First Listen - Working Class Hero By John Lennon
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2024
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Lennon's 'Plastic Ono Band' might be the most *personal* and *vulnerable* album ever made. So many great songs, so much thought, pain, emotion, and musicality. "Mother" and "Isolation" and "God" are all tracks that have no equal. The whole album is stunning. What a talent.
I agree, "Mother" is heartbreaking.
Look at me, incredible song
@@gerryrr93 Yes, one of my favorites. It has a "Julia" vibe to it and I wouldn't doubt he wrote both at the same period in India.
This song hits hard. It caused me to face that the system was rigged against the majority. We are born into this system either advantaged or disadvantaged by race, class or gender. Upward mobility is not easily attained. This is a masterpiece by Lennon. Great reaction, enjoyed your commentary.
This whole album is so intense. You'll need to hear all of this album - Mother, Love, God, etc. One of my favorite albums of all time. Lennon became the most honest artist of all time.
the dylan line "20 years of schooling and they put you on the day shift" definitely influenced the line in the third verse too
Dylan lived in Lennons head - rent free -
@@darrenherbst5572 A very nice lodger.
Definitely.
When this first came out in 1970, it was absolutely shocking. The message, the stark Dylan-like delivery, the F bomb. Today swearing is almost cliche ( unfortunately, overdone) ..but back then it just was not done.... except maybe on Comedy albums. Also from this revolutionary album, check out " Mother", '" Isolation"...and especially " God.". Enjoy the ride! Cheers!
The singer Donovan taught John and Paul this finger picking style while in India in 1968!! "but first you must learn how to smile as you kill" only John could write lyrics like this!!
Not much finger picking here. Donovan taught John the Travis finger picking technique which he used on Julia, Dear Prudence among others. Paul learnt or developed a different style he used on the like of Blackbird.
The entire album is amazing. And every song grows on you like crazy. It’s certainly not what Beatle fans were expecting from him!
That’s for sure!
This whole album is heavy, some songs have Ringo and klaus Voorman on bass, he’s an old friend from Hamburg . Raw and intense, a true departure from Beatles.
this album is a masterpiece and worth the listen from front to back. punk ahead of its time. Mother, I Found Out, God, Isolation - all of it. brilliant. Ringp, Klaus and Lennon. Raw and driving. Ringo's drumming is a standout.
Great reaction 😊 John Lennon is heroic to me because he deconstructed himself first, the hardest thing, because he learnt, from his reading and good people he let into his life , and took down the violent and emotionally straightjacketed version of masculinity that had molded him
He broke the cycle of avoiding pain and going in circles that so many of us can be trapped in . An truly unfortunate end R.I.P.
I have loved this song since it came out in 1970. It reminds me of a great Bob Dylan song called MASTERS OF WAR, which goes after the Military - Industrial Complex. I think you will love it.
Yep 💯
The best post-Beatles album, but prepare to be turned inside-out once it makes sense. He takes on all the easy subjects: God, Love, Mother, Isolation,… “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” “Mother” is filled with screams, and it was the released single. I’ve always thought that Roger Waters took “Working Class Hero” and the second half of The Beatles’ (Lennon’s) “I Want You (She’s So Heavy) as the basis musically, emotionally, lyrically, and structurally for the theme for ‘The Wall’.
I think that's an excellent insight. It makes a lot of sense.
Wow! I never really thought of that but I think it’s true.
"Mother" is THE primal scream track..and "Cold Turkey"
It's Primal Therapy, not a 'scream' therapy as the tabloids would have us believe. People do talk and cry and even scream sometimes when they are able to release painful events they have been holding down. The rush of insights people get after that are permanent and extremely useful in later life. It is life-changing.
You're spot on about him having a lot of darkness but also his own fair amount of optimism (in his own way lol). A good example of that in his solo work is Instant Karma (We All Shine On), also from 1970. One of my faves!
Awesome song!
Lots of good stuff on this album. I think you would really like "I Found Out". On his own Lennon put out some amazing stuff. Things other people were afraid to say. For instance "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World". Or "Cold Turkey". Or "Power To The People". I'm very glad you found this album.
From of the best albums of all time- especially the single-word song titles “Mother,” “Isolation,” “God,” “Remember,” and “Love” - so good
Mother is emotionally charged because he was saying goodbye to his parents who he loved but lost. He actually played the song to his father to see his reaction and his father didn’t understand it. Still, he bought his father a small house so he could be happy in his final days with his wife. So Lennon forgave him and wanted him to be happy finally. I admire that.
Timeless lyrics. Hits hard!
You called this song, sparse. Good term for the album! Many feel that this is John’s best solo album.
Very dylanesque, I would add: Maybe even more early Cohen. Lennon learned from both. Still, the words are his own. Gritty, sardonic, dark, but with a heart. In all it’s simplicity, this is a great song. But only a great artist can make it into such a timeless classic.
Vastly more powerful than either. Cohen a lightweight and quite a lot older pretentious poet how, eventually got good after his financial disaster. Dylan a great observer but detached (I wrote more detail elsewhere). I still listen to both Dylan and Cohen and like most of their work but this LP blows them away for power of voice, thought, music.
That album is VERY raw. It really is blood on the tracks.
Stay on this album and check out Mother and God as well. Hell, check the whole album…still a secret favorite pleasure of mine after all these years…
It would be nice for you to react to the track "Roll on John" by Dylan, it is about John Lennon, his life and his fate. I think it brings some very interesting reflections on his figure and is a very nice example of late-era Dylan.
One more thing, you need to watch the video for this. Definitely gives you a better appreciation of the personal message. You definitely need to do the whole Plastic Ono Band album to get the full effect of the pain of his childhood and his fervent desire to rid himself of the demons of his past. His best album by far and one of the best of all time.
Love your reaction to this spectacular track!! Yes, Paul & John were the yin-yang to each other. Paul the hopeless optimist, John the brutal pessimist (and realist as this track VERY accurately depicts!!) I honestly think adding any instrumentation other than simple acoustic to this would detract from the message - it needs to be stark, up-front & in your face, but still needs something 'musical' to recite such powerful words - solution - acoustic guitar!!
Highly suggest checking out the Green Day cover of this track - they did a great job with John's creation!
Definitely talking about his own experience growing up feeling unwanted, and making it into a universal expression of the weight of the expectations and the neglect that so many children go through. It also powerfully skewers the bloodless capitalist system that often makes people feel even more degraded. And the ending seems to presage his death. Such a sad, biting and chilling song, one of his best, if not the best.
It's the Anthem of my life and the lives of millions of other folks. It speaks of the systematic set up against the poorer members of society and how any chance for self-esteem,hope,etc is crushed before it even has a chance to be developed in childhood. Then "the powers that be" tricks folks into thinking that they are getting ahead in life when they join the military"(there is a lot of hype about "serve your country and earn money for college")but they are just the cannon fodder and most poor souls never see the 'college side' of things when they leave the military because they are either dead or too messed up physically/psychologically to even be able to get work. The governments abandon the veterans after making all those promises to get them to join/fight. This song will always be relevant. Thank you for giving this a chance,my friend. John Lennon was one of the Beatles that wrote/sang a lot of the 'serious' songs (the other being George Harrison). He does sing upbeat songs too...examples being "Power To The People","Beautiful Boy "(a song that was written for/about his second son) and "Give Peace a Chance"(JL's motto in a nutshell). I love your videos. Keep up the good work,my friend. 💕💕💕💕👍👍👍👍👍☮️☮️☮️
The true "working class hero"" was undoubtedly Ringo. John was brought up middle class.
Loving your reactions Syed. This is still one of his best.
Absolutely, I remember watching a video of John’s aunt (who raised him) saying him being a “working class hero” was not true at all. John grew up in a house with a garden, the rest of the Beatles grew up in government subsidized housing. Great song though!
@@savannah7020
He wasn't claiming to be "working class" but a hero TO the working class... among others.
(Just my interpretation)
Of course I couldn't have known him as a person but most of what I've learned I didn't like.
He was funny and witty but not a kind man.
Peace 🕯️
@@savannah7020 To be fair, he doesn't claim to be a working class hero. He only says it's a worthwhile aspiration to become. He did become a hero to the working classes - as stated extremely forcibly and clearly by Ozzy Osbourne and others who really were working class industrial and unemployed lads. He was not a school failure, worn-out plimsoll wearing, chip butty, destined to sweep factory floors dead-end street (thanks, Kinks) lad. A footballer might escape from a life down the pit. In Wales, a rugby union player would become a local hero but might sill work down the pit during the weak. In northern England, the rugby league player could supplement their income from going down the pit with pay for playing. They were working class heros who started working class - but gave hope only to those who could do sport without getting injured. Lennon doing music and getting respect from social elites was an inspiration for the lads who became Black Sabbath who couldn't do sport.
@@michele-33 Well, he does sing here about being messed up by adults who abandoned him (or died) and school bully teachers. He didn't grow up into a relaxed, normal domesticity as a nice man until a couple of years before his death. While others didn't become as nasty as he was, being abandoned and facing the cane most days at school is a common route to attention seeking and nastiness. Julian is likely collateral damage from the adults messing with JL in his childhood. He did become a hero to working class lads like the ones who became Black Sabbath (as Ozzy Osbourne has very often stressed) and were destined to a life of sweeping factory floors
@@michele-33 Exactly. He was a hero TO the working class. Not a hero FROM the working class.
I haven't heard this track before and I love it. You mentioned Bob Dylan towards the end and I was thinking all the way through it that the guitar work was to me more than a little bit reminiscent of "Masters of War" which is a dark track of Dylan's with a serious message. Thanks for introducing me to this great song.
Excellent choice!! Listen to the whole record! Thank you!!!
Yes, agree with others, that whole Plastic Ono Band album is as dope as it gets. Worth a full reaction as is their concert in Toronto with Eric Clapton on guitar, just tune out Yoko when she goes Into Scream/Improv mode, lol! Enjoy. 🎵🎸🎤🎹🎶
How glad I am that my mornings started from watching your videos, so wonderful and full of sincere impressions from great music! Especially, from John Lennon and The Beatles ❤ really love your approach!
My favourite Lennon song by a country mile. So real, so many truisms. Fantastic lyrics fantastically sung. Genius at play here.
To me, this song is full of Dylan's influence, musically, lyrically, and stylistically.
You really need to do a track by track examination of this album - it is a timeless, naked , wrenching classic. Comparisons to Dylan abounded here, as they did with "Hide youe Love Away." Wonderful analysis, but it is all right there, isn't it?
Dylan not personal. There's a detachment which can end in clever-clever deep and meaningless stuff in Dylan. Dylan is using his songs to hide. Still think he's great and have listened to him closely for nearly 60 years but it's observational and just that bit separated from getting dirt and grit in the fingernailsl I'd never thought of the Johnny Cash similarity till I saw this video
Thanx for this reaction vid, man! One of my favorite songs (and albums, for that matter).
John was a fantastic guitarist and brilliant songwriter.
Thanks brother! The whole album is worth a listen. It's so truthful and powerful in it's simplicity.
The first two lines are most likely about his parents who gave him no time so he was lodged with his Auntie Mimie and her husband but he died quite soon after so he felt left alone by three adults out of the four who might have given him time (so he felt accursed and, in some way, responsible for their deaths and said as much to the young Paul McC). At school, back then, whacking with a cane, in a formal setting by headmaster, or ruler over the back of the hand in class, was normal punishment for any stepping out of line, even getting a multiplication question wrong as the maths teacher's long, thin, cigarette stained finger pointing and wobbling straight at you. I never got the ruler over the back of my hand, for which I thank my mother and primary school for teaching me to read, write, and be numerate by age 8. Even then, I saw it as a test of character (and, in light of two world wars and the need to stand firm in the line of fire, it was probably meant that way) to browbeat the bastard. But I could also sympathise with the boys who did flinch and made a mistake. When I first heard this, I assumed Lennon was like them and, it turned out, he was very short-sighted so he couldn't have seen the teacher's finger clearly or watched him as he spun round so he wouldn't have had that extra half second to prepare - plus he may simply have been allergic to numbers and not had the help I had before I went to that bigger school at age 8. Maths teacher was Major Yorke who also taught Scripture!
Ironically I, like many others, got it from my music teacher so I still can't sing. At the start of Christmas term 1963, he had us all sing Do Re Mi to a scale and I sang what I now know was a note flat. After a few goes, he switched to the scale I was 'singing', it was C, so, of course, I sang the next one up that he had been playing, D. He exploded. I had no idea what it was about other than that I had sung wrong but I couldn't tell any difference. It turns out I have extremely narrow ear canals so doctors and Audiology units have to swap out the adult ear scope for a baby's size. A lot of us never learned to sing because of similar experiences. Music teacher was Captain Grey who also taught Geography, which I could do. To be fair, he didn't hit us and I grew to quite like him as he taught me how to stand up to read and speak clearly to reach the back of large, complicated room full of 100+ people without shouting - who knew that reading the lesson in school chapel would be a useful exercise!
Lennon was the most well-off financially of the four Beatles, lived in owner-occupied house in a pretty middle class neighbourhood. But he was not given time by three of four adults and would have got the cane or the ruler often - which fucks you up. Obviously, he became a hero to working classes, like footballers and rugby union players in Wales or rugby league players in north of England, and boxers. Beatles from 1957 to 1970 meant he never had time to work through all that sh1t so he needed a break to get his head together. He didn't enter the world of relatively relaxed domesticity till a couple of years before his death. Julian was an unwitting casualty of those adults and teachers messing with his father's head and that generational cascade of wounding is the biggest reason why we need good mental and physical health support, food, and housing at ante-natal, birth, and early years - long before the so-called troublesome teens and young adult stages of development. We, of course, are all beneficiaries of his art and how he put into words and sound what so many of us feel but can't put into words.
If you'd heard Dylan's song Masters Of War you'd understand where John gets his inspiration for this song.
The Genius of Lennon.
You're the true Working Class Hero! Thanks for sharing about your family, I know this hits home for a lot of working class families. Keep on your journey of exploring these artists.
This is his best album. Most folks will say the Imagine album
True. Imagine was, deliberately, a watered down version of POB
Would be interesting to hear your reaction to Mother from this album. You can really see the primal scream therapy coming through.
I was very fortunate to have been exposed to many styles of music. While I am a rocker at heart, I enjoy folk, reggae, blues, country, pop, and some jazz. My hope is that you'll strip your hip hop roots down to it being only a part of your musical interest. Great song choice!
One of my favorites. Thank you, great critique. I think most people can relate to the lyrics and spirit of this song.
It's not finger-picking it's strumming. If you listen closely you can hear the pick strumming on the strings. But it does have a moving line buried in it, he's doing hammer-ons as part of the anchoring riff. And if anything I would liken it more to Bob Dylan, but still, I could see easily why it made you think of Johnny Cash.
Check out his proto-punk song I Found Out, it's really intense and vocally pretty aggressive, as is another song off that album somewhat in the same direction, called Well Well Well. Cold Turkey is also really dark and intense.
But for something truly haunting and beautiful, check out #9 Dream.
Might want to check out Dylans Masters of War, Hollis Brown, With God on our side and The lonesome death of Hattie Carrol. They are in the same kind of lyrical vibe and instrumentation and all great songs.Thanks for your wonderful channel.
The guitar reminds me of folk music.
A favorite of John, and one of the few I can play.
So glad you reviewed this one! One of favorites!
gotta admit, never really thought this was a personal commentary from John, of the 4 Beatles he was more middle class that the other 3, who lived in council flats/homes, of the 4, Ringo was probably the most working class, if you've see the house he grew up in, George family, moved from one council house to another and Paul lived in same one most of his childhood, where as John's aunt Mimi owned their home, in quite a nice street.
This Album was almost a Mantra in my life after the deaths of both of my parents when I was 20 years old.
I deeply understand this music first hand.
I'm 58 now.
I still see it in eyes of younger people who understand it as well.
Tragedy is a badge you are tattooed with for the rest of your life on the inside.
My heart, lungs, spleen and stomach have been inked for as long as I can remember now and No One sees them.
Stay strong!
Finish this stupid Movie called "Life"
And watch it all.
And laugh until you die.
After all, you've paid for it with your own existence.
I've paid for My ticket,
I'd like to see if it's not a stupid as has been so far...
There are several documentaries about JOHN LENNON, & I highly recommend " THE US vs JOHN LENNON". His Irish roots, the way he treated women in his younger days, his yearning for his Mom. Lots of pain in this amazing talent.
Try 'How Do You Sleep' when the Ying stabs the 'Yang'.
Self-defence
Lennon was actually British middle class; he didn't come from economic poverty (the other three came from working class). But early on he identified with the working class, and the "Teddy Boys" ("Mods" -- represented by "The Who" -- were middle class).
But he did come from emotional poverty, unlike Paul who had a large loving, cheerful, partying extended family and even Ringo ended up with an amazingly supportive step father. He isn't claiming to be working class, he is suggesting that it's a noble aspiration to become a hero to the working classes. He did become just that, as attested to by real working class lads who couldn't play sport as a way out and failed at school so were destined to sweep factory floors like Ozzy Osbourne.
I think you nailed it. This is Lennon looking at Western Civilization and taking it to task. John moved from artist to prophet with this song. Definitely shows where all the shouting about Lennon is coming from.
My favorite thing about JL is actually his (and Yoko's) Make Love not war message. Conveyed in songs and interviews. Lest fav thing about JL, he was very bad to his first wife and son. He was traumatized by his childhood too
Thanks or this and it is good to see someone taking a dive into the post-Beatles work of its members. For me personally "Working Class Hero" is one of John Lennon's greatest songs. If you are going to cover his solo career, some songs are essential.
If you can bring yourself to listen to it, and if the RUclips filters will let it through, you have to take in "Woman is the Ni@@er of the World"
But there is also:
"Cold Turkey"
"John Sinclair"
"Mother" - just wonderful and my personal favourite John Lennon song
"God"
"Love"
"Crippled Inside"
"Give Peace a Chance"
"Instant Karma"
"Jealous Guy"
and quite a few others...
He had a nasty edge to him when he was in the mood. This is one of my favorites.
You heard Cash…..I heard Dylan’s influence. Back to the acoustic folk music of the early 60’s….and even earlier…like Dylan’s major influence, Woody Guthrie.
I thought his hearing Cash was excellent - I'd missed that, probably because I didn't listen to Cash beyond A boy named Sue till many years later. I think he's spot on - much more Cash than Dylan.
@@cuebj I heard Cash too, after he mentioned it, but being much more familiar with Dylan, I thought of that first.
This is his best song imo. Much better than Imagine I think.
I’m glad you are investigating their solo songs, it will show why the Beatles were great and why they had to breakup!
You will start noticing John’s dark side from 1964 onwards with songs like I’m a loser, help, nowhere man, I’m only sleeping, tomorrow never knows, I’m so tied, yer blues. Even Paul writes deeper songs (not as many) like “I’m looking through you, yesterday, I’m down, for no one, fool on the hill. Shows the strain on being the Beatles a bit and what will come later.
They released something like -250 songs in 7 and bit years! Not many poor songs but lots of great songs.
Funny you should mention the lack of Paul McCartney in John's creative life, just as he sings about "the folks on the hill".
That line could be a reference to McCartney's "The Fool on the Hill"...
If you think that Paul was not dark go check out “Give Ireland back to the Irish”
I really appreciate your reactions.. very perceptive
You should also listen to some of Yoko's songs, because, despite what people say (none of whom have actually listened to her stuff), she does actually do really interesting music.
Two of my favourites of hers are 'Why' from 'Plastic Ono Band' (1970), and 'Midsummer New York' from 'Fly' (1971).
My favourite atm is her song Death Of Samantha on her album Approximately Infinite Universe. I absolutely love it.
If you want to really hear the primal scream stuff, give 'Mother' a listen. It's like John rips his insides out. It's also all true, and goes a long way towards explaining why John was the way he was - ie a teenage rebel/ fighter/ no-good trouble-maker and serial gang leader, before he and his latest gang, the Beatles, somehow managed to become world famous, luckily in a good way...
He is actually playing with a pick (plectrum), just using alternate picking and rhythmic pattern.
An interesting perspective..well done
I have a,ways been a fan of drum & percussion right back to listening to Ginger Baker in Cream in 1967/68, but also love acoustic music. Please give yourself a treat and search for ‘Heartbeat Antonio Forcione’, where you will see & hear a brilliant acoustic guitarist, but he also does a lot of percussive bangs, knocks and slaps to provide rhythm. Try to watch him doing it live.
"Isolation" is the best song on the LP.
Great reaction to one of Lennons songs that lots of peoples never hear heome people never here.
e.
its really worth watching the adam curtis stuff on primal scream therapy and similar late 60's cult/cures therapies...
i think "Hello, Goodbye" is about that paul john dichotomy in the beatles
If you have to work to live, you're working class. He's describing all of us.
I LOVE THIS ALBUM!!! ❤ The Ono Band is very good.
John got down as far as you wanted. John and Paul was a beautiful mix. Beatles!!!
It's just like Morrissey and Johnny Marr composition. When they were with The Smiths all songs were very romantic and exquisite but wwhen Morrissey went solo all songs became very agressive
Roger Taylor from Queen has an absolutely fantastic cover of this song. I highly recommend to listen
A really respectful rewrite of 'Masters of War' by Bob Dylan.
Songwriters are generally acoustic oriented, since songs are usually written on acoustic instruments at home.
From the same álbum, "God" should be next❤
6:00 "It's very interesting with the absence of Paul McCartney..." ironically Lennon makes reference to McCartney at that very moment (folks on the hill - fool on the hill)
I was born 1954. When i was a teenager there was advertising for tabacco and liquor all over the town. So we consmed it and it really made things even worst.
Super reaction to a superb Lennon tune. The raw emotion shows through on several songs on that album. One of my most loved songs. Maybe check out Marianne Faithful's version of "Working Class Hero" her silky voice adds another dimension.
Oh & another artist & track in the same mould is Roy Harper's "I hate the White Man." The lyrics will really intrigue you, a sorta cross between this & Dylan's "Desolation Row."
The guitar part reminds me of Dylan's Ballad of Hollis Brown...
Yes.
Do your audience (an yourself) a favor. I would love for you to delve into Richard Thompson at some point. Songwriting and guitar/vocal musicianship par none! Love your channel by the way.
You mentioned John's attitude sans Paul. Check out John's view of Paul on "How Do You Sleep", a response to Paul's perceived attacks on John and Yoko.
This has always felt really Dylan-y to me.
Please react to GOD by John Lennon, the lyrics are fascinating.
For a couple of more nuanced songs on the same theme, try "Uncle Son" and "Get Back in Line" by the Kinks.
One review of this album (might have been Rolling Stone) commented that John had made himself naked and laid his balls on the line - and that out of sheer respect the whole rock criticism industry ground to a halt. Or something along those lines.... someone else here may be able to supply the exact quote, source, and date.
You're right. It's no silly love song.
Great job, Syed... review more Lennon songs please!! Thanks!! 👍🏽👍🏻🕊️💜🇬🇧🎸
You need to listen to Eleanor Rigby if you think Paul is just positivity!
He was hanging out with Harry Chapin by this time. I was 20 when this l.p. csne out.
Dear Syed,
I dunno where you are from, I’m guessing the States, and of course there are similarities between English speaking countries. But this is a reflection of England. Lennon’s teenage years were the fifties, where people joke today that everything was in black and white back then. This refers to the austerity after the war, and the shortages after. Particularly difficult for the generation that boomed in numbers, being told to suck it up as “things were really tough during the war”.
Children were raised with casual violence, corporal punishment from school, parent, whoever of “maturity” nearby. Children were “seen but not heard”. He observes this in the first verse. Everyone in England had some connection to the army, itself a reflection of the class system and its hierarchy. You question nothing, do as you’re told. That was the culture, in the services or in society. Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all.
The dehumanising process received by people in the armed forces, was extended to wider society. Hence “they” (authority) hate you if you’re clever, and despise a fool. (Gotta be “trained”) ‘till you’re so fucking crazy…
It’s almost impossible for non British natives to imagine, especially now, when newer generations are infantilised so they never experience life until middle age. We see children living at home until their thirties for example. The Beatles were in Hamburg performing gigs in their teens. (Harrison 17, Lennon 19) That might be described as parental neglect now, and my impression of Arab culture is of a people that spoil their children, so if true, it might be difficult for Syed to understand treatment of an earlier, working class Englishman’s observations. I’ve never seen people of his background hurt at home, hit at school. I do like Syed’s impression of similarly to Jonny Cash, America’s bard of the blue collar. Interesting.
When the listener begins to (recognise?) understand the brutality of the lives of working class children of the era and culture, Lennon muses on the absurdity of pursuing a “career” (blue collar have occupations, not some middle class “profession”. He leads us to the reason for the futility. The deliberately designed distractions of religion, sex, and culture of “entertainment” (propaganda?) that perpetuates the misery. The sixties were awash with “new” thoughts. In England we had a new government and declared culture of all people equal, celebration of “freedom” from Nazis or Communists, but as he rightly observes we’re “all fucking peasants”, (serfs, slaves) wallowing in our fantasies of a freedom declared by our masters (the “socialist” party of the working class, newly minted for the time after 13 years of a
“different” party.) Then we were encouraged to think we could achieve, to be like the “successful” folks on the hill”. The Beatles were as successful as could be possibly imagined for ordinary people at the time. Lennon must have experienced the attention of so many grifters and parasites, professionally, and would have had to perfect a survival strategy to cope. I don’t doubt he had to learn to “smile as he kills” to survive. He warns a more innocent class of the pitfalls of success in England. (Don’t forget that Lennon gave back his Member of the British Empire, MBE, a gesture of the aspiration to independent freedom, and distancing himself from the ruling class, the folks on the hill. You (Syed) observe the effect of McCartney’s absence. He was (and is) the spirit of conformity in the Beatles. In the early days, Lennon would leave his top shirt button unfastened as a gesture of rebellion against the image of “wholesomeness” McCartney and the manager wished to project. An early gesture of rebellion. The other Beatles kept theirs. Free from the Beatles, Lennon could be free to express a more personal viewpoint. The Beatles were disbanded the next year.
It’s good to hear you’re observation of a similarity to Dylan. In the fifties, folk music was THE music for a youth unhappy with the direction of society, and protested with folk music. Dylan was HUGE in that scene. His change to a more widely appealing and profitable folk music is still discussed today. Without him, and his influence, modern music might not exist. I’m glad you make the connection between Dylan’s folk music, and Lennon’s Working Class Hero. So true.
In conclusion, in my opinion, this song is as important now as when it was written. America and Britain have converged even more, and a warning to Britain is a warning to America and the “west”. The ruling elite are still here and stronger. They have increasing influence, and want more. They have nothing but contempt for ordinary people, and society has been structured even more to ensure our subjugation. If you are to resist them (the folks on the hill) you must understand that you may end like Lennon did.
If you want to be a hero, well just follow me.
U should really listen to Gerry cinnamon he has some meaningful songs maybe like kampfire vampire or the Bonny