Dennis Hollingsworth

1968

Via GoodShit, the story behind the making of Revolution:

Not to be confused with the much longer tape-loop arrangement Revolution 9, Revolution 1 as it is sometimes called (and the later recording but earlier released single, Revolution mk.2) was John?s answer to the growing civil unrest of early 1968. The Summer of Love had made way for the Spring of Revolution, and in March 1968 many thousands gathered to march on the American Embassy in London to protest against the Vietnam war. At the same time, various Leninist, Trotskyist and Maoist groups were pressing on Lennon for moral and financial support. In contrast, John strongly believed that an inner moral revolution was more important than a violent external one, and penned the song as someone under pressure to declare his allegiances ? of which he was still unsure. He famously left the question open by including the line ?you can count me in/out?. By the second recording, the faster Revolution mk.2 (9?13 July 1968), he had apparently made his choice and sang ?count me out? ? to the dismay of several left-wing magazines who reported it as a ?betrayal? and a ?bourgeois cry of fear?.

After another attack by Keele University student John Hoyland, Lennon wrote a passionate letter to the University explaining ?All I?m saying is I think you should do it by changing people?s heads, and they?re saying we should smash the system. Now the system-smashing scene has been going on forever. What?s it done? The Irish did it, the Russians did it, the French did it and where has it got them? It?s got them nowhere. It?s the same old game. Who?s going to run this smashing up? Who?s going to take over? It?ll be the biggest smashers. They?ll be the ones to take over. I don?t know what the answer is but I think it?s down to people. Until you/we change your/our heads ? there?s no chance.? The ?Hey Jude? single, containing ?Revolution? as a B-side, began its sixteen-week run on the UK charts on September 7th, 1968, claiming the top spot a week later. It sold over 3 million copies in America in its first 2 months of release and eventually sold over 4 million copies, to become the fourth best-selling single of the 1960s.