It has been too long since this song last played...  everybody in my hotel room loves this song...

 

What lyrics, what statements, what truthes.

Striking SO many chords and they're not on the guitar

I think I may have heard this before, or did someone do a clever rewrite of this?

I'm no lennon worshipper but that was a pretty darn good tune.

ChardRemains wrote:

John Lennon was a fatuous poseur all around. Sure, he wrote great stuff, but I'm just mystified why people so worship him.

bajafisher wrote: I'm with you. Don't get me wrong. I adore most of John Lennon's work and respect his thoughts & abilities. What bugs me about this song is it's pretty arrogant, actually -- he was the LEAST working class of of all the Fab 4, lived in an nice home, had good clothes ... and actually attended a postsecondary institution. It's a pose. But I bet he thought he meant it at the time. Libras. tsk, so unreliable.

excellent tune-youre all trying to hard. dont and enjoy.

bajafisher wrote:
Yer not alone. :headshake:

I will probably stand alone on this one, but I really dont care for this at all. Its not anything special. This is a blemish on Mr Lennons memory to me. Wish I hadnt heard it.

Typesbad wrote:
There is nothing at all exceptional about class mobility in capitalistic societies. It has been the norm since capitalism became an institutionalized economic system. The only exceptional aspect of John's economic ascent was its magnitude. "Dumb luck" plays a part in every sucessful person's success, but success almost never happens by accident. Preparation and hard work are also part of the equation. Those who engage in neither never get their "lucky break" because they lack the tools to ride that break to success. The Beatles are no exception. They worked their balls off for years honing their craft and making almost no money before they got their break, and then worked their balls off some more when their break came. That break never would have come had they not done the hard work and preparation, and their success would not have been so colossal had they simply stopped working hard once their break came.

On the contrary, class mobility was almost non-existent before the advent of institutional capitalism. It is still almost non-existent in nations with highly controlled economies. No macroeconomic system has more class mobility than capitalism. Period. China's currently growing class mobility has precisely coincided with the extent of the liberalization of its economy, as did that of Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Ireland, and other nations that have developed first-world standards of living from utter poverty in the last 50 years. In short, the promise and realization of upward class mobility is the engine that drives a capitalist economy, and it is what makes capitalistic societies the wealthiest and most productive on earth.

(It is worth noting in John's favor that the barriers to upward mobility in the UK were notably higher when this song was released -- and the prior two decades when John grew up/became a young adult -- than they are now, though mobility still occured. In the last 20 years class mobility in the UK has become more fluid and achieved parity with the world's more liberalized economies.)

Also, capitalism doesn't "rely on" a certain level of unemployment to keep inflation down so much as there is an relation between the two; namely, many economists believe that employment below a certain point is a signifier of -- not a cause of -- inflation. The capitalist system contains no deliberate mechanism to maintain a certain level of unemployment any more than it can deliberately control supply, demand, prices, or any other factor that is largely determined by the highly fluid aggregate whims of tens of millions of independent actors who each have a different agenda from the next. And again, since unusually low unemployment is a signal of -- not a cause of -- inflation, there is no benefit in maintaining an unemployment rate floor since this cart-before-the-horse approach does nothing to contain inflation.


I see them as the two sides of the same cynical coin.


So in other words, you've experienced class mobility. Class mobility does not imply that everyone makes it and nobody struggles. Nor does it guarantee that everyone climbs the ladder; indeed, not everyone wants to. But with the exception of those who inherit a wad of cash, nobody makes it to the next step without struggling.

Also, class mobility goes both ways, though overall standard of living through all class strata trends upward over the long term in stable capitalist societies. Fluid upward class mobility also means fluid downward class mobility. In class-fluid economies, fortunes that are made are not infrequently lost, and sometimes made again. Or consider the standard course of a career, where you start your career at a certain income level and with few assets; then typically your salary increases over time and you accumulate more assets (upward mobility); then you retire, lose your asset-building income stream, and deplete your erstwhile accumulated assets for the rest of your life (downward mobility).

Lennon strikes me as someone who sincerely believed every single word he ever uttered. So I'm not questioning his sincerity so much as the validity of this song's premise.

drover wrote:

The premise is not underminded at all. There are exceptions to everything, and clearly John understood that his circumstance was quite exceptional. Sure he was extremely talented, but he realised that dumb luck also played a hand in his situation. Would he have gotten so far if he hadn't run into Paul who had such acute pop instincts? Would the US teenagers have gone so gaga over the Beatles if they didn't need some external diversion from the Kennedy assassination? I'm sure many Beatle fans can come up with better examples of fortuitous circumstances in their rise. John was well aware that most of the working class is just as stuck as his song implies. Unfortunately, capitalist systems require a certain lack of class mobility, just as they depend on a certain level of unemployment to keep inflation down.

John acknowledgement of these contraints, even if they didn't apply to him is a much more grounded attitude than that of others on the top of their fields that tend to spout "Hey, I made it! I'm so good! Whats your problem?"

I've reached the about the same economic level I grew up in and thus haven't had trouble making ends meet for a while any any serious sense. But I recall vividly when I did, and I know other good people who still do. So if I write a song or even just a letter to the editor about that, am I insincere?

'Never trust the artist, trust the tale' (DH Lawrence)

Who cares if Lennon was a millionaire when he wrote this - it's irrelevant. The song (and what you take from it) is the only valid criterion.

The post that spoke about it being a world-weary comment is the closest to what he was thinking IMHO

passsion8 wrote:

If you wanted a brand new playlist every time you listened, go plug in your ipod and hit "shuffle." Sometimes, the transitions that Bill makes with his playlists are inspired enough to make you want to hear them again in that same order. That is what makes this a radio station, not your ipod.

Cynicism is root of this song, I think. Lennon is cynical about ladder climbing, stereotypes of oppression, stereotypes of heroism, and so many other things. I sense in his lyrics another emotion, too: fatigue. He just came through the circus of being A BEATLE, and I am sure that his eyes were open wide to all the things that he held delusions about before the Beatles went big.

If you combine the message in this song (cynicism, anger, fatigue) with some of his other work of that time (Give Peace a Chance, for example), he seems to be saying that with everything he had been through, the only thing that mattered was love and the relationships with those that you love. A 60s-70s version of "Don't sweat the small stuff".

We should all take note!

The only uninspiring part of the RP novelty of playlists, is that they must be repeating themselves. So many of the posters here make comments about previous songs sequences that were played today and the dates reveal they were played in the same order several times before and before that. You mean Bill isn't spinning these 24/ 7 / 365 all by himself strapped to a chair?

normol wrote:

All I can say is amen to that. John most definitely spoke up for us if only his voice wasn't silenced in such a hateful act.

steeler wrote:

As true today as it was when he wrote it. Corporations and their puppets won't 'Give Peace a Chance' when billions of dollars can be fleeced from taxes of the working class.

KevDog wrote:
Yep. The lament of a man born into a working-class background whose estate is now worth over a billion dollars. I feel his pain.

PattonFever wrote:
To me it's not a matter of hypocrisy but that his own experience of growing up in relatively humble circumstances to become fabulously wealthy sort of undermines the whole "don't bother, it's all for nothing" premise of the song.

I wish more people could hear and understand this poinant message. Cheers to John for even singing it!

I love the mood of this song, and respect the courage it took to challenge to the establishment as JL did in this song and in his life, but I am unable to distinguish between anger and cynicism in this song and can't really tell what he meant. The most difficult parts are about the "peasants" (us) and the "hero" (him). Then again, if he laid it all out in a way we didn't have to wonder, it wouldn't draw us in as well in the first place. All I can add is, we really could use his voice in the world today.

Xeric wrote:

i was just about to write something like this. thank you for beating me to it. a rich person writing a song like this about non-rich people looks like an offer of understanding, to me. it doesn't look like hypocrisy, or whatever.

Probably my favourite solo John song.

the last 3 songs have had an 8 or above average (all classics) :-)

John. Oh, John. How long has it been now -- 25 years? Unbelievable. I still choke up, especially hearing this song. It is so immediate, so brutally honest, it's like he's right there in the room with you. F*cking brilliant. My choice for the best song ever by anyone, bar none. Can't help myself. Definitely need a rating higher than 10.

So powerfull!! Great Lyrics RIP John! Brings back freshman year at coll 1970 Thanks for the memories

madtowner11 wrote:

I heard he was once frontman for the Quarrymen, but that's all I know.

What anonymous idiot gave this a One?

I am sure it must be someone who has written more songs and is far more famous.

It was certainly NOT a working class hero.

This Lennon dude is alright.

Is he just a solo artist or has he ever been in a band?