John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band Copyright 1970 Apple Records
Working Class Hero--A Rock and Roll Epistle
By Richard Girard
"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."
"Working Class Hero," John Lennon
God, I wish John Lennon was still alive.
Bob Dylan may have expressed the despair and discontent of the Sixties better than John, but Lennon had no equal in consistently expressing the 1960's anger and openly rebellious spirit.
One of Lennon's consistent refrains was about the people who society tried to force to be a square peg in a round hole, or those individuals who lived outside society's "norms." The underlying theme of these songs, from the Beatles "Nowhere Man," "Ballad of John and Yoko," and "Come Together," to his solo "Working Class Hero," were about society trying to force people into positions where they did not belong, and could not be happy.
John had a liberal humanistic view of the world. This viewpoint does not try to make everyone happy, but instead gives everyone a realistic possibility of happiness, as long as it does not interfere with the happiness of others. John had finally found that happiness with Yoko and Sean before his untimely death.
"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 fuckin' crazy you can't follow their rules.
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be."
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