John Lennon was never really known for censoring himself with his songwriting. If it was something he believed in, it didn’t take long for it to make him from his brain to his lyric sheet whenever the time called for it. That didn’t mean that some people didn’t take things the wrong way, and when sculpting one of his masterpieces, Lennon believed that many fans ended up getting ‘Working Class Hero’ all wrong.
While Lennon was on the brink of something big with Plastic Ono Band, he never considered the sales figures or the mark that he was going to leave on society. If anything, he had just been to therapy, so trying to put some of his songs on tape was more or less an excuse for him to get this excess baggage out of his head so he could work on himself.
And boy, he does not hold anything back. While Beatles fans had been subjected to some fairly strange music throughout their discography, no one heard someone breaking down like Lennon did at the end of a song like ‘Mother’ or the sombre tone of a song like ‘God’, where he practically gives up all of the earthly possessions that he once held so dear.
Nothing on the album was meant to be sugarcoated, but it didn’t get any more blunt than when Lennon took on ‘Working Class Hero’. With only an acoustic guitar and his voice, Lennon put together one of the most scathing political tracks he had ever made. It’s not so much a pop song but more of a list of all of the troubles that one has to suffer through to make themselves one of the biggest stars in the world.
Despite everyone latching onto the political aspects of the song, Lennon emphasised that it was about personal power rather than any kind of propaganda, telling Rolling Stone, “It had nothing to do with socialism. It had to do with, ‘If you want to go through that trip, you’ll get to where I am, and this is what you’ll be’. Because I’ve been successful as an artist and have been happy and unhappy. But what Yoko’s taught me what real success is”.
Still, Lennon isn’t painting the best picture of what it means to be a celebrity. Outside of dropping the first major swear words on any of his records, ‘Working Class Hero’ is like a shot of cold water for anyone who has any hopes of getting into the music industry, talking about all of the people that you have to cheat, deceive, and ultimately leave starving behind you to get to where you are.
Granted, Lennon never claimed to be a role model. Throughout his life, his history of violence towards his first wife, Cynthia, is still one of the more despicable than any rock star of his generation has ever done, but that kind of behaviour only emphasises the power behind the song.
Lennon isn’t perfect, and ‘Working Class Hero’ is more or less a warning sign about what happens when you try to give it all up to become a star. You might get what you want, but when you see the people you’ve left in your wake, you must ask yourself ‘at what cost?’ too.
