Recorded with a bunch of famous visitors that included Tommy Smothers, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Petula Clark, Murray the K and the Canadian chapter of the Radha Krishna Temple, it swiftly became a political anthem, sung by half a million people at an anti-war rally in Washington, DC. Lennon’s first non-Beatles single was recorded in a hotel room in Montreal at the tail-end of his and Yoko’s bed-in for peace. Delivered in stark tones over bare acoustic guitar, the song also hints at Lennon’s unhappy childhood and bemoans a world suffocated by conformity: “When they’ve tortured and scared you for 20-odd years/Then they expect you to pick a career/When you can’t really function, you’re so full of fear.” The class wars provide the impetus for Lennon’s searing commentary on the repressive nature of institutional power. The message was as simple as the fist-pumping chorus: “Say you want a revolution/We better get on right away/Well you get on your feet/And out on the street.”įorgoing the usual trite platitudes of the season, Lennon took a Yuletide opportunity to spread a message of peace and launch a billboard campaign in protest at the Vietnam War, led by the simple slogan: ‘WAR IS OVER! If You Want It.’ The song’s universal message, he explained, was “the idea that we’re just as responsible as the man who pushes the button.” Lennon offers up one of his most impassioned vocal performances: “You slip and you slide down the hill/On the blood of the people you killed/Stop the killing now!”ĭriven by Bobby Keys’ fat sax riff and featuring a gospel choir led by Rosetta Hightower, Lennon’s first radical call for action was written in the aftermath of an interview with Marxist newspaper, Red Mole. Bring On The Lucie (Freeda People) (1973)Ĭonceived around the same time as Imagine and fuelled by David Spinozza’s guitar groove, this anti-Vietnam address also acts as a scathing rebuttal of self-seeking politics. Three days after John and Yoko performed it a Michigan rally, Sinclair was released from Jackson State Prison.ħ. The resulting song, driven by Delta blues guitar, helped highlight his situation. Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people, right on Say we want a revolution We better get on right away We'll get you on your feet And out on the street singing Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people Power to the people, right on A million workers working. Lennon’s alignment to writer, political activist and MC5 manager John Sinclair was made explicit when the latter was jailed for ten years for marijuana possession in 1969.
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