HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER)
JOHN LENNON
SONGWRITERS: JOHNN LENNON & YOKO ONO
COUNTRY: U. K.
ALBUM: JOHN & YOKO THE PLASTIC ONO BAND
LABEL: APPLE RECORDS
GENRE: CHRISTMAS SONG
YEAR: 1971
John Winston Ono Lennon MBE (born John Winston Lennon, 9 October
1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist, and
rhythm guitarist of the
Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono.
After the Beatles
disbanded in 1970, Lennon continued a career
as a solo artist and as Ono's collaborator.
Born in Liverpool,
Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed his first band, the Quarrymen,
which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. He was initially the group's de facto leader,
a role gradually ceded to McCartney. Lennon was characterised for the rebellious nature and
acerbic wit in his music, writing, drawings, on film and in interviews. In
the mid-1960s, he had two books published: In
His Own Write and A
Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with 1967's "All
You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as
anthems by the anti-war movement and the larger counterculture.
From 1968 to 1972, Lennon produced more than
a dozen records with Ono, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums, his first solo LP John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, and the
international top 10 singles "Give
Peace a Chance", "Instant Karma!",
"Imagine" and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
In 1969, he held the two week-long anti-war demonstration Bed-Ins for Peace.
After moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a three-year attempt by the Nixon administration to deport him.
In 1975, Lennon disengaged from the music business to raise his infant son Sean and, in 1980, returned with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy.
He was shot
and killed in the archway of his Manhattan apartment building by a Beatles fan, Mark
David Chapman, three weeks after the album's
release.
As a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon
had 25 number one singles in the Billboard
Hot 100 chart. Double Fantasy, his
best-selling album, won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In
1982, Lennon was honoured with the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.
In 2002, Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC poll of the 100
Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer and thirty-eighth greatest artist of all time. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 1997) and
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a
member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994).
Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. It was the seventh single release by Lennon outside
his work with the Beatles.
The song reached number four in the UK, where its release was delayed until
November 1972, and has periodically reemerged on the UK Singles Chart,
most notably after Lennon's
death in December 1980, when it peaked at
number two. In a UK-wide poll in December 2012, it was voted tenth on the ITV television special The
Nation's Favourite Christmas Song.
Also a protest
song against the Vietnam War,
"Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" has since become a Christmas standard,
frequently recorded by other artists, appearing on compilation albums of
seasonal music, and named in polls as a holiday favourite.
The Plastic Ono Band was a rock band formed
by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 for their collaborative and solo projects.
Lennon
and Ono began a personal and artistic relationship in 1968, collaborating on
several experimental releases. Following their marriage in 1969, they decided
their future endeavours would be credited to a conceptual and collaborative
vehicle, Plastic Ono Band. The band featured a rotating
lineup of musicians including Eric
Clapton, Klaus
Voormann, Alan White, Billy Preston,
Jim Keltner,
Keith Moon,
Delaney & Bonnie and Friends,
and Lennon's former Beatles bandmates George
Harrison and Ringo Starr.
After the Lennons' move to New York, they collaborated with Elephant's
Memory under the moniker of the
"Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band". Lennon's collaborations continued
under similar names, until the winding down of the concept in 1974.
From 2009 to 2015 (29 years following the death
of Lennon in 1980), Ono and her son Sean Lennon led a new incarnation of the group, the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band.
So this is Christmas
And what have you done?
Another year over
And new one just begun
And so this is
Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
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)
The rich and the poor ones
The road is so long
And so Happy
Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
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
And what have we done?
Another year over
And new one just begun
And so Happy
Christmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
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.
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