Has anyone heard that DREADFUL remake of "Imagine" ...

... by A Perfect Circle?

My God, it's the WORST remake I've ever heard. They've turned the song from a light and hopeful song to a suicidal minor-key DIRGE.

I called the station playing it last night (I was in the car, and literally heard it twice in one hour) and asked them who the artist was, and then gave them my honest opinion of it.

The response was "Well, we're playing it every hour."

Smells like Payola to me.

Is nothing sacred?

... was to convey the mood that John Lennon might have if he came back and saw the world in the condition it's in today.

Still, I could have respected the band more if they had re-written the lyrics as a political statement, to match the 'mood' of the new version. But to marry Lennon's optimism to a dreadful minor-key dirge, and have it sung by a man who sounds like he is on the verge of tears ... I guess there's a certain irony to it, but it hurts me to listen to it. Maybe that's the point. But it's lost on the 13-18 year old market that this band is geared toward.

is sort of a statemnent that the artists are trying to make. I think it says, "Look at what we've done to ourselves since this song was originally made." I think it gives the song a sense of urgency.

Like you I like the original much better and I don't care for the remake, but I think they had a plan when they went with a sad sound.

The song isn't the greatest, most melodic song, and it's not supposed to be.

A Perfect Circle is basically stating that we're slipping further and further away from John Lennon's idealized vision in the original version. The cover is SUPPOSED to make you revile at it being a bastardized version of the original.

Instead of freedom from nationalism and religion, we have MORE nationalism and religion. Instead of dreaming, we're hiding in fear and destroying those that oppose us. We're even more divided and we're living in a darker world now.

The video actually is quite good. It's like watching CNN and images of Bush, Hitler, and other dictators are juxtaposed as headlines scroll at the bottom.

Basically, the two versions are night and day.

("Yeah, one version is good and the other one sucks!" - I know :))

But still, I wished they had re-written the lyrics.

Here's a snippet (Windows Media) from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/clipserve/B000641ZIQ001002/0/103-7652838-0415846

It wasn't enough to merely have to change the station, I literally wanted to rip my car stereo out and throw it through the windshield.

So, yeah, I guess you can say I hated it. :D