Give Peace A Chance

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
LENNON: "After answering all these questions, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many times, it got down to all we were saying was, Give Peace A Chance. Not we have any formula or Communism or Socialism will answer it or any '-ism' could answer it. We didn't ahve a format or a . . . we couldn't give you a plan . . . but just consider the idea of . . . of not having this war, just consider it. So that's what, we, in a nutshell, we were saying. So we recorded it in the bedroom of the Montreal Hilton. . . . There was like Tommy Smothers and Tim Leary and Dick Gregg, and all people sort of clapping along and singing on the chorus. And if you hear the record, it's funny actually, because my rhythm sense has always been a bit wild, and halfway through it, I got on the on-beat instead of the back-beat and it was hard because all the . . . there was non-musicians playing along with us. And so I had to put a lot of tape echo to double up the beat to keep a steady beat right through the whole record, so it goes Bo-boom, Bo-boom, instead of Ba, Ba." December 6, 1980, The Last Lennon Tapes

LENNON: "The real word I used on the record was 'masturbation', but I'd just got in trouble for 'The Ballad Of John And Yoko' and I didn't want any more fuss, so I put 'mastication' in the written lyrics. It was a cop-out, but the message about peace was more important to me than having a little laugh about a word." Beatles in Their Own Words

YOKO ONO: "Anyway, it's not a cop-out. It was a consideration because it's the song that has to go round the world, you know." December 6, 1980, The Last Lennon Tapes

LENNON: "I was pleased when the movement in America took up 'Give Peace A Chance' because I had written it with that in mind really. I hoped that instead of singing 'We Shall Overcome' from 1800 or something, they would have something contemporary. I felt an obligation even then to write a song that people would sing in the pub or on a demonstration. That is why I would like to compose songs for the revolution now . . ." Red Mole (March 8-22, 1971) via Beatles in Their Own Words

LENNON: "There was supposed to be a party for the release of the 'Give Peace A Chance' record which was the first Plastic Ono Band record, but we'd had a car crash or something so we couldn't come; so at the dance ahll where they had the party for the Plasic Ono Band all the Press came to meet the band and the band was on stage which was just a machine with a camera pointing at them showing them on the stage themselves." December 6, 1980, The Last Lennon Tapes