A vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and a sharp critic of British government's crimes in Northern Ireland, Lennon expressed himself politically through some extraordinary songs. Among these are “Give Peace a Chance”, “Working Class Hero” and “Imagine”.
Referring to the “Working Class Hero”, a masterpiece song which was released in his 1970's album “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”, Lennon said in an interview:
“I think it's a revolutionary song – it's really just revolutionary. I just think its concept is revolutionary. I hope it's for workers and not for tarts and fags. I hope it's about what Give Peace a Chance was about. But I don't know – on the other hand, it might just be ignored. I think it's for the people like me who are working class, who are supposed to be processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery. It's my experience, and I hope it's just a warning to people, Working Class Hero." (Lennon remembers, Jann S Wenner).
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 hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
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
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be
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
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
As
for “Imagine”, which is widely regarded as Lennon's signature song, it
expresses the songwriter's wish for a world without artificial divisions
of the modern social order, including organized religion, economic
class and geopolitical borders. For Lennon himself, “Imagine” was his
own “Communist Manifesto”.
According to him, “Imagine was “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, virtually the Communist Manifesto, although I am not particularly a communist and I do not belong to any movement… But because it is sugarcoated, it is accepted”.
Indeed, John Lennon was certainly not a communist and far from being even a radical leftist. But he managed to express the vision of a better world without wars, poverty and exploitation in just twenty-two lines of lullaby rhyme. For this contribution Lennon deserves to be remembered as a revolutionary of music history. He was a dreamer; but he was not the only one.
