Paranoia Is Often Described As Ultimate Awareness and So It Was in Lennon's Case

Paranoia is often described as ultimate awareness and so it was in Lennon's case. His FBI files showed the extent of the surveillance they had him under and, eventually, Governor Nelson Rockefeller sent in Harmless, pot-addled rock stars like never did his songwriting much good. Many of the 1,700 armed officers who rained dum-dum bullets on Donovan, George Harrison and, in this case, sentiments expressed on the album sound at best the rioters, 32 of whom died, many bleeding to death Lennon, who had agreed to plead guilty as long heavy-handed, woodenly tub-thumping, rigid with a from their wounds. Lennon would sport a button, as Yoko was let off. second-hand, improperly digested indignation that "Indict Rockefeller For Murder", and in December The deportation order would inhibit Lennon's only serves to make the songs seem awkward and would perform a benefit for the wives of the victims movement, keep him in New York longer than inelastic rather than piercing and impassioned. of the riot. he might otherwise have stayed, and prevented "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" was a classic Lennon also took up the cudgels for John Sinclair, him from touring widely. case in point-the rather lame second line, "Yes, she is - Minister of Information for the White Panthers and Paranoia is often described as the ultimate form think about it," is indicative of Lennon's uncertainty as former manager of the MC5, who was serving a of awareness, and so it was in Lennon's case. The to how to proceed with the song, which came under lengthy jail sentence for a marijuana bust. FBI files revealed after his death showed the fire from women for depicting them as passive and This political upsurge on the part of the charismatic extent of the surveillance they had him under. enslaved, while African-Americans didn't appreciate ex-Beatle did not go unnoticed by the US authorities, Lennon would, in fact, subsequently attempt to Lennon's shock deployment of the "N" word. who had not previously faced this level of sue the US Government, whom he believed were "Attica State" and "Angela", meanwhile, read like outspokenness on the part of so popular a recording tapping his phones, and he even tried to obtain a Red Brigade greetings cards ("They all live in artist. The Rolling Stones had confined themselves to Royal Pardon from the Queen in order to have his suffocation/Let's not watch them die in sorrow/Now's the delinquent feats of urination. Dylan had retreated into 1968 drugs conviction quashed. time for revolution/Give them all a chance to grow"). his own rich, electric world of surrealist metaphor The sheer Lennonesque invective of following his early protest period. Elvis-well, they'd PERHAPS THE "Sunday Bloody Sunday" never had to worry about Elvis. Phil Ochs and Joan GOVERNMENT needn't lends it an angry bristle ("You Baez were small potatoes. This was John Lennon, the have been too concerned. Anglo pigs and Scotties sent to most potent, unambiguous and abrasive foe the word Some Time In New York City, colonise the North"), but "The of rock culture had so far thrown up in opposition to Lennon's third solo album, Luck Of The Irish", which Anglo-American authoritarianism. released in late '72, showed reeks of Yoko's whimsical And so, in February 1972, when Lennon's US that, while the notion of influence, is among the most immigration visa came up for renewal, he and Lennon as risible songs Lennon ever Yoko were served with a deportation notice. The attached his name to. With its reason? Lennon had been busted for cannabis in quasi-Marxist/sonic terrorist, Blarney blather about 1968 by the tireless Detective Sergeant Norman using his vast wealth, caustic charm and influence to inspire Il auld Eireland" and Pilcher who, before going to jail himself for exhortations to "walk over planting evidence, devoted inordinate energies to revolution in the stagnant 1970s had an alluringly iconic rainbows like leprechauns", the swooping down on song couldn't have been more buzz to it, the reality was that insulting if » 48 UNCUT .

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