DM's Beatles forums

Solo forums => John Lennon => Topic started by: Moogmodule on April 30, 2014, 10:20:26 PM

Title: Give Peace a Chance - Nigeria 2014 version
Post by: Moogmodule on April 30, 2014, 10:20:26 PM

I caught a bit of a BBC news item today on the schoolgirl kidnapping in Nigeria. The families had all gathered to protest singing Give Back Our Girls, to the tune of Give Peace a Chance. It's impressive that a rapidly thrown together ditty from forty odd years ago still is called upon as a protest song in a country far removed from the Beatles main support base.

Whatever can be said of Lennon, he did know how to frame words and a tune that seems to resonate with people long after he's gone.

Title: Re: Give Peace a Chance - Nigeria 2014 version
Post by: oldbrownshoe on May 01, 2014, 05:33:54 AM

I'm also amazed by this, and also the way phrases and titles of Beatles songs have become everyday speech (check out how many news stories use variants on 'Ticket To Ride', 'Eight Days A Week' or 'A Hard Day's Night' for example).

For a song like 'Give Peace A Chance' or 'All You Need Is Love', Lennon recognised the importance of simplicity (probably the wrong word) and the various detractors of Lennon/The Beatles will jump on this straight away not acknowledging that songs like these HAVE to be simplistic in order to cross political boundaries and difference of language to become universal.