Cee Lo Green has outraged fans after attempting to improve John Lennon's Imagine. During a televised performance on New Year's Eve, Green changed Lennon's lyrics, turning a line that criticises religion into one that celebrates faith.
Green's appearance on NBC's New Year's Eve concert had a promising start. Dressed in a black robe and shades, he stood onstage at New York's Times Square, summoning a soundtrack of piano and beats. "Imagine there's no heaven," he sang, "it's easy if you try." But things got trickier around the one-minute mark. "Imagine there's no countries/ It isn't hard to do /Nothing to kill or die for," Green crooned, "and all religion is true."
"All religion is true." It's a clunky line – and one Green made up. Lennon's original lyrics don't praise pluralism or interchangeable religious truths – they damn them. Back in 1971, Lennon asked us to imagine a world without borders, possessions, hunger or greed – "and no religion too".
Atheists, agnostics and Lennon purists were quick to attack Green on Twitter. "You sang Imagine in a fur coat & expensive jewelry and changed [the lyrics] to be pro-religion," wrote one user, "#2011WrongnessSummedUp". Others were even more disappointed: "I am imagining the spin cycle inside John Lennon's grave right now," tweeted sports journalist John Giannone.
Green eventually tweeted an apology: "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys!" he wrote. "I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all." But the Gnarls Barkley singer seemed to change his mind, deleting the apology and all related posts. "Happy new year everyone!!!" he tweeted instead. "Now playing: we just disagree [by] dave mason."
