Free (The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) Ben Urish, Ken Bielen-The Words and Music of John Lennon-Praeger (2007) by Ken Bielen Ben Urich Page B

more or less composed while still a Beatle. Over the
    years, the song has become contemporary again anytime the credibility gap
    between citizens and governments grows. Written while U.S. forces were mired
    in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the song attacks “hypocritics” and “pig-headed
    politicians” for holding back the truth. The lyric is prophetic in that it was
    written prior to the Watergate break-in and prior to Lennon’s personal, and
    underhanded, harassment from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
    Lennon’s narrator will no longer accept lies from a “son of tricky Dicky.”
    Richard M. Nixon was the president of the United States at the time the lyr-
    ics were composed. A critical nickname bestowed on him was “tricky Dick,”
    so Lennon’s phrase is a direct reference to the Nixon administration. The
    offspring of “tricky Dicky” that Lennon sings of is “short-haired” (implying
    establishment-oriented) and “yellow-bellied.” Lennon asserts that confor-
    mity is a by-product of cowardice, chauvinism, and paranoia.
    Lennon refuses the government’s selling of the war. The country’s leaders
    are not going to “mother Hubbard soft soap” him. It is interesting that he
    uses the image of soap. Lennon also refers to a “pocketful of soap” in the
    lyrics. When the Lennons explained to the media why they were campaigning
    for peace with bed-ins and billboards, they stated that they chose to utilize
    the same effective advertising tools to sell peace that a manufacturer would
    employ to sell soap.7
    Even though performed with contempt and rage, Lennon’s wordplay in
    “Give Me Some Truth” is akin to his vocal delivery on “Give Peace a Chance.”
    He similarly mashes images together in this Imagine track: “schizophrenic,
    ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas” as if spewing them out in anger. A
    prominent, broiling guitar approximates the seething character of the lyrics.
    After a brief guitar break from George Harrison that bites and barks the notes,
    Gimme Some Truth, 1970–1973 31
    and after more ingenious word combinations, Lennon closes the song very
    simply by demanding the truth over and over again.
    “Oh My Love” is a love song written by Lennon and Ono and also dates
    from his time with The Beatles. Calming yet simultaneously mournful, Len-
    non sings of the clarity that results when one is renewed by romantic love.
    There is a clearer view of one’s surroundings and of one’s purpose. There is
    self-realization. The song conjures an interesting image of the mind feeling.
    How does a mind feel? He goes on to say he feels “sorrow,” which is compre-
    hensible, but then he closes the thought with “I feel the dreams.” So, there is
    yet another question for the listener to ponder: how does one feel a dream?
    The lyrics also talk about seeing the wind. These contributions would
    seem more Ono than Lennon, but such was their cross-pollination by then
    that this is not a certainty. When Lennon sings that “Everything is clear in
    our world” the song momentarily sounds like the lyrical passage, “Nothing’s
    gonna change my world,” from his Beatles recording “Across the Universe.”
    Once again Lennon has sequenced a gentle song of questioning innocence
    between two songs of frustration and pervasive anger.
    “How Do You Sleep?” is Lennon’s bald tirade against former songwriting
    and artistic partner Paul McCartney. Lennon claimed he was responding to
    previous musical salvos from McCartney, especially from McCartney’s second
    post-Beatles album Ram. 8 Lennon saw the album’s song “Too Many People”
    as an attack on himself and Ono, with such lyrics as “Too many people preach-
    ing practices” referring to the couple’s activism. In the same song, McCartney
    sings about someone spoiling their lucky break, which Lennon took to mean
    McCartney blamed him for the end of The Beatles. Ram ’s song “Three Legs”
    was interpreted as attacking the