John Lennon song by song album by album thread.

I love the whole song, the verses and all. I would say 5/5 for me.

I am glad someone had finally started a Lennin album by album thread, I have searched for one before and was shocked there wasn't one. Will you be including unreleased songs as we go along too or just the official output?

 

Give peace a chance I can listen to about 1 minute ill give it a 2

 

I thought I’d follow the official releases chronologically & when we reach things like Anthology we can discuss the tracks that were previously unreleased.

Perhaps once we’ve covered all of his released material, we could cover what’s still left in the vault/on bootlegs.

We could also discuss film/video/dvd releases, such as the Live Peace in Toronto film, Live in New York, the Imagine documentary etc.

I’m open to suggestions from other posters, so please feel free to offer input

 

Lenin did have some kickin' hits.

And who could forget these chart busting hits!







Sorry I just had to. I am the 'wurst' typist myself.

 

Paul McCartney played Give Peace A Chance live as a tribute to John Lennon in 1990 if I remember correctly.

I like the sentiment but the song was not a classic for me. 2.5/5.

 

Great song.
Everybody talkin' 'bout nonsense verses, all I am saying is it's purposeful nonsense.
5/5

 

Give Peace a Chance is a chant, not a song. Which, frankly, should be true of more protest songs.

Of course it DOES have verses, but they are nonsense, bastard children of Walrus and Come Together, and they quickly recede from our mind like the out of focus foreground in a photo.

Judged as a song, well, it is hastily written, badly recorded, and, aside from the chorus, completely unmemorable. One point for capturing the moment in the anti-Vietnam war protests, one point for the catchy chant that has survived the moment.

2/5

 

Give Peace A Chance

Great message-culturally relevant.
As music it isn't much. A so so song. Does have some humor.

I give it a 3.5 stars (out of 5)

 

Echoing what others have said, I think the idea behind Give Peace A Chance is better than the song itself. The chorus is a highly effective bit of sloganing that has rightly become hardwired into the culture. But the verses are a bit of a head scratcher. And that was true even in 1969.

 

Good thread!

I'd give GPAC 3/5. Feels like part of my childhood, not just because I heard it growing up but because it made such a clear, definite impression, like a lot of Lennon's best stuff. Words very effective - "Everybody's talking about... (insert gibberish) - (but) all we are saying is give peace a chance". Cut away the chit chat/ prevariction/ bullshine, let's get to the point.

 

Give Peace A Chance (5/5)

John Lennon had already started his career twice – once with the Beatles and then with his 3 experimental albums that came out in 1968 and 1969. Now, he’s arrived for a third time. This was the beginning of his solo career in rock, and he freed himself up from The Beatles temporarily to come up with the first solo Beatle hit outside of the band. And it’s not quite the normal rock song so I'm not going to have adhere to the normal standards I expect from a rock song.

Fashioned more as a folk singalong with a universal message, it’s one of the most enduring symbols stemming out of 20th century music, along with being a signature moment of the 1960's. It’s hard to gauge a song like this because it’s skeletal, with just a rambling random listing of the famed names of the day and a gigantic hook of a chorus that continues the Beatles overall message of peace and love. There’s just so many odd things about the song that have become taken for granted being overshadowed by the institution of the phrase into society. To this day, over 50 years later it’s referenced by title or by allusion with all kinds of different plays alternating the words.

John said the lyrics of “I Am The Walrus” were supposed to be nonsensical, and with “Give Peace A Chance”, he uses that idea to come up with a lyrical structure that takes a number of celebrity names and groups them together as one entity to downplay their significance in comparison with peace in the world. These people are the ones talked about but maybe being peaceful should be the #1 subject. By listing the names and having a bed-in with everyone singing along, including some known names, John brilliantly is able to make the song feel like a community and not just one voice telling everyone what to do. He’s also able to involve Yoko easier and do another excellent idea of sloganeering for peace like it’s a commercial ad or a rally cry. Though it dates the song some, the lyrical list idea is always interesting with Lennon, as we hear how he sees the celebrity world circa 1969. He does list type songs a lot during this era – “I’ve Got A Feeling” with its interchangeable “everybody had a…”, “Come Together” with it’s “he got…he got…”, “Love”, “How”. Here, his humor comes through with some funny sequences and his the clever wordplay he can toss out easily, some of my favorites are the opening line with “this-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism” and “rabbis and Popeyes and bye-bye bye-byes.”

It’s very playful along with the naively optimistic refrain though he does probably undercut the song’s intent a bit with the masturbation line changed to ‘mastication’ in the official lyric. The ad-libs are fun, as the song becomes anthemic on the repeating refrain coda with John ad-libbing in between his backing vocalists like Paul did on “Hey Jude”. The applause and cheering after sounds natural. One more thing overshadowed is the way the music comes out. It’s very sparse with John on acoustic, handclaps from everyone in the Toronto hotel room, and the odd percussion that has baffled me for years. Last I heard it was someone closing a door over and over but regardless, it’s very prominent compared to the acoustic, handclaps and tambourine.

It may go on a tad too long, some may say it was preachy though it sounds tries for humble, but this is one of rock’s most famous songs, a peace anthem that has been engrained in world culture 50 years later. It hit #2 UK, #14 US, and got Lennon off to an excellent start for his solo career despite it technically being credited to 'Plastic Ono Band', a new moniker for a group that will have interchanging members.

 

As a song, well it's not great - I dunno, 2/5.

As a anthem/chant that was designed to give protesters something other than We Shall Overcome to sing at a demo - job done 5/5.

 

Give Peace A Chance 2/5

 

Give Peace A Chance 3.5/5

You just have to rate GPAC within it's context. It's an iconic sixties peace song by John & Yoko and therefore my high rating. It belongs on every 60's mixtape but maybe not on my barbecue playlist.

 

I knew the excitement level for this particular thread was rising as I was reading the McCartney thread.
Thanks for starting it ! I'm all in !

 

Listening to that album is these self-isolated times could be quite enthralling. ..or depressing.

 

Hey now, you are stealing my style of rating there, BeamMeUpGus! Speaking of Beam Me Up Gus, you all realize that Darth Vader never says that actual line in any of the Harry Potter films, though it's an old wives tale that he does. Anyway...
I would not give GPAC more than 4/5 as a song and that’s high
As an anthem and plea for peace I would give it 7/5!

 

The only one that I know is close to this is the one that I made over a decade ago.

John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band (album) 1970 Song by Song Thread

 

Hey , it's your thread. Rock it the way you want it to roll. Everyone will fall in line. Maybe.
Having said that, I don't like rating songs personally. But can I still play ?

 

Give Peace A Chance 5/5

For me, it has always been an anthem for peace... WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT

 

Fall in line? Hah hah

 

The biggest question in these threads is how fast do you go from songs to song. You lose folks when you go too fast, but you also lose them if you go too slow. My suggestion would be minimum a day per song and maximum a week per song. I would probably start with a day per song then gradually slow down to a song every two or three days, if you want to keep the maximum # of folks involved. Oh, and invite folks to talk about anything Lennon or Beatles here, that keeps folks engaged too.

 

You act like you a have run one of these threads or something, BeamMeUpGus!

 

Well.....

 

5/5. Iconic. The idea of a major celebrity and Pop icon becoming a performance artist for a cause was a pretty radical move in 1969.
As a song, it's not something you're really going to listen too much outside of it's context, but it sure became a soundtrack to a movement.