first to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

I like Jack Johnson's version from Instant Karma better.

radioberlin: Let me be the first to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

Let me be the second to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

I don't know if John would approve- his message was one of relentless optimism in the face of terrible things; while the minor key and war footage are instead used to call us out on our greed and hypocrisy. This video recasts Lennon's original message into one of hopelessness and despair.

But whatever, I'm drunk.

/can't say serious stuff on Fark unless you say you're drunk.

radioberlin: Let me be the first to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.
It doesn't help that the original is preachy and overrated either.

Meh.

I appreciate that they're doing it in their own melodically stripped, depressed way, but... meh.
Loses too much, could be any mediocre metal band song, instead of the great song that Imagine actually is.

And I have no idea whether John Lennon would have liked it or not. Probably not. But I don't think he'd have said so publicly.

The video is obvious, but the cover itself is brilliant in its subversion of the original. It was on a "worst covers" list on fark a while back...

/heh
//APC is teh win

Great cover, and a great video. I still don't forgive them for the massive pile of fail that was their "Let's Have a War" cover, though.

Not their best album, (nothing will compare to Mer de Noms) but I liked quite a few of the songs after a while. This was one I liked right away. Relax, not every cover will be great.

Martstar: radioberlin: Let me be the first to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

Let me be the second to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

The dolphins during "you may say I'm a dreamer" were what sent me over the edge personally.

/The Devil Dogs beat the Badgers!!! Whooo!!!

RaKellaKAT: I don't know if John would approve- his message was one of relentless optimism in the face of terrible things

Yeah, "imagine there's no heaven" gets me all happy happy joy joy too.

But whatever, my favorite Beatle was George.

Gulper Eel: RaKellaKAT: I don't know if John would approve- his message was one of relentless optimism in the face of terrible things

Yeah, "imagine there's no heaven" gets me all happy happy joy joy too.

But whatever, my favorite Beatle was George.

Yeah because there is a heaven with clouds and all your dead relatives are there and you get pie all day long. 14 different flavors to choose from. Your childhood dog is there too! Angels wait on you hand and foot and you are happy FOREVER! :)

This heaven is worth fighting and killing other people for. If you die then you go to heaven and get four million virgins.

The song is so INCREDIBLY optimistic it isn't funny. You think people will ever wise up and realize no good can come from drawing imaginary lines on the earth and calling itself a country and fighting other countries? Or believing in God and heaven and fighting other religions? Never, people are far too stupid. Thinking people abolish countries and religions couldn't be more optimistic.

/But whatever, my favorite Beatle was Ringo.

TheDuderino: Yeah because there is a heaven with clouds and all your dead relatives are there and you get pie all day long. 14 different flavors to choose from. Your childhood dog is there too! Angels wait on you hand and foot and you are happy FOREVER! :)

My relatives? Sounds positively awful.

I'll take the pie, though.

Infortunately for ol' John, "Imagine" was the first album to be released under our local record store's new higher prices. So a bunch of us would-be hippies trooped in only to find we didn't have the cash.

"Oh, just imagine this doesn't cost $3.10," said Barney as we left dejectedly.

Probably the birth of my disdain for "political" artists.

/how come no one but me likes the "Rock and Roll" album?

I thought the crawl at the bottom was too distracting.

Needs more "Bikini Bandits."

radioberlin: Let me be the first to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

THIS.

I couldn't watch the whole thing.... and I LOVE John Lennon's version..

/But whatever, my favorite Beatle was Ringo.

Damn right brother! I know I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade!

Well, they get an A for Effort.

radioberlin: Let me be the first to say I find this version tacky, over-produced and the video cliche and obvious.

But they have sports scores on the bottom! Becuase instead of working for a better world I sometimes watch sports! I am part of the problem.

The ironic thing about this video is it wasn't allowed to be shown anywhere on television because of the "graphic war footage" mentioned. And yet, every single clip was shown on the news or somewhere else at some point, but somehow because of how it was edited together or something, it became "too graphic."

The cover was OK, but the video was so bad that I thought it was one of those YouTube compilations done by a fan. That was the "official" video? Wow, I can't believe Maynard allowed that to represent the band. Very obvious, to say the least.

/and those dolls suck at lip synching

Doesn't anyone else find APC's version uplifting? I mean, it's bursting at the seams with cynicism and despair.

/imagine puppy dogs and lollipops, then, I don't care
//don't imagine puppy dog lollipops though
///aw, too late

Creepy singing babies FTW.

good song even if it could have been written by Marx

Oh look, more idiotic comparisons to despots and dictators by people who understand neither.

calls for absolution of national lines, religion, personal property you can find the same sentiments in the communist manifesto. the people are supposed to reach a classless utopia where there is no government religion and all things are community property. please be kind and point out to me where my comparison fails.

randomjsa: Oh look, more idiotic comparisons to despots and dictators by people who understand neither.

forgot to add marx was neither a dictator nor a despot so calm on down...

I thought the original version was supposed to be optimistic and looking forward to a better future. I love APC, but this cover just doesn't convey the same feelings the original did.

I hadn't seen the video before, but thier version has always given me chills.

The gross reality is that humans have hated and killed each other long before countries, religion, and possessions ever existed, and will continue to do so long afterwards. John Lennon was a naive child, and I'm glad he isn't alive to write more drivel like this.

Counter_Intelligent: John Lennon was a naive child, and I'm glad he isn't alive to write more drivel like this.

Fully agree

/Maynard James Keenan ftw

Ethyl Engine: Counter_Intelligent: John Lennon was a naive child, and I'm glad he isn't alive to write more drivel like this.

Fully agree

/Maynard James Keenan ftw

You two need a good fark in the ass.

Yes. Both of you.

Counter_Intelligent: The gross reality is that humans have hated and killed each other long before countries, religion, and possessions ever existed, and will continue to do so long afterwards. John Lennon was a naive child, and I'm glad he isn't alive to write more drivel like this.

I'll grant you that. But, humans have also, at times, shown great compassion and caring for one another - long before countries, religion, and possessions. It's not naive to point out that the good stuff is much cooler and actually easier to achieve.

WTF with stupid looking baby head badly lipsyncing inside the spacewalker?

Religion doesn't "make" people either, and neither do governments. People suck.

That song always sounds kind of "muppet babies" -- i mean, let's pretend and imagine! But, nope, your still in the living room jumping around on the furniture, not on the moon or whatever.

still a good song, but yeah, naive.

SleepyMcGee: I thought the original version was supposed to be optimistic and looking forward to a better future. I love APC, but this cover just doesn't convey the same feelings the original did

Yeah they totally should have recorded it exactly as John did and not updated the message for almost thirty years later when most people still haven't even thought about embracing John's message. That'll both work and be interesting.

Speaking as someone who is very fond of APC, I found it very meh.

That first APC album, "Mer De Noms", still remains on my desert-island disc list.

I love Mer De Noms, but Thirteenth Step has a few songs that stand above and beyond anything they've done, such as Gravity, The Noose and The Outsider, those songs still give me the chills.

/Along with Passive, Imagine and Fiddle and the Drum.

drredhook: SleepyMcGee: I thought the original version was supposed to be optimistic and looking forward to a better future. I love APC, but this cover just doesn't convey the same feelings the original did

Yeah they totally should have recorded it exactly as John did and not updated the message for almost thirty years later when most people still haven't even thought about embracing John's message. That'll both work and be interesting.

That's not what I said at all... I meant that APC's version leaves a feeling of "we're farked." Maybe it's a good thing, I can't really say one way or the other what makes for an effective song. I can only speak for myself. APC's version leaves a different feel than Lennon's. That's all I meant.

I played this in my English class when it came out, not so much to appease my lib teacher, but for the joy of seeing APC on a Smart Board.

That said, this video and song doesn't even touch their other work. This was the best song on their worst album. I suggest the NSFW 3 Libras video.

Love Maynard, Love A Perfect Circle, Love Tool. The man can do no wrong, and he certainly didn't in Emotive. The only people that think he did are closed-minded nostalgists. It's one thing to hate a cover that actually sucks (Avril Lavigne's "Chop Suey" is an excellent example), but this did NOT suck. It was a beautifully tragic song that took Imagine and gave it a different sound without destroying the meaning and overall feeling of the song. How can you construe that as a bad thing? If anything, that's what EVERY cover should do. Reinvent the song without destroying what made it great to begin with.

/but then again, some people will biatch about anything

You all are forgetting the nurse who loved me btw.

Remember when Madonna murdered imagine live on tv? That was awesome..