Working Class Hero

Is a song by John Lennon. A man who was murdered 30 years ago today.

I don't propose to go on and on about how great this guy was but.....

I grew up in a small country village just outside the roman town of Bath. Or Bath Spa as they've always called it on the railways.

Trust me on this one, in 1950's rural England. there was precious little rock and roll around, despite what you might have heard.

The stories (for example) of Mick and Keith meeting each other at a railway station in Sidcup are all well and good.

But, for a boy brought up on Stanford in C , Music while you Work, and (thankfully) the Shadows, guitars, saxophone and double bass were but a distant drumming in the distance. Not an overwhelming presence.

Back then, my Mum and Dad used to visit my Gran on a Saturday, a short journey to Frome, tea, a bit of telly and home by nine.

I had a Saturday evening paper round so this precluded me going along on the trip.

Saturday evenings, therefore, were my own. How very fantastic!

Living in a valley meant we didn't have television at all. The signal was poor.

Entertainment, therefore, for a 12 year old boy (left alone to look after the house, make and tend a fire (goodness) prepare his own tea, do the washing-up after and generally cope) was restricted to radio broadcasts.

One November evening in 1962, some 6 weeks prior to the big freeze, I was sat tending the coal fire in our dining room, listening to Radio Luxembourg on the home set and heard Barry Aldis play this song.

Apparently, McCartney wrote the main verses and the bridge was by Lennon. A simple juxtaposition of G7 and C, the song is characterised by piercing harmonica-the part most powerful to a young and impressionable lad.

The rest is history but, just to say, Mr Lennon defined my adolescence like no other.

His music, his acerbic ways, his manliness, his Mojo if you like.

Crazy Bastard. I love him!

JVIP