Power to The People

Power to The People og Open Your Box med John Lennon og Yoko Ono, singel vinyl fra 1971.

Plateselskap: Apple. Plastic Ono Band.

Power to The People var John Lennons fjerde single. Der «Mother» var en mer eller mindre planlagt fiasko, ble dette en større suksess. Den nådde sjetteplass i Storbritannia og ellevte i USA. Lennon skal selv ha uttalt at han skrev låten etter at folk, visstnok høyt utdannete Cambridge-revolusjonære, ga ham dårlig samvittighet for ikke å hate alle rike. Hunter S. Thompson kommenterte at sangen kom ut ti år for sent, noe Lennon selv sa at han var enig i. Han har også omtalt sangen som «pinlig».

«Power To The People» is John Lennon’s fourth solo single, written after conversations with Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn, activists and writers for the communist magazine Red Mole.

It was released on 12th March 1971 with the B-Side ‘Open Your Box’ by Yoko Ono.

John Lennon i 1980: “Well, that came from a talk with Tariq Ali, who was sort of a “revolutionary” in England and edited a magazine called Red Mole. So I felt I ought to write a song about what he was saying. That’s why it didn’t really come off. I was not thinking clearly about it. It was written in the state of being asleep and wanting to be loved by Tariq Ali and his ilk, you see. I have to admit to that so I won’t call it hypocrisy. I wouldn’t write that today.”