eM ee a. ee hee page 6 — Friday, May 7, 1971 — the colorado daily John Lennon--working class prodigal kids from Liverpool had gone just written a few new songs that has to be freed. For Lennon, the The English cities of Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester are primarily distinguished as work- ing-class towns. The long bleak rows of sober brick houses, the few rooms of each stacked atop one another to save space, are individuated only by different door numbers and sometimes door colors. John Lennon grew up in one of those houses. The inhabitants soon develop a sense of despair about their lives. They work in the factories Marx wrote of or the docks philoso- phers have tried not to write of, and they go home, they watch “telly,” they dream, and someday they die. The horror of what life can be, not as an infrequent spectacle, but rather as a daily constant, is none too inspiring a situation to pon- der. And so the lives of the inhabitants take to creating or adopting illusions of a life outside of the all-too-present reality: Somewhere, one bleak morning, on one of the days in the tenseless history of such neighborhoods, a boy or girl child of one of those people left, and “made it.”” He, or she, may not have had very usual circumstances surrounding their particular “success,” but to dreamers that is incidental. If one kid made it, the world holds the same opportunity open to all. Life is more than one’s reality requires; life is made comfortable by individual retreat. A small boy named John Lennon was such a dreamer. Another form of ponderance reverses these success stories. Because, for every anonymous “‘success,’’ millions were left in the same situation, in fact often imprisoned there by the dream of following the hero. To. these sO-pondering people the reason why millions can not make it has to be sought after and destroyed. These people, too, have something outside of their immediate reality by which to define their lives. But, for them, that “outside” is the freeing of the already present inner beauty of their fellow tragics; making social and real rather than individual and repres- sed, the hopes of these people. Both sentiments are born of a sense of despair with the current and the immediate — both reflect a consciousness of the class situation. Or one of the above-mentioned streets (Penny Lane was one), John Lennon grew up. Due to what the situation does to its participants, John’s parents did not have the best of personal lives. He grew up hardly ever seeing them. By the age of 10 he had already grown out of the fetishism with alcohol which many Ameri- can college students begin at 18. In his teens he met another working-class kid; his name was Paul McCartney. Together they learned to play guitar, eventually forming a group that played Elvis Presley music. Playing in the dives they would have hung out in otherwise, their lives were not very different. Then, at the beginning of the sixties, following a rapid succes- sion of events, four working-class “The idea is not to comfort people, not to make from dreamers to the dream. They weren’t even different— they spoke like working people, they proudly admitted they came from Liverpool, but they were the new heroes. For their services to British imperialism, for the huge success at making the situation-produced crime rate in Liverpool decline 50 per cent (lots more kids dream- ing), they were awarded ‘Member of the British Empire’ medals by the Queen. Now, ten years later, one of those boys, who has. toured the world, lived in luxury, owned property, had all the luxuries, has them feel better but to make them feel worse, to living wage.”’ constantly put before them the degradations and Tomatoes Pickles Saurkraut Mustard (Secret Seasoning) Free Coke with this ad Onions Peppers (sweet) + Good french fries all for only 60c Steamed Poppy-Seed Bun American Reality University Plaza Shcpping Center RED OPEN: 11AM-i-idnight Seven Days a Week HOTS HOT DOG with EVERYTHINGI!! Free Drinks — Free Fries We want to turn you on toa NEW KIND OF HOT DOG! aren‘t quite the same. For John Lennon, the dream ts over. For John Lennon there is no such thing as a “Working Class Hero;” only working-class despair, and working-class illusion — he has been one. Retracing his steps, Lennon, ina recent interview with the English socialist newspaper 7he Red Mole, said that the rulers allow blacks into entertainment and sports to keep the blacks in their place, just as they let a few working-class people into entertainment to keep the workers happy. But, he said, not even the ones they let “escape’’ get away, so everyone humiliations they go through to get what they call a ohn Lennon, Red Mole 8-22 March 1971. streets of Liverpool stayed with him, and he has realized that his jaunt into world fame betrayed the people who live in those streets by holding a dream over their heads. And now, he sings, “the dream is over’’ and “if you want to bea hero, just follow me....” For; what he and his class need is not their own spectacle, but contro} over their own lives, a contro} Lennon found can never be attained individually, in _ jso- lation — but together. It may seem like crass oppor- tunism, but this is no rich kid picking up a new idealism to sell more records. This is the work- ing-class son, the son who-has spent his money, the son who finished the booze solution at 10, the son who tried religion, dope, even being the dream, this is the prodigal son coming full circle. T.S. Eliot said “‘the end of all our exploration shall be to arrive again at the beginning and know the place for the first time.’”” Lennon has come home, singing ‘‘power to the people, right on.’”” The people are of Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and the power is not to be a dream. The album, simply entitled “John Lennon,” clearly demon- strates who the lyricist was on the old Beatles songwriting team. The album’s lyrics are a commanding presentation of Lennon’s new consciousness, while the music is simple, almost incidental. In the Red Mole, Lennon said folk songs tell the story of the people. The album is one of the real folk songs. How long Lennon will sing and tell interviewers of his dedica- tion to struggling for his class is yet to be seen. a Unfortunately, the level of his commitment will be measured in the decline of his record sales. Right now he has much political growing to do, for his interviews and this album are still safe, on the peripheries of the struggles he is seeking to join. Talking about women’s liberation in songs will not erase the fact that Yoko only says a few words in their joint interviews. For the time being he is looking down Penny Lane again and trying to understand it. It was his natural habitat, only he can prove the dream is over for John Lennon, and that he seeks to liberate — not taunt— the in- habitants. 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