News ‘John Sinclair’: the song John Lennon wrote about a counterculture icon
By the time John Lennon went solo, he was already ingrained in politics. Not being able to talk about politics for most of The Beatles’ career probably changed him, and all Lennon wanted to do was to help support the causes that were closest to his heart. While he may have gone a bit too far in one direction with Some Time In New York City, he did pen one ode to one of the kings of the counterculture, John Sinclair.
While The Beatles were singing about holding hands and getting into drugs like LSD for the first time, Sinclair was already trying to express the need for free drug use among the people. If you thought the Grateful Dead were the poster children for free love, Sinclair beat them three times over, constantly going on about the kind of freedom that can come from expanding one’s mind.
When Lennon finally exorcised his demons on Plastic Ono Band, he was finally ready to speak up when it came time to make Imagine. One can only do so much from living the posh English billionaire lifestyle, though, and Lennon’s decision to move to New York turned his entire world upside down when hearing about Sinclair.
Despite being closely associated with the MC5, Sinclair found a supporter in Lennon, especially after Lennon began taking an interest in the White Panther movement. Political movements have campaign songs, though, and Lennon thought that his time was best served by making the kind of music that suited Sinclair.
Since most of Some Time in New York City feels like reading the daily news of a political newspaper, Lennon wrote ‘John Sinclair’ in a bid to get him out of prison. Although Sinclair’s arrest for trying to sell marijuana to an undercover cop would have been considered a slap on the wrist these days, he was in danger of being put away for decades when Lennon stepped in.
For the former Beatle, this was one of the few times that he was writing on commission, recalling in All We Are Saying, “They wanted a song about John Sinclair. So I wrote it. That’s the craftsman part of me. If somebody asks me for something, I can do it. I can write anything musically. You name it.”
Outside of writing about the ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacres, ‘John Sinclair’ is more of a slogan than an actual song, as Lennon sings about needing to set him free at all costs. While there are the makings of a good track here, it’s easy to see why this was never Lennon’s favourite style of writing, down to him playing the same kind of riff over and over again to the point where many people probably checked to see if their record wasn’t skipping.
It may not have been the greatest piece, but it did exactly what it was supposed to do after attending a rally to support Sinclair, the counterculture icon was released three days later. Even though Lennon may not have intended to make something so sloganeering for Some Time In New York City, the fact that it worked proved his point about music. Regardless of how many love songs there are in the world, a track can change the world as long as you have the right idea and your heart is in the right place.
