How John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Imagine” Became the Refrain of Jimmy Carter’s Funeral

No American president, or post-president, thought extra profoundly than did Jimmy Carter in regards to the causes of battle—and in regards to the prospects for peace. So it mustn’t have come as a shock that essentially the most compelling musical efficiency of the thirty ninth president’s funeral on Thursday was a quiet rendering of a radical problem to militarism, nationalism, capitalism, and the exploitation of spiritual variations for political functions.

When nation stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood sang John Lennon and Yoko One’s “Think about” to the outstanding assemblage of home and worldwide leaders that got here collectively to honor Carter contained in the Nationwide Cathedral on Thursday, the recital of the lyrics touched on the hope for a world with out battle that energized and impressed Carter throughout his presidency and within the 44 years that adopted it.

The funeral service’s wealthy tapestry of devotional and secular music and hovering rhetoric highlighted Carter’s prophetic legacy as a uniquely engaged chief who, within the transferring phrases of former US ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Younger’s homily, devoted his public service to in search of “peace on earth and goodwill in direction of all males and particularly girls and kids.” It celebrated the previous president’s dedication to diplomacy—from his White Home work because the architect of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt to his final years as an outspoken advocate of justice for the Palestinian folks—alongside together with his religion in the potential of a world the place swords may be crushed into plowshares. Lennon shared that longing, and he expressed it within the title tune of his second solo album. The previous Beatle and anti-war campaigner requested {that a} world, then torn by conflicts that prolonged from Vietnam and Cambodia to India and Pakistan to southern Africa, northern Eire, and the Center East, would possibly “think about all of the folks, residing life in peace.”

Carter spoke greater than as soon as about his enthusiasm for the tune. He delighted in the truth that “Think about” had grow to be a very worldwide anthem. “[I]n many international locations all over the world—my spouse and I’ve visited about 125 international locations—you hear John Lennon’s tune ‘Think about’ used nearly equally with nationwide anthems,” the previous president said in a 2006 NPR interview. “So John Lennon has had a serious affect on a few of the international locations which can be growing on this planet.”

Requested by the Related Press about his favourite Beatles tune when he was attending the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival for the debut of Jonathan Demme’s documentary, Jimmy Carter Man From Plains, on the time of the premiere of Across the Universe, a movie framed by the music of Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, Carter as soon as once more talked about Lennon’s majestic solo tune.

“My favourite is ‘Think about.’ Once I go to an odd nation, Cuba and different locations, in a few of these nations, ‘Think about’ has grow to be [an unofficial] nationwide anthem. When you go to Havana, as an illustration, you’ll see a statue of John Lennon,” he said, referencing the memorial in Havana’s Parque John Lennon. “After we go to a people efficiency or a symphony live performance or to trendy American music, they at all times play ‘Think about,’ and it’s one among my favorites simply personally. When you take heed to the lyrics carefully, you’ll see that it’s towards faith, it’s towards nationwide boundaries, it’s towards nationalism, it’s towards jingoism, however the affect it has on folks is profound.”

Carter was not alone in his nuanced understanding of the tune, which Lennon mentioned was impressed and influenced by Ono, his spouse and musical associate. (In 2017, primarily based on interviews the previous Beatle gave earlier than his demise in 1980, Ono obtained credit score as a cowriter of the monitor.) Rolling Stone as soon as described “Think about” as Lennon’s “best musical reward to the world,” whereas David Fricke, one of many journal’s most insightful writers, observed, “‘Think about’ is a subtly contentious tune, Lennon’s best mixed achievement as a balladeer and agitator.”

The politics of the tune sparked its share of controversy through the years, particularly for lyrics that invited listeners to: “Think about there’s no heaven / It’s simple in the event you strive / No hell beneath us / Above us, solely sky / Think about all of the folks / Residing for immediately,” and “Think about there’s no international locations / It isn’t arduous to do / Nothing to kill or die for / And no faith, too.”

Regardless of the tune’s world resonance through the years, there have been social media posts on Thursday that criticized the inclusion of “Think about” in Carter’s funeral. Critics urged that it was an inappropriate decide for a celebration of the lifetime of so passionate an evangelical Christian. Lennon acknowledged these types of issues in his lifetime, as Beatles creator and historian Kenneth Womack noted, when the Library of Congress added “Think about” to its Nationwide Recording Registry in 2023. “Lennon additionally cited a Christian prayer ebook as a part of the tune’s impetus,” wrote Womack. “In June 1969, he had been gifted the ebook from comic and civil rights activist Dick Gregory. As Lennon later defined to [interviewer David] Sheff, the ebook afforded him with the important thing idea in regards to the nature of ‘constructive prayer’ that might inform the composition of ‘Think about.’ ‘When you can think about a world at peace, with no denominations of faith—not with out faith, however with out this “my God-is-bigger-than-your-God” factor—then it may be true.’”

Carter, a progressive evangelical who spoke about how he sought to “apply my Christian religion way more frequently to my secular life,” was properly conscious of the tune’s message, and of Lennon’s affect as a musician and political activist.

With Ono, the previous Beatle had attended the celebrations of Carter’s inauguration as president in 1977. When Lennon was murdered in New York Metropolis in December of 1980, the Georgian who was ending his single presidential time period mourned the information, with an prolonged White Home statement that noticed, “It’s particularly poignant that John Lennon has died by violence, although he had lengthy campaigned for peace.”

In his later years, Carter’s appreciation of “Think about” was a lot in proof. When Georgia Tech college students shocked Carter and former first woman Rosalynn Carter with a rendition of the song in 2017, the previous president rose to his toes and led the applause. At Rosalynn Carter’s funeral in 2023, Brooks and Yearwood—who’ve labored alongside the Carters on Habitat for Humanity projects—carried out “Think about.”

The tune selections at each funerals mirrored the musical tastes of the Carters and their household—together with messages they hoped to speak.

Jimmy Carter was, as his grandson Jason Carter advised the mourners at Thursday’s memorial, a sensible idealist who “waged peace with love and respect” and who preached “the ability of human rights… not only for some folks however for all folks.” He was, as properly, a believer within the energy of music who appreciated the worldwide attain, and affect, of a tune that concluded with the phrases, “You could say I’m a dreamer/However I’m not the one one/I hope sometime you’ll be a part of us/And the world will stay as one.”