How John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Think about” Turned the Chorus of Jimmy Carter’s Funeral

No American president, or post-president, thought extra profoundly than did Jimmy Carter concerning the causes of warfare—and concerning the prospects for peace. So it mustn’t have come as a shock that probably 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 exceptional 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 warfare 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 shifting 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 the direction of all males and particularly ladies 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 for a world the place swords may be crushed into plowshares. Lennon shared that longing, and he expressed it within the title track 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 track. He delighted in the truth that “Think about” had turn out to be a very worldwide anthem. “[I]n many international locations around the globe—my spouse and I’ve visited about 125 international locations—you hear John Lennon’s track ‘Think about’ used nearly equally with nationwide anthems,” the previous president said in a 2006 NPR interview. “So John Lennon has had a significant influence on a number of the international locations which are growing on the planet.”

Requested by the Related Press about his favourite Beatles track 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 track.

“My favourite is ‘Think about.’ After I go to an odd nation, Cuba and different locations, in a few of these nations, ‘Think about’ has turn out to be [an unofficial] nationwide anthem. For those who go to Havana, for example, 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 all the time play ‘Think about,’ and it’s considered one of my favorites simply personally. For those who hearken to the lyrics carefully, you’ll see that it’s in opposition to faith, it’s in opposition to nationwide boundaries, it’s in opposition to nationalism, it’s in opposition to jingoism, however the influence it has on folks is profound.”

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

The politics of the track sparked its share of controversy over time, particularly for lyrics that invited listeners to: “Think about there’s no heaven / It’s straightforward if you happen to attempt / No hell beneath us / Above us, solely sky / Think about all of the folks / Residing for right now,” and “Think about there’s no international locations / It isn’t laborious to do / Nothing to kill or die for / And no faith, too.”

Regardless of the track’s international resonance over time, there have been social media posts on Thursday that criticized the inclusion of “Think about” in Carter’s funeral. Critics steered that it was an inappropriate choose for a celebration of the lifetime of so passionate an evangelical Christian. Lennon acknowledged these types of issues in his lifetime, as Beatles writer 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 e book as a part of the track’s impetus,” wrote Womack. “In June 1969, he had been gifted the e book from comic and civil rights activist Dick Gregory. As Lennon later defined to [interviewer David] Sheff, the e book afforded him with the important thing idea concerning the nature of ‘optimistic prayer’ that will inform the composition of ‘Think about.’ ‘For those who 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 far more repeatedly to my secular life,” was properly conscious of the track’s message, and of Lennon’s influence 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 track decisions 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 informed the mourners at Thursday’s memorial, a sensible idealist who “waged peace with love and respect” and who preached “the facility 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 track 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 part of us/And the world will reside as one.”

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