Cee Lo Green Changes 'Imagine' Lyrics To 'All Religions' From John Lennon's 'No Religion' During New Year's Eve Show

Cee Lo Green's small change to the lyrics to John Lennon's song "Imagine" is causing a very big uproar.

Charged with singing Lennon's famous solo-era tune on NBC's New Year's Eve show shortly before the ball dropped in Times Square , Green changed the lyrics from "Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too" to "Nothing to kill or die for, And all religion's true."

The change didn't go unnoticed, and to preempt criticism, he soon tweeted, "Yo I meant no disrespect by changing the lyric guys! I was trying to say a world were u could believe what u wanted that's all."

That did little to comfort angered Lennon fans, who lashed out over Twitter. Watch the performance below (starting around 4:00) and then read the angry exchanges over Twitter.

UPDATE 9:49 AM: All of Green's tweets have been deleted from his account, but can still be seen below.

WATCH:

Comments

[Kirsten555]

08:50 PM on 01/24/2012

Bad move, I can see what he was trying to do was positive, but by changing the lyrics he changed the point of the song. Imagine living without the things that cause us all to argue and to worry about.

[Robert Gudzikowski]

10:24 AM on 01/19/2012

If you lose faith in yourself then do anything you can to restore your faith i.e. religion

[Robert Gudzikowski]

10:18 AM on 01/19/2012

This is going nowhere man for nobody!

[Bec DeCorbeau]

08:39 PM on 01/13/2012

The right wing can’t understand Lennon "And no religion too". This doesn't mean to be atheist. Far from it. Lennon promotes to develop your spiritual values which are very different from the slavery of religion, to believe in peace and brotherhood without the interference of religion! It has to come from your heart and not because it is written in a series of books, that nobody interpret the same way.

So to change the "And no religion too" to "And all religion's true" doesn't make sense in the song.

[iknowscottyknows]

10:37 PM on 01/07/2012

The blindness of people is ironic.

You want peace, love, Utopia? You ever read the comments here? You ever read your own?

Blame all you want. It begins with you.

[albertasdaughter]

03:25 PM on 01/06/2012

OMG, you white folks are scary!!! All over some lyrics in a song that I never imagined anyone took this seriously. I guess I am not a Lennon fan even though I am from that era, but good grief! Can we all just get along?

[polly tick]

03:09 PM on 01/07/2012

You are a racist.

[ReddKatt]

04:52 PM on 01/05/2012

Ever heard of adlib? It happens all the time, especially in gospel and r&b, it's almost expected. The uptight Lennon fans can go pluck a duck. Lennon was acid trip musician not an expert on theology and world religion

[gcomeau]

02:30 PM on 01/25/2012

There's a difference between tweaking a lyric and changing the entire message of the song to **the opposite of what it was intended to be**.

The former is fine, the latter is blatantly disrespectful of the author's intent. If you want to just completely contradict the message the song author was trying to get across write your own song to do it... don't just mangle someone else's.

[harper music]

01:29 PM on 01/05/2012

bottom line, it's not his song to change. if hw wants to say something, he needs to write his own song, not use another's talent and then change it.

[plfarrar]

11:13 AM on 01/05/2012

I'm not a big Lennon or "Imagine" fan, but always thought that was the best and most thought provoking lyric of the song.

[CensoredByHuffpost]

01:46 AM on 01/05/2012

Signed - Angry, Agnostic Musician Who Can Play "Imagine" On Six Instruments And Makes $50,000 A Year In A Death Metal Band.

[CensoredByHuffpost]

01:46 AM on 01/05/2012

The only people who would object are those who are opposed to Unitarianism to begin with – those who insist that there is only one God and those who insist that there is absolutely no God – and would do anything to strip away the rights and views of their opponents because of their own central underlying fear of being censored themselves. God does not kill people. Religion does not create violence. Militarism and intolerance creates violence. There are over 2.5 billion theists in the world. Logically, if they were all murderers or killers, we wouldn't be facing an overpopulation crisis.

Why are there no sane, rational people left in the agnostic community that don't insist on "Imagine" being a manual of destruction and disassembly, but rather an ideal world of love and tolerance? Furthermore, why don't any of you actually play instruments? If I gave you an instrument, could you PLAY "Imagine" on that instrument? If not, why not? After all, this is your theme song, right? Your Atheist anthem for the destruction of all religious belief systems in three words 'no religion, too!'. Let's all claim ownership for a song we didn't write, from a man who died before most of this generation was born (Dec 8, 1980), for music that we can't play on an instrument, for a life that none of us lead.

Remember, as always: Being popular is more important than being right, that's the Baby Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z way.

[CensoredByHuffpost]

01:45 AM on 01/05/2012

More paid atheist non-musicians who think they know more about what should and shouldn't be done in the name of John Lennon (a practicing Buddhist and agnostic theist) than John Lennon, his family, his estate, his record label (all of whom confirmed Cee-Lo and approved his version of the song and his lyric change back in SEPTEMBER of 2011), actual musicians, actual followers of the real John Lennon (not atheists who claim their version of his ideals is his version), and everyone else in the world who appreciates Lennon's real message – tolerate and love everyone, accept everyone, share the world. Lennon's intent was never to destroy religion, destroy the country, etc. 'Imagine' is a hypothetical song which relies around the central purpose of the one world theory, that everyone is united. A world where all religions are true is the same as a world with no religion when viewed in a Unitarian context.

[Samantha Walters]

09:58 AM on 01/09/2012

I agree! You said it perfectly. I used to think people where ignorant, but now I am beginning to understand, it is not ignorance, it impaired vision. Its like they cannot see beyond what has been strategically placed in front of them for their whole lives. Its like they are wearing blinders. Lennon's message, this song, is a beautiful and plausible ideal. If more people learned to accept and tolerate EVERYONE, there would be much more peace for everyone in the world. We are all HUMAN. No matter our religion, creed, or economic stature. People are missing the point ENTIRELY!! If you sat there and watched that New Years Eve show, and all you heard was the slight change in phrase and not a message, that THIS year, will be different, THIS year, I will try to have more understanding of people as a whole, THIS year, I will try not to judge as much, THIS year, I will love and not hate, then I feel sorry for you. C-Lo, did a great job, it was touching and memorable, and I think John would have been proud.

[Nate35]

01:23 AM on 01/05/2012

If your going to change a legendary and beloved song, you should at least make sure your lyrics make any freaking sense.

[jayne rives]

10:54 PM on 01/06/2012

Or just consider that despite your intent, and his was fairly noble, there will always be backlash when you change something so 'classic'.

It was an extreme error in judgement to use that song and forum to make a modification in the lyrics. And it seems he got punished with a hell storm of backlash.

[Satirist1]

09:34 PM on 01/04/2012

Religions are all wrong. Just aswrong as this Jello Green nobody.

[polly tick]

02:11 PM on 01/04/2012

Despite the fact that I am a Beatles fan as well as a fan of each members' solo works, John Lennon is a grossly overrated musician. He was also a wife beating, child abusing, deadbeat dad. In summation, he was like most lib/progs, a self centered, hypocritical A hole.

[arthurdecco]

07:45 PM on 01/04/2012

polly tick, you're a despicable, attention-seeking liar.

[polly tick]

09:05 PM on 01/04/2012

Are you of the opinion that Cynthia Lennon, Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, and Sean Lennon are liars also?

[Tom Tom Paine]

06:37 AM on 01/05/2012

Polly want a cracker? Poor dear selusional girl. Time to get off the Tea Bagger Train because it just wrecked in a majority of Americans' minds. Hey I bet you liked herman Cain...lol. Grow up.