'Give Peace A Chance' by John Lennon
Lewis (
Tasmania
)
The song ‘Give Peace A Chance’ from John Lennon – Lewis’ goosebump moment
“Hello, I am Lewis and I come from Tasmania. My goosebump moment is when I am sitting at a bar in Tasmania and suddenly, I am struck by the song John Lennon ‘Give Peace A Chance’. Hearing that song, I am transported into another world of peace and unity after that a local band gets up to play traditional music with traditional instruments the people get up and dance the environment is shifted it’s a beautiful moment and at that moment, I realized the power of music and how it has the power to change and make the environment better even in a remote place like Tasmania.”
An anti-war song
‘Give Peace a Chance’ is a song written by John Lennon and originally credited to Lennon-McCartney (John Lennon and Paul McCartney).
However, when Lennon’s posthumous live album with Elephant’s Memory, Live in New York City (Recorded in 1972), was reissued in 1990, only the composition of Give Peace a Chance was credited to John Lennon.
The end credits of the 2006 program The U.S. vs. John Lennon (in which the song appears) also lists John Lennon as the sole writer of the song.
Writing
At John and Yoko’s peace camper a reporter asked John what he was trying to do. And John said, all we’re saying is, give peace a chance spontaneously, but he liked the phrase and prepared it musically for the song.
While in bed, he sang the song several times, and finally, on June 1, 1969, he rented an 8-track recorder from a local music store and recorded it while in bed.
Recording
It was recorded by John Lennon and released as a single under the name, Plastic Ono Band.
To maximize media exposure, newlyweds John Lennon and Yoko Ono set out to host the second encampment in New York City (the first was held in Amsterdam), but U.S. immigration officials refused to allow Lennon to enter the country because of his drug conviction in November 1968 in London.
Instead of doing so in New York, the couple then chose Montreal because it was closer to the U.S. border.
The song was recorded on June 1, 1969 in room 1742 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal Canada. The recording session was attended by dozens of journalists and several celebrities, including Timothy Leary, Rosemary Woodruff Leary, Petula Clark, Dick Gregory, Allen Ginsberg, Murray the K and Derek Taylor.
Lennon played acoustic guitar and was joined by Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers also playing acoustic guitar.
Commercial version
The single Give Peace a Chance (with Yoko Ono’s Remember Love on the B-side) was released on 45 RPM vinyl in the UK on Friday, July 4, 1969 and on Monday, July 7, 1969 in the US.
The track’s first appearance on a full-length album was on the hits compilation The John Lennon Collection released on November 1, 1982 in the UK by (EMI/Parlophone Records) and November 8, 1982 (originally on Geffen Records since reissued on Capitol Records).
A significantly truncated version of the Montreal session version and a snippet of the song from the One to One Benefit concert performance appeared on Lennon’s hits compilation, Shaved Fish.
More about the song ‘Give Peace a Chance’:
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