From: John Lennon (Revolution, August 1968 signal
♪ Agron Shala[1]
Say you love revolution, well, you know.
We All Want to Change the World
Tell me it’s evolution, well, you know.
We All Want to Change the World
When you speak of destruction,
Don’t you know you can let me out of this?
Don’t you know everything’s gonna be okay?
Okay.
Okay.
Say you have real choice, well, you know
We all would like to see the plan
Ask me to contribute, well, you know
We all do what we can.
But if you want money for people with minds who hate
All I can tell you, brother, is that you have to wait.
Don’t you know everything’s gonna be okay?
Okay.
Okay.
Say you want to change the Constitution, well, you know.
We all want to change their heads.
Tell me it’s the institution, well, you know.
Better free your mind instead
But if you go out carrying pictures of Mayor Mao
In any case, you will not succeed with anyone
Don’t you know everything will be done
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay, okay.
Okay, okay.
Those who are bent on denying the truth are turned away from God.
[1] At the signal Revolution ‘%s’, published in August 1968 as the B side of B’Hey Jude, The Beatles especially John Lennon react to the wave of political protests in Europe and against the Vietnam War. The song does not reject the need for change, but refuses violence as a means of achieving purpose. It criticises chaos, calls for plans by protesters and refuses radicalism and hatred as the driving force of policy change. Lennon particularly criticises the leftist radicals wearing Mao portraits, suggesting that such a policy would not ensure the support of others.
The song was criticised by radical left because it was perceived to be fleeing the revolutionary war. The slower version, Revolution 150, recorded in May and published later in the double album known as the White Album, contains a deliberate shade of uncertainty: Lennon says account with out… in. But when you talk about destruction / don’t you know that you can let me out of this? Don’t you know you can let me out of this? This addition has often been perceived as a sign of Lennon’s indecisiveness to political violence.
There’s a piece in the same album, there’s a Revolution 9, a solar collapse with orchestral fragments in disstoration, voices of people, gunshots and hypnotic repetition of words nine… number nine… number nine. Lennon described it as a sound painting of the revolution. Some interpret it as an avant music experiment on the psychology of the revolt, while many others act as expressions of fear of violence and chaos.