Laura+A

=__Happy Christmas (WAR IS OVER) - John Lennon__ =



__**Summary:**__
 * John Lennon
 * why I have chosen this song
 * video
 * lyrics
 * context and meaning of the lyrics
 * conclusion

__** John Lennon: **__

John Lennon was born the 9 of October of 1940, in Liverpool, England. Soon, his artistic talent related to music, writing and drawing stood out. / became obvious. __On__ the year 1957, Lennon met Paul Mcartney and invited Paul to join his music group. About one year after this, George Harrison joined the group and one of the most famous and succesfull music gropus was formed. In 1968, John Lennon married for second time to a ja panese artist named Yoko Ono. One year after, for various reasons, The Beatles broke up and Lennon started producing solo work. Lennon and Ono moved to the U.S.A in September 1971, where they both wrote Happy Christmas (war is over) at the Record Plant Studios in New York City, about one month before Christmas. In 1980, Lennon died because a supposed fan killed him when he was going out of his appartment studios in New york. Nowadays, John Lennon continues being famous, admired and well-recognised.

**__Why I have chosen this song:__** Many days ago, while I was listening to music I wondered which song I would do for my lyrics project. I had no idea which song to choose, so I decided to put my iPod on shuffle mode. Unpredictably, this song was the first one to play, and although I don’t usually listen to it, I like it and decided to choose it as it has a deep meaning about war and it makes you think, even though some people just think that it is a Christmas carol, instead of anti-war song. For me, it is quite interesting as it is a protest against the Vietnam War, which was happening while this song was released. It was years ago when I listened to it for the first time, and at first I thought that it was just a Christmas carol. I realised that it was an anti-war song when I listened to it more deeply and heard the voices of Yoko and some children singing in the background of the song about war being over. The lyrics of the song are quite simple and repetitive.

**__ Video: __**
 * put the volume of your computer up and listen to the voices of children and Yoko in the background singing war is over, if you want it..

media type="youtube" key="yN4Uu0OlmTg" width="425" height="350"

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**__Lyrics:__**

Happy Christmas kyoko, Happy Christmas Julian

So this is Christmas And what have you done? Another year over And a new one just begun And so this is Christmas I hope you have fun The near and the dear ones The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear

And so this is Christmas War is over... For weak and for strong  ...if you want it For rich and for poor ones War is over... The world is so wrong  La la la la And so happy Christmas War is over... For black and for white  ...if you want it For yellow and red ones War is over... Let's stop all the fight  La la la la

A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear

And so this is Christmas War is over... And what have we done?  ...if you want it Another year over War is over... A new one just begun  La la la la And so happy Christmas War is over... We hope you have fun  ...if you want it The near and the dear one  La la la la The old and the young

A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now...

Happy Christmas, Happy Christmas...

**__Context and Meaning of the lyrics__**

In the late '60s and early '70s, John Lennon and Yoko Ono wished peace everywhere, and they promoted anti-war messages in many places around the world. In 12 cities they payed for putting up billboard advertisements saying: ‘War is over, if you want it’. Two years later, when the song ‘Happy Christmas (war is over)’ was released, it became the official slogan and an important part of the song. This song is a protest against the Vietnam War which was occurring at that time, and they wrote it because both Lennon and Ono, and millions of people wanted it to stop, as it was very brutal and violent.

As I have said before, this song contains an anti-war message, which was Lennon’s and Ono’s objective.

There are two ways to interpret the meaning of the song. The first one is quite simple and easy to imagine: a Christmas carol. The lyrics suggest this as they talk about Christmas:

'A very Merry Christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear'

As a result, many people listen to this song merrily at Christmas time while opening presents and being with their family, even though this is not the aim of it.

On the other hand, there is a deeper meaning to this song, which talks about war. If we think about this while listening to the song, we can imagine that Lennon wishes a happy Christmas mainly to the people who are at the war, as they are the ones which are having a difficult time and the ones which can’t celebrate it. From my point of view, John Lennon tried to make people think that while we are joyfully at our home celebrating Christmas, in the world there are other depressing, tough and unfair situations going on. I think that he wants us to realise this so that people actually react to this and help them to end the war in the world.

If we look closely at the lyrics, we can interpret many thing related to the main theme and objective of the song. For me, some parts of the song are quite ironic and they can also be seen from the point of view of a person celebrating Christmas or from the point of view of someone suffering at the war.

In the first’s seconds of the song, if you listen very carefully you can hear John and Yoko wishing their kids a Happy Christmas.

The first two lines of the second paragraph, are one of the parts which for me can be seen by the two points of view which I mentioned before:

'So this is Christmas' 'And what have you done?'

On the line ‘So this is Christmas’ I can imagine two very different and opposite situations. The first one is someone at Christmas time having dinner with his family and enjoying himself, or an innocent child opening presents. The second one is more similar to the video; someone looking around himself and just seeing pain and dead bodies around him, or an innocent child trying to understand what is happening and crying desperately for help.

On the next line: ‘And what have we done?’, I can imagine that John Lennon is saying to the listener of the song ‘what have you done to improve the world?’ which maybe it is a question that the majority of us could ask to ourselves. Also, I can imagine two different situations related to the ones I described before.

After this, the next two lines for me state that although a new year has passed, the world keeps being unfair and wrong for some people, as if a year passing makes no difference to the people at war because the only important time for them is the end of the war, despite the importance that the other people give to the new year:

'Another year over' 'And a new one just begun'

On the second paragraph, the line ‘ I hope you have fun’ for me is quite ironic as the people at the war, obviously, can’t be having fun but on the other hand the people who are not at the war wish to have fun during Christmas. Both situations are completely contradictory and unfair for the ones at the war.

The fourth paragraph starts again with the repeated line ‘So this is Christmas’. I think that this repetition is very effective as it makes us imagine again the both images which I described earlier. This paragraph is one of the most important ones in the whole song as here war is mentioned for the first time by the background voices:

And so this is Christmas 'war is over...'' For weak and for strong  ...if you want it For rich and for poor ones War is over... The world is so wrong  La la la la

The fact that the background voices are children is very powerful as it is them, who are innocent and affected as well, but without understanding fully what’s happening, who state that you can do something to stop the war. You have to listen carefully to hear to these lyrics. In this paragraph, John Lennon wishes happy Christmas to everyone and he sings about war and the wrongness of the world:

'The world is so wrong' 'Lets stop all the fight' 'Without any fear'

Here, he tells us that the world is wrong and encourages us all to help stop the war, so that fear disappears in the next year.

The last lines are quite touchy. The children sing:

War is over, if you want it War is over now...

It is touchy because it reflects that even though Christmas time is for children and children should not worry, it is them who wish the war to end and because of this they seem more conscious of the war than the adults around them. Also I think that children sing this to catch more attention and so that people understand and try to help the others who are at the war. i think that the objective of Lennon and Yoko while they wrote this song was to make people conscious that unfairly not everyone in the world can celebrate Christmas and that we should think about them and help them because everyone deserves peace.


 * __ Conclusion: __**

Personally, this song is quite important for me because it makes me think greatly about the contrast in situations at the world and it makes me appreciate what I have, as sometimes we complain about things but we are not conscious that there are some people in the world suffering through hard and inhuman situations who would do anything to be in our place. I think that it is really important that we realise this and that we are conscious of it.