He's a funny bloke that John Lennon. For all his incredible musical talent, revolutionary spirit and innovation in the world of rock n roll, not to mention his status as arguably one of the giants of the world's greatest rock group (do i even need to say who?) I'm really having a hard time pinning down who this guy really was and what he was about.
Oh sure, i know he was into peace, unity and the coming together of a world divided against itself, but after taking a slightly closer look, one can't help but think that Mr Lennon might himself have had trouble making his mind up and choosing who to back, even amongst his closest friend's.
1968 was a year that Platoff (2005) describes as "a high point of political unrest in the 60's", recounting the Tet Offensive at the apex of hostilities in the Vietnam War, protests of 100's of thousands of anti-war protestors, police brutality, student riots in France and the death of Martin Luther King Jnr to a sniper's bullet as crucial events which would shape the social and political climate of the year. In this same year of turmoil and upheaval, John Lennon recorded with the beatles most of the material which would comprise their all time classic self titled album, now commonly known as The White Album, nestled amongst which was the song "Revolution", a song intended to reflect John Lennon's and (at least in Lennon's mind) the band's sentiments towards the war.
Interestingly enough, the song itself has more than one version, which itself is indicative of the doubts Lennon had for the direction that these 'revolutionaries' were taking and the measures being used to achieve the desired ends. Three versions exist on wax, the first, as a studio recording containing the ambivalent lyrics "But when you talk about destruction, Don't you know that you can count me out---in". The next version of the song, released as a b side to "Hey Jude" came without the ambiguous addition of the word "in" at the end of the lyric, before being released with the original lyric on The White Album itself.
Citing causes for the difficulties in deciding on content and performance of the song (the instrumentality differs from version to version), Lennon asserted that members of the band objected to the pace of the song, its outspoken political sentiment and the return of Lennon's dominant personality to the group. Perhaps most importantly however, Lennon's own doubts about the aims and ideas of the civil right's and ideological movements of the time are brought to the fore, something which we observe directly in his lyrics.
The song itself was supposed to be an expression of distaste against the emergence of violent tactics on the left, the abandonment of non-violence and a call to wage a revolution within, in order to change the world. However coming from a millionaire to the masses, this was received by a public which railed against it as preachy, narcissistic and hopelessly absurdist for its baseless optimism: "You know it's Gonna be All Right" formed part of the chorus.
Lennon was slammed by many radicals questioning the legitimacy of older tactics to achieve social change, perhaps surprising only Lennon himself. But he never stopped wanting to revolutionise, he never abandoned the causes and the issues he felt were important.
Rock music is often characterised as subversive and championed by social movements and causes when they fall in line with their aims and objectives. Lennon's idealism, spirit and humanity has been praised by countless millions, his music immortalised and canonised as Rock gospel. However here is what can happen when a darling of the revolution decides to shift stance. Calling for counter-revolution mid-takeover obviously isn't too popular with the higher ups then. Who knew? Maybe John should have just fallen into line and kept it kosher with everyone? I think John's answer might not have been so ambiguous: Count me out.
References:
Platoff, J. (2005), 'John Lennon, "Revolution" and the Politics of Music Reception', The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 241-267
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