John Lennon – Working Class Hero – Lyrics about the cynicism of society. How the selfish and greedy get to the top.

Posted on by Opher

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This is Lennon at his most scathing and cynical. It expresses a lot of anger about the way society works to keep you in your place with the promise of the possibility of eating from the top table. You are taught to fit in, not make waves and work so that those at the top can skim it off. We’re all still exploited; still peasants.

This was one of the first songs to have ‘fucking’ in it. The sixties was all for realism and liberalisation. We were doing away with class, tweeness and hypocrisy. Didn’t work did it? The establishment is coming back at us with a vengeance! So much for the sixties revolution. The establishment is still the establishment.

The irony is that John was as middle-class as they come!

“Working Class Hero”

As soon as you’re born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
‘Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you’re clever and they despise a fool
‘Til you’re so fucking crazy you can’t follow their rules

A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they’ve tortured and scared you for 20 odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function, you’re so full of fear

A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and T.V.
And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

There’s room at the top they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me

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