Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)
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| “Bring on the Lucie (Freeda People)” | |||||
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| Song by John Lennon | |||||
| Album | Mind Games | ||||
| Released | November 16, 1973 | ||||
| Recorded | 1973 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 4:12 | ||||
| Label | Apple/EMI | ||||
| Writer | John Lennon | ||||
| Producer | John Lennon | ||||
| Mind Games track listing | |||||
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"Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)" is a protest song written and performed by John Lennon from his 1973 album Mind Games.
After the politically-heavy album Some Time in New York City in 1972, Lennon returned to the style of his previous albums, the emotionally revealing John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and the more commercial yet equally emotional Imagine. "Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)" is one of the few political statements on the album.
Like many of Lennon's political songs, "Bring on the Lucie" protests war and killing (the song was released two years before the end of the Vietnam War), taking a critical stab at self-important government with lyrics such as, "We don't care what flag you're waving/We don't even want to know your name/We don't care where you're from or where you're going," later saying, "You're making all our decisions."
In the song, he demands that the government, "Free the people now" (the song's refrain, with Lennon shouting, "Stop the killing now!," over the final verse), and stops its efforts to control them and the world around them. With its repeated refrain and repetitive melody, the song is reminiscent of Lennon's past political anthems, "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People." In the song, Lennon at one point likens the refrain to a prayer, urging listeners to "shout it aloud."
Lennon further continues to disparage the government by equating them to Satan by using the Number of the Beast, 666, before describing officials "jerking off each other" and telling them that, "You still gotta swallow your pill", possibly alluding to LSD and Timothy Leary's mantra of "Turn on, tune in, drop out".
This contributes to the second half of the song's darker, more biting atmosphere, wherein Lennon alerts the government to the citizens' power and mocks their unenlightened ways.
[edit] In the media
- Two versions of the song, both performed by John Lennon, appear in the 2006 film, Children of Men. The standard version of the song (originally released on the Mind Games album) is heard during the course of the film, and an alternate version of the song, originally released on the 1998 John Lennon Anthology boxed set, is featured over the closing credits. The standard version of the song also appears on the film's soundtrack along with a cover version by Junior Parker of "Tomorrow Never Knows," a song Lennon wrote with Paul McCartney for the Beatles album Revolver.
[edit] External links
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