Nation: Always a Pun up His Sleeve

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Lennon loved language, the sounds and rhymes and elastic elusiveness of words, and, like a dandy with a lace handkerchief, he liked to keep a pun up his sleeve. The early songs, all written in collaboration with Paul McCartney, were playful, ebullient, rich in imagination. On his own, Lennon planed down the richness of the words into a sparseness that matched the immediacy of the music.

Since you left me, I'm so alone.

Now you're coming, you're

coming home . . .

It won't be long, yeh, yeh.

—It Won't Be Long

There are places I'll remember

All my life, though some have changed,

Some forever, not for better, Some have gone and some remain.

—In My Life

He's a real Nowhere Man,

Sitting in his Nowhere Land,

Making all his Nowhere plans for nobody.

—Nowhere Man

And though the holes were rather small,

They had to count them all.

Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.

I'd love to turn you on.

—A Day in the Life

Nothing is real

And nothing to get hungabout.

Strawberry Fields forever.

—Strawberry Fields Forever

Elementary penguin singing Hare

Krishna man you should have seen them

Kicking Edgar Allan Poe.

lam the eggman, oh, they are the eggmen—

Oh, l am the walrus GOO GOO GOOJOOB.

—I Am the Walrus

Picture yourself on a train in a station,

With plasticine porters with looking-glass ties,

Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,

The girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

—Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Half of what I say is meaningless,

But I say it just to reach you, Julia.

—Julia

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free.

But you're still f—ing peasants as far as I can see.

A working-class hero is something to be.

—Working-Class Hero

God is a concept

By which we measure

Our pain . . .

You just have to carry on

The dream is over.

—God

Imagine there's no heaven.

It's easy if you try.

No hell below us

And above us only sky.

—Imagine

All we are saying is give peace a chance.

—Give Peace a Chance

People asking questions lost in confusion

Well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions...

I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.

I really love to watch them roll,

No longer riding on the merry-go-round.

I just had to let it go.

—Watching the Wheels