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'Attica State,' John Lennon: I Freakin' Love This Song
- Posted on Oct 7th 2010 5:30PM by Charley Rogulewski
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From 1972's 'Some Time in New York City
The lyrics of 'Attica State' are seldom considered among John Lennon's finest, but it's the unspoken part of this song off Lennon's third solo album, 'Some Time in New York City,' that deserves attention.
On Sept. 9, 1972, at approximately 8:20AM, a riot broke out at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Unhappy with the prison's living conditions -- originally built for a 1,200 capacity but housing double the occupancy -- inmates commandeered the institution, taking 33 staff members hostage. After four days of mayhem, the riot ended with 10 officers and 29 inmates dead.
"What a waste of human power
What a waste of human lives,
Shoot the prisoners in the towers
Forty-three poor widowed wives"
Since we are on the subject of birthdays, legend has it that Lennon penned those lyrics a month later when he rang in his 31st. On that same day, the opening of the Yoko Ono art exhibit 'This Is Not Here' in Syracuse, N.Y. led to late-night revelry at a nearby hotel with Lennon and his guitar, Allen Ginsberg, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and many others in attendance. And while the facts are debatable in the song (43 widowed wives did not comply with media reports), it's Lennon's frenzied guitar work on the chorus that does all the talking, channeling that imaginable chaos within the Attica State prison walls. The term "Attica" has since come to describe any sort of destruction or bedlam, past or present.
Lennon helped raise money for the families of the slain inmates two months later at a fundraiser in New York's Harlem neighborhood. But the most uncanny part of Lennon writing this song and paying tribute to this precise uprising is that eight years later Attica State would be the same prison Mark David Chapman would be sent to serve a 20-years-to-life prison sentence for the murder of John Lennon.
I just got the chills writing that. Lennon bizarrely penned his own destiny.
- Filed under: I Freakin' Love This Song
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vendelavee
1 reply to vendelavee's comment
I wish the media would STOP promoting and portraying John Lennon as some kind of Saint. He was a great musician AND THAT IS ALL! As a person he was very eccentric, Abusive and Violent towards women, a regular drug user and a Heroin Addict in the early 70's, prone to rediculous publicity stunts for Peace that accomplished NOTHING, not very educated, and a lousy, absentee, uncaring father to his first son Julian. He had NO OTHER successes in his life outside of music. There are 1,000 other people who did more for the Peace movment than sing songs and make speeches who got no MEDIA COVERAGE. He owes much of his importance to being a "Darling Of The Media" for the past 46 years. I have been a Beatles fan since I was 12 years old in 1964, but I can still be OBJECTIVE, which the media has never been with Lennon. As Paul McCartney said in his Bio, "ever since John died people have tried to make him out to be Martin Luther Lennon. He was just a regular guy, and no more." Which is the TRUTH! But the comment was later removed after a HUGE outcry by the media and fans. People don't want the truth, they want to believe in the myths the media creates.
October 09 2010 at 4:34 PM Report abuse Permalink -1 rate up rate down Reply
Anna J.
And you are trying to portray him as some kind of monster. He was NOT violent to his wife. If you read her book, the only 1 incident was something that was done before they were even married. And I'm not saying it was right, but for people to go on about him being so supposedly "violent" to Cynthia when SHE never said he was is a bunch of BULL. John Lennon wasn't perfect, but he wasn't a monster. As far as being a father, he was a lousy one to Julian in the beginning, but he made a huge effort to get closer to him towards the end, and they WERE getting closer. He was an amazing father to Sean so really you can't judge him there. As far as all his other "mistakes" it was probably just John's own rash behavior that made him jump into causes that perhaps he should have had some foresight into...I agree. However, YOU are trying to denigrate this man as practically inhumane, and that is wrong. He was no more flawed than the other 3, but he was HONEST about his shortcomings. And that says a lot.
There needs to be a BALANCE here from the world when looking at John. At one end, people want to deify him and at the other end people want to turn him into some kind of horrible sociopath. He was actually so much more fascinating if you take him for what he was, as Paul Macca said, "a beautiful man." John was loyal and generous to his friends and family and he was also a very sincere person. Yoko described him as a "loving and caring" husband and he was a wonderful father to Sean. With Julian, he was getting there. But understand this people: when Lennon had become a father, he was in the midst of Beatlemania and then continuing to making albums/tour/ and then just make album...he then got divorced and remarried and moved out of the UK. He had a lot of issues that made it hard for him to see his son, aside from his own carelessness. He admitted this. He didn't purposely try to be a bad parent, but he made mistakes like anyone else.
I hope people can finally see him as a HUMAN and neither a saint or a monster. That is all.
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