Topic: John Lennon

[TIOTIT]

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU&eurl=http://


JOHN LENNON - WORKING CLASS HERO - LYRICS

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so flowerin crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still flowerin peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

[tangerine dream]

[nichi]

Good hands...

[Michael]

Ah...

[tangerine dream]

Give Peace a Chance
- John Lennon

Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

(C'mon)
Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Minister, Sinister, Banisters and Canisters,
Bishops, Fishops, Rabbis, and Pop Eyes, Bye bye, Bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

(Let me tell you now)
Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation,
Integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

Ev'rybody's talkin' 'bout
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna
Hare Hare Krishna
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance

[nichi]

Now I'm going to find this song to play -- thanks Lori!

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fDFFh8ZSqV0/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fDFFh8ZSqV0"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/fDFFh8ZSqV0&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/fDFFh8ZSqV0&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1</a>


When they had a bed-in...

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[tangerine dream]

don't thank me, thank John!
 

[tangerine dream]

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Kc8hzb0daK8/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kc8hzb0daK8"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Kc8hzb0daK8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/Kc8hzb0daK8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1</a>

[Nichi]

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=njG7p6CSbCU&eurl=http://


JOHN LENNON - WORKING CLASS HERO - LYRICS

As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so flowerin crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still flowerin peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

<span data-s9e-mediaembed="youtube" style="display:inline-block;width:100%;max-width:640px"><span style="display:block;overflow:hidden;position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe allowfullscreen="" loading="lazy" scrolling="no" style="background:url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/njG7p6CSbCU/hqdefault.jpg) 50% 50% / cover;border:0;height:100%;left:0;position:absolute;width:100%" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/njG7p6CSbCU"></iframe></span></span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/njG7p6CSbCU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/njG7p6CSbCU&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>

[Firestarter]

I still like his Watching the Wheels the best. My mom used to play that song all the time. That song now reminds me of myself lol. "People say im crazy," lalalala. 

[Michael]

Call be dull-witted, but I have never been able to know what this song is about.

I love the song - that such a bare-bones song can reach out to so many. But what do people read into this - why do people like it?

I have some thoughts and questions:

1. Working class people like it because it says the words "working class" - meaning they think it's a song about them. But I sense they aren't quite sure if it's praise of ridicule.

2. He obviously puts the boot into the working class: "But you're still flowerin peasants as far as I can see".
But we aren't quite sure - is he actually taking the piss out of himself? I mean is he ridiculing himself as a 'hero' - one who got away, but didn't really get away?

3. Is he saying you should escape like he did - and he is successful? Or is he saying you should escape like he did, but it's all shit at the top as well as the bottom? Or is he saying it's shit at the bottom as a working class, but nonetheless it's still better than the shit at the top - I mean is he really ridiculing what people see as his success?

4. "There's room at the top they are telling you still" - obviously cynical.
"If you want to be a hero well just follow me" - is that cynical or is he genuine? Surely he knows that's a fairytale for the millions of working class - is he just rubbing salt in their wounds, or is he actually being cynical about what he has become?

I just don't get it. And I accept that, but I sense that many love this song because they think they know what it means - it must mean something to them in a positive way. But I don't see a positive anywhere in this song. It seems to me to be a statement of despair at everything and nothing.

[Nichi]

"You're still flowering peasants for all I can see."
meaning, only some illusion holds them into thinking anything else -- even thinking that the song is for them! There's some delicious irony in that.

As for "no positives", some people like the blues, despair and all. Think about, 
"Nobody loves me but my mother -
And she could be jivin' too."  (BB King)
That's grim!

I guess this song could be "Liverpool Blues."

[Firestarter]

They probably just like it cause its John Lennon saying the F word in a song

[xero]

I saw the last bit of a doco on JL tonight. I was taken by the composure and intelligence of this man. It was about the efforts of the Nixon administration to have him deported (or worse) due to his peace activism in America. He was asked on the steps of the immigration building in New York, the day he finally won his right to remain in America after a two year fight - what were his feeling were towards those that conspired to have him 'removed'. His answer made with a flicker of that thin smile was classic John Lennon.
"Time wounds all heals".

[Nichi]

Nixon, ugh!

Good on John.