John Lennon/The BeatlesJohn Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were very active in the protesting scene. Around the same time Nixon was running for reelection, they showed up at anti-war rallies and sang. They would spread the word that voting against Nixon would make for a more peaceful America. Because of this, the Nixon administration threatened to deport the two. Thankfully, Lennon and Ono had powerful friends who who petitioned the Immigration and Naturalization Service and got them out of this mess (Wiener).
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"John Lennon - Imagine - Lyrics." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2015.
Imagine was written because Lennon was appalled by how tragic the Vietnam War was and how many people died in it. He found it unnecessary and was deeply saddened about it (Shmoop Editorial).
"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace..." (Lennon, Imagine) "The Beatles - Revolution (Lyrics)." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 June 2015.
"Revolution" came out around the same time as the Tet Offensive occurring, in 1968, which caused a lot of American outrage. John Lennon, member of the Beatles, said in an interview,“I wanted to put what I felt about revolution; I thought it was time we f***in’ spoke about it, the same as I thought it was about time we stopped not answering about the Vietnamese War when we were on tour with Brian Epstein and had to tell him, “We’re going to talk about the war this time and we’re not going to just waffle.” I wanted to say what I thought about revolution." -John Lennon (Wenner)
“But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out Don't you know it's gonna be alright Alright, alright You say you got a real solution Well, you know We'd all love to see the plan You ask me for a contribution Well, you know We're all doing what we can” (Lennon, McCartney) |