the Rock Report

Whenever someone thinks about The Fab Four, they’re either likely to conjure up images of four moptops behind guitars and a drumkit, Twisting and Shouting their music into the hearts of screaming young fans.
Others, though, come up with one or two basic images: John Lennon and Paul McCartney. And, more likely than not, it’ll be the “Working Class Hero” Lennon they envision.

So it’s no wonder that the three most influential rock songs of all-time, as I tabbed from results of your voting a few months ago, were by these two, either as a team or separately. They were:

All You Need Is Love This song was the banner of thousands of young people during the last two years of the Sixties. And, while most of us remember the chorus, it’s the lyrics that hold one of the most motivating lessons of life: that there’s nothing we want to accomplish that can’t be done.
When they add the title of the song, they don’t necessarily mean the love of a person, or of an end to war or whatever; they mean love your goal! Love your dream! They make it easier by sayin’, in effect, it has been done before, so you do it, too!
(Incidentally, didja know that this song was modified a few years later to be used in a Pond’s Cold Cream commercial? It was finally pulled after thousands of irate Lennon fans complained!)

Give Peace A Chance Now, it seemed that every prime-time TV show used this line in one form or another — and, of course, it became the standard response to everyone who was confronted with the issue of Vietnam.
(By the way, didja know that The Everly Brothers used Give Peace A Chance as the last line of the closing number (Let It Be Me) in their concerts, instead of repeating their song’s title, for awhile after Peace was released?)
Today, we need to give peace a chance more than ever! Just as the quick-rhyming lyrics that John scribbled inferred, we talk about everything but peace!
For you who are interested, here are the lyrics as John wrote them:

Of all the songs that John wrote independently, Imagine was probably the most powerful. This tune, originally meant as a children’s song, evoked thoughts of a peaceful, communal planet. While he admitted to being a dreamer, he was spot-on when he said he wasn’t the only one.
Peace. Imagine …

With this election comin’ to a head over the next coupla months, let’s all hope that these cats who are runnin’ for the Big House will finally give peace a chance. After all, all you need is love!

Well, that’s it for this edition. Until tomorrow, remember:
Keep your eyes on the skies, your feet on the ground, your heart with the music …
and I’ll see ya on the flip side!

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