John Lennon - Working Class Hero (Lyrics)

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"Working Class Hero" is a song by John Lennon from his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, his first album after the break-up of the Beatles.

Stridently political, the song is a commentary on the difference between social classes. According to Lennon, it is about working-class people being processed into the middle classes, into the "machine". Lennon also said, "I think it's a revolutionary song – it's really just revolutionary. I just think its concept is revolutionary. I hope it's for workers and not for tarts and fags. I hope it's about what Give Peace a Chance was about. But I don't know – on the other hand, it might just be ignored. I think it's for the people like me who are working class, who are supposed to be processed into the middle classes, or into the machinery. It's my experience, and I hope it's just a warning to people, Working Class Hero."

The refrain of the song is "A working class hero is something to be".

The song continued a string of political Lennon recordings that began in 1968 with the Beatles' "Revolution" and continued in 1972 with the release of Some Time in New York City.

In 1973, US Representative Harley Orrin Staggers heard the song – which includes the lines "'Til you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules" and "But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see" – on WGTB and lodged a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The manager of the station, Ken Sleeman, faced a year in prison and a $10,000 fine, but defended his decision to play the song saying, "The People of Washington DC are sophisticated enough to accept the occasional four-letter word in context, and not become sexually aroused, offended, or upset." The charges were dropped. Other US radio stations, like Boston's WBCN, banned the song for its use of the word "fucking". In Australia, the album was released with the expletive removed from the song and the lyrics censored on the inner sleeve. (In the American release all of the lyrics to all of the songs on the album were printed clearly on the inner sleeve just as they were sung, including the word "fucking".)