Topic: Latest Offbeat/Bizarre Claim: John Lennon Was A Conservative

[trapeze]

Update: Now an FNC report claims that Lennon might have been a closet evangelical Christian.

Seems strange that this stuff is only coming out now. But mostly it just seems strange.

[rickl]

Fascinating.  I think it's entirely plausible.  In a comment to an earlier post, I referenced Churchill's famous quote about being a conservative at 20 and a liberal at 40.

Lennon was 40 when he was killed.  I think there's an excellent chance that he would have spoken up if he had lived a few years more.

Yoko has had a lot of control over his legacy, so it's no surprise that she would want to suppress this.  She probably had a lot to do with turning him towards the Left in the first place.

By the way, the Dylan song is indeed entitled Gotta Serve Somebody.  The guy in the clip had it right the first time, before he "corrected" himself.

[rickl]

In a comment to an earlier post, I referenced Churchill's famous quote about being a conservative at 20 and a liberal at 40.

Oops, didn't realize this was the same thread.  See my comment on page 1.

[trapeze]

By the way, the Dylan song is indeed entitled Gotta Serve Somebody.  The guy in the clip had it right the first time, before he "corrected" himself.

Yeah, I caught that, too.

Dylan's embrace of Christianity.

Didn't seem to last to long, though.

[rickl]

Didn't seem to last to long, though.

Well, your last link was kind of ambiguous.  The initial fervor wore off, but his conversion definitely changed him.  While he doesn't write overtly Christian songs nowadays, religious references keep popping up in his newer songs.  To cite just one example, 'Til I Fell In Love With You from 1997:

Now I feel like I’m coming to the end of my way
But I know God is my shield and he won’t lead me astray

Sorry for going off-topic.  Believe me, I can turn any thread into a Bob Dylan thread.  Just try me.   

[trapeze]

I can't find an online reference but I remember that Dylan was being counseled by Christian musician Keith Green. I always wondered if Green's unexpected death in a plane crash in 1982 was partly to blame for Dylan's falling away from the faith. He had been very enthusiastic about Christianity up until that point.

[rickl]

I don't think he's fallen away at all.  He's just not in-your-face about it.

ETA:  But I didn't know about Keith Green.  I'd never heard of him before.

[trapeze]

I don't think he's fallen away at all.  He's just not in-your-face about it.

ETA:  But I didn't know about Keith Green.  I'd never heard of him before.

This is the quote that I was referring to:

By 1984, Dylan was deliberately distancing himself from the "born -again" label. He told Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone magazine: "I've never said I'm born again. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come."

That's the kind of thing that Hugh Hewitt would attribute to people he calls, "embarrassed believers."

[trapeze]

Keith Green wiki link

[trapeze]

Found this discussion thread re Dylan/Green/Christianity.

[rickl]

R. Scott Clark  
Inactive User
Join Date
Apr 2005
Posts
2,348
I'm not expert, but I'm a fan. As far as I know he hasn't renounced the faith but he has walked away from the evangelical sub-culture. I guess that being a part of the Vineyard wasn't particularly helpful. My impression is that things were not very healthy there at the time. The evangelicals were trying to do to him what they do to every major "secular" media figure who converts: make him into the next evangelical superstar, anoint him as a prophet (which the boomers had already done in the 60s), and "use" him to advance their agenda. Dylan wasn't having any of it and walked away from the subculture. Eschatological themes continue in which writing since. He doesn't say anything about his conversion in Chronicles vol 1 but I don't think it gets that far. He doesn't discuss a lot of things there (such as the motorcycle wreck). That's just Dylan being enigmatic and refusing to do what people think he should do.

That's pretty much my take on it.

The folk music purists were appalled when he went electric.

The leftists were furious with him in the mid to late 60s after he stopped writing "protest songs" and refused to denounce the Vietnam War.

The "sex & drugs & rock'n'roll" crowd were seriously pissed off when he converted to Christianity.

And now some Christians are apparently upset because he isn't openly and explicitly evangelical.

I can't think of any other artist who has systematically told large portions of his audience to f*ck off as much as Dylan has.  He's done it over and over and over again.  And he keeps on going like the Energizer bunny.

[Glock32]

The folk music purists were appalled when he went electric.

Neil Young's fans were likewise appalled by his use of synthesizers and vocoders in 1982's Trans album. By contrast, Trans is the only thing of Neil Young's that I actually like.