JOHN LENNON WEEK — DAY 5

Working Class Hero

Today I return to John’s first solo album, The Plastic Ono Band, for my next selection.

Did you ever wonder why they chose the name Pastic Ono Band. I will let my mind wonder: To begin, the only two permanent members of the band were John LENNON and Yoko ONO. Lennon’s name was already famous worldwide, and it might be said that Ono’s name was also famous worldwide — but not for the right reasons. To the world, as I mentioned in a previous post, she was believed to be the woman who broke up the Beatles. This was not fame, but rather notoriety.

But she did not break up the Beatles. What she did was rescue John from being what had become a burden around his neck. So, adding her name to this album might have been hoped would have given her the right kind of fame.

I know, easy to say 54 years later, but the thing is, there are still people who hate her. They don’t realize Yoko gave John the room to grow as a person, and grow he did.

The word Plastic, though, in those days, colloquially meant fake or false, as in manufactured to replace something authentic. So, in one sense, they may have used the name Plastic to define a group or groups of people brought together to play music, but not a band in that they were not going to last. One record only, or sometimes one song only. The Plastic Ono Band, for what it was worth, was a fluid group of people, possibly whoever happened to be in the studio that day. But that very statement gives me a different idea about what they meant by Plastic — a band that could be moulded into many shapes and sizes, where artists and musicians could come and go at their leisure, yet where each person left their mark. (Just conjecture, but this may have been the inspiration for Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band many years later. Ringo would book theatre dates, and then collect people to join him on stage by their availability. And they came, sometimes having no idea who they would be sharing that stage with.)

When it comes down to the real nitty gritty, it really does not matter, especially now, 50 years after the fact, how the name came to be, but strange thoughts cross my mind, coming from places I cannot even imagine. Did John and Yoko have a particular idea in mind when they came up with the name? Spending as much time with John, Yoko, and the Plastic Ono Band as I have over the last few days, I really think they had intention when they named the band. And knowing John, even as little as I do, this name was not a throwaway name, but one that had its roots somewhere in the past.

John was born in 1940, into what was considered a middle class family. The Brits were all about classes: the Upper Class Lords and Ladies and, reluctantly, those upstart wealthy people who had earned their fortunes instead of being born to them; then came the middle classes, professionals and university-educated people who earned salaries rather than wages — upper and middle management types, doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, business owners, etc.; and finally the lower classes, people with incomplete educations, physical labourers, dustmen, bus drivers, basically anyone who worked for an hourly wage, or less. Yes, John belonged to the middle class, but he was well aware it took all three classes to make the whole society work, even though he was not sure how necessary the Upper Class was. When he asked the Queen to rattle her diamonds instead of clapping, he was probably being sardonic.

And sardonic was how John, in an interview many years later, remembered his feelings when he wrote today’s song choice, Working Class Hero. He could have been being sardonic but John was a jokester, often saying exactly what he meant at times, but at other times being jokingly dishonest, trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes.

I myself find no sardony (is that even a word?) in this song. Rather, I find a certain pride in knowing that while he himself was not working class, he was at least sensitive to their suffering. And if he could have, he would have worked to overthrow the wealthy, even though he was now one of them. His musical talent had amassed a fortune for him, large enough that he would never have to work another day in his life except by choice. And since his work was his music, he chose to work as much as he could.

Following is John’s paean to the members of the working class. It was their very existence that made them heroes, for while they believed they were born to suffer, they bore their suffering with smiles on their faces, and love in their hearts…

Afterwords

So much for my ruminations about the origin of the band name. According to Yoko Ono, in a 2010 interview,

As I was asked to do a show in Berlin before John and I got together, I wanted to use four plastic stands with tape recorders in each one of them, as my band. I told that story to John, and he immediately coined the phrase PLASTIC ONO BAND.

– Yoko Ono, 2010

Wikipedia

Over the years the band featured a rotating line-up of musicians including George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, Alan White,  Jim Keltner, Keith Moon, and Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Also a band by the name of Elephant’s Memory.

The personnel line-up for the Plastic Ono Band album included: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Klaus Voorman, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Phil Spector, Alan White, and, according to the album sleeve, Mal Evans who provided tea and sympathy.

JOHN LENNON WEEK — BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT

INSTANT KARMA — And a Bonus

Instant Karma, was the second release of the Plastic Ono Band, after Give Peace a Chance in 1969. It was the first time John Lennon worked with producer Phil Spector, even before Spector worked on the Beatles’ final album, Let It Be, later in 1970.

According to Songfacts, “John Lennon wrote and recorded this song in one day, which was either January 26 or 27, 1970, depending on the source. It was unusual in the Beatles era for a song to be written and put into tape the same day. Lennon told Rolling Stone in January 1971 about the recording of this song and its quick turnaround: “I wrote it in the morning on the piano. I went to the office and sang it many times. So I said ‘Hell, let’s do it,’ and we booked the studio, and Phil came in, and said, ‘How do you want it?’ I said, ‘You know, 1950’s.’ He said, ‘right,’ and boom, I did it in about three goes or something like that. I went in and he played it back and there it was. The only argument was that I said a bit more bass, that’s all; and off we went.”In this song, Lennon addresses critics who are not on board with his message of unity and hope (“You better get yourself together…”). But according to Yoko Ono, the song is really an invitation, not a condemnation. “It’s like, ‘Let’s all be together and anybody who’s out there who’s not in this game, why don’t you join us?'” she told Uncut in 1998. “And to say that ‘We all shine on,’ it’s a beautiful, beautiful thing, instead of saying some people are shining and some people are not. It’s a really uplifting song.”A good indication of Lennon’s mindset at the time and inspiration for this song can be seen in the statement he and Yoko released on December 31, 1969, declaring 1970 “Year 1 AP (After Peace).” The statement read: “We believe that the last decade was the end of the old machine crumbling to pieces. And we think we can get it together, with your help. We have great hopes for the new year.”George Harrison played guitar on this and Billy Preston played piano on this track. Preston helped out The Beatles with their Let It Be Album.” [Klaus Voorman played bass, and Alan White played drums. John played acoustic guitar.]

From Wikipedia: “In their book The Words and Music of John Lennon, Ben Urish and Kenneth Bielen write that in the first verse of “Instant Karma!”, Lennon employs sarcasm as he urges the listener to “Get yourself together / Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead” and emphasises “It’s up to you – yeah, you!”[27] Norman comments on the “hippie catchphrase of the moment” contained in this instruction to “Get yourself together”, and he says that the warning of imminent death is “obviously not to be taken literally.”[15] Author Mark Hertsgaard cites the lines “Why in the world are we here / Surely not to live in pain and fear?” as a further example of Lennon “asking what purpose his life on earth was to serve,” after his 1966 composition “Strawberry Fields Forever”.[28] According to Urish and Bielen, “Instant Karma!” conveys the need to recognise and act upon a shared responsibility for the wellbeing of humankind; the karmic rewards of this mindset are available to all, as implied in Lennon’s exhortation to “Come and get your share”.[27] The same authors pair the song with Lennon’s and Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” single from 1971, in terms of how the song “both prods and challenges listeners before providing reassurance.”[29]As with “Give Peace a Chance” and “Power to the People”[30] – Lennon singles from 1969 and 1971 – the chorus has an anthem-like quality, as he sings: “We all shine on, like the moon and the stars and the sun.”[27] Norman describes the chorus as Lennon restating his message of “peace campaigning and non-violent, optimistic togetherness.”[15] According to Lennon biographer John Blaney, the song is an appeal “for mankind to take responsibility for its fate” and represents “Lennon developing his own brand of egalitarianism.”[12]”

Also from Songfacts we learn “The Australian rock band Midnight Oil performed this [song] during their famous protest outside Exxon headquarters in New York City in 1990, a year after the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. Jim Moginie, the band’s guitarist/keyboardist, told Blurt Magazine: “We played ‘Instant Karma’ for the first time, which summed up matters pretty well about the oil spill. It felt good to make the point that needed to be made about Exxon.” “

This song was printed, pressed, delivered to music stores, and released to the public on Feb. 6, 1970, just 9 days after being recorded. https://youtu.be/xLy2SaSQAtA

Instant Karma rose to #2 in Canada, #3 in the USA, #5 in the UK, and the top ten in most other countries where record ratings were kept.

I chose Instant Karma to kick off my John Lennon Week mainly because I wanted to get everyone’s attention, and re-introduce old fans to the genius of John Lennon. He earned fame and made his fortune as a member of arguably the best-ever band in rock history (once the ‘n roll part was dropped from the genre), but it was as a solo artist (solo as in he was in total charge of his own music) that he was able to shine as a human being! As a Beatle he displayed his talent, as John Lennon he displayed his commitment to life!

In the subtitle I alluded to a bonus. I would like to ask you to listen to a song that was probably never played on commercial radio, was never released as a single, yet was one of the most profound musical statements of John’s life.

This is John declaring his ultimate freedom. I hope you like it: https://youtu.be/Dr2efHjt5Cs

One last line I wish John had added to this song. If I may be so bold, I would like to add it for him: I don’t believe in Karma.