Music is with me all the time, whether it comes from the many devices that now make it easier to find and play it, or from my memories, my tired old brain that often amazes me. It amazes me because it finds in its recesses dozens of old songs, some of them unheard for decades, and yet they sit stored somewhere and often turn on in my head.
I think I've made a too convoluted introduction to say that I prefer old music that delighted and comforted my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Music that I can't forget and can't replace with the new, even though I try my hardest to stay close to the new.
If music is permanently with me then why... Back to music? I ask and I answer...
Because I'm going back to a pleasant surprise, to this challenge launched by 
There are several variations of saying "Tell me who you're friends with so I can tell you who you are" which can also be "Tell me what you're reading so I can tell you who you are" or "Tell me what music you listen to so I can tell you who you are!"
Essentially, this is a way of getting to know someone better!
So, to pick three songs out of the thousands I like. Because there are three I'm always tempted to find a connection between them... It's more exciting, it requires a little work and searching.
I say again. I'm old and I like old music. Music that has many admirers. But there are many who have forgotten it or never listened to it (the younger ones). So I like to share this music for some to enjoy, some to remember and some to listen to for the first time. Even if they are classic songs!
Today I choose John Lennon. The Beatles were the band I admired the most and John Lennon is the favorite.
Source-Screenshot from Youtube Video- Working Class Hero - Screaming Trees
The song chosen was not sung by the Beatles. It was written after the band broke up. It was on Lennon's band's first album, Plastic Ono Band. Ono from Yokko Ono, Lennon's wife, and considered the main cause of the breakup of the phenomenal Beatles. The record was released on December 11, 1970...
Working Class Hero by John Lennon
When I heard of The Beatles they were already famous and rich. I never imagined that John Lennon could be left-wing. I mean his politics, his political beliefs. I was living in a communist country at that time, in Romania. We were all forced to be communists but we all hated the left. We wanted to be right-wing, to live in a democratic country, to be like the West!
I liked this song a lot but because my English was more than poor, I didn't understand much of the lyrics. I wasn't even trying to understand. The music was enough for me. Then I found out that Lennon was a leftist, that he supported labor organizations, that he was almost expelled from the US, and that he was under FBI observation all the time. Then I listened carefully to the lyrics of the song...
As soon as you're born they make you feel small
By giving you no time instead of it all
'Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all
A working-class hero is something to be
A working-class hero is something to be
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
'Til you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
Source
Because there have to be three songs and because this Lennon song has been sung by so many others, I'm still choosing two covers that I really like.
Working Class Hero - Ozzy Osbourne
Under Cover Album, November 1, 2005,
Working Class Hero by Marianne Faithfull
Broken English Album, November 2, 1979,
Since 1990 Romania has become a democratic country with free elections and many political parties. I have always voted with right-wing parties since then and considered myself a right-wing person.
Did I do right?
Because, like it or not, I must be left-wing, I come from the left. Hard-working parents, I worked all my life. I didn't own a company, I wasn't an owner... I'm in a dilemma! The next election is next year. I still have time to think and decide.
I wonder what a working-class hero would do now?
There's room at the top they are telling you still
But first, you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on the hill
A working-class hero is something to be
A working-class hero is something to be
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
If you want to be a hero well just follow me
Well, if I were a working-class hero I'd break the rules and... put on another version of this song. A version I've never heard before, but now I've found it when researching for this post.
Working Class Hero by Screaming Trees
Working Class Hero - A Tribute to John Lennon Album, 1995
I know that if I don't follow the rules I won't participate in the competition. Fair enough. I'm just not interested in winning. The real win was the pleasure of writing this post, getting ready, looking for music, listening to it, re-listening to it, and remembering my youth!
