A friend of mine and I were discussing John Lennon’s ability as a sloganeer.
He posited that Lennon’s “Give Peace a Chance” for all its fame, amounted to little more than a slogan. Where was the rest of the song?
It’s an understandable criticism. In fact, when Lennon’s first collection of solo material Shaved Fish came out, only the first minute of the song was actually included.
With a little more reflection, though, the slap dash simplicity of “Give Peace a Chance” has a lot more going for it than one would think.
Admittedly, the song isn’t something that Lennon pored over for weeks. It was recorded with immediacy in mind during John and Yoko’s second hotel room bed in, and it’s easy to take the verses as pure nonsense.
Everybody’s talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism,
Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, That-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m
Huh???
But, upon further reflection, that’s the point. The reasons for war and violence are constantly changing. Arguing politicians get so caught up in the back and forth of minutia that the only reasonable response is to become as dazed and confused as the Phil Spector jury.
We find ourselves in yet another war. Should we have disbanded the Iraqi army? Were there WMD’s? Is it all about oil? Are we fighting terror?
Like Lennon’s verses, it’s all just noise. In fact, all that really matters in the end IS the slogan – Give Peace a Chance. To him it was that simple, and everything else made as much sense as:
Everybody’s talking about ministers,
Sinister, Banisters
And canisters, Bishops, Fishops,
Rabbis, and Pop eyes, Bye, bye, bye byes.
