American Revolution Begins: Don’t You Know It’s Gonna Be All Right?

american revolution flag betsy ross At around 5 a.m. on April 19, 1775, approximately 700 British troops marched toward Lexington, Massachusetts.  Their plan was to seize weapons and Patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock.

As the soldiers approached Lexington, they encountered 77 minutemen with arms. During the encounter, “the shot heard ’round the world” was fired by an unidentified musket, and the Patriots were routed. Eight Colonists died from the battle.  Ten more were wounded, with one British solder injured.

But that as not the end of the fight. Due to warnings by Patriots Paul Revere and William Dawes, the British encountered more Patriots on their journey through Lexington and Concord.  The result was 300 British casualties by the time they returned to Boston. The American Revolution had begun, and the world would never be the same.

The Beatles’ “Revolution”

Another revolution with both American and British connections is the song, “Revolution,” written by John Lennon and performed by the Beatles. The song was a reaction to political protests occurring in early 1968.

The Beatles released the rock version of the song that you usually hear as a B-side to “Hey Jude” on August 26, 1968.  That version, which Rolling Stone ranks as the thirteenth greatest Beatles song, appears at the end of this post.

The Beatles recorded another slower version of the song first. They called this slower version “Revolution 1.” That version appeared on the 1968 double album The Beatles (aka “The White Album“).   The band recorded “Revolution 1” before “Revolution,” remaking the song for the single release.  Below is the original slow “Revolution 1.”

The White Album also included the experimental “Revolution 9.”  The Beatles created this song out of parts of what was originally in “Revolution 1.”

Although the rock “Revolution” did not have quite the same impact as the American Revolution, it did cause some controversy. Many focused on the line, “But when you talk about destruction / Don’t you know that you can count me out.” Some on the far left saw the “out” as a betrayal.  And those on the other end questioned the ambiguity of the “Revolution 1” version which stated the line as “count me out . . . in.”

Most agree though that “Revolution” preached a different kind of revolution than the violent American Revolution. The song was still causing controversy in 1987.  That year, many Beatles fans hated to see the music they loved being commercialized when “Revolution become the first Beatles song licensed for a commercial (for Nike).

But the legacy of the song is that it will come up anytime someone talks about a revolution.  It is the first song you think of when you think about revolutionary changes.

The opening scream of “Revolution” is the revolution heard round the world.

BONUS TRIVIA: The live television performance above appears to be from  The Smothers Brothers Show in 1968.  Although you see Paul McCartney doing the scream at the beginning of the performance above, on the record  Lennon’s voice does the scream. McCartney does the scream in the live video because Lennon could not do the scream and be ready to sing the first line. Finally, do you know how many times does the word “revolution” appear in “Revolution”? Answer will appear in the comments.

What do you think of “Revolution”? Leave your two cents in the comments.


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    Listen My Children and You Shall Hear Inaccuracies About Paul Revere

    On June 2, 2011, while traveling on a tour of U.S. historical sites, Sarah Palin sparked interest in Paul Revere because of her claim that the famous rider warned “the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms. . . by ringing those bells.” I suppose how one feels about her statement about Paul Revere — who actually rode to alert the Americans about the approaching British and who did not use bells — may depend on pre-existing feelings about the speaker. So, we will leave the debate about her statement and her continued claims t

    hat she was correct to the political commentators and others, including those attempting to rewrite Revere’s Wikipedia entry. But the interest in the historical event is a good side effect of her statement.

    Revere’s Famous Ride
    Paul Revere Picture Book
    Revere made his famous ride near Boston on the evening of April 18, 1775.  The British were on the move to seize military stores in Concord. According to the excellent one-volume history of the U.S., A History of the United States by Alan Nevins and Henry Steele Commager:

    “Patriots were on the watch and a lantern in the tower of North Church flashed word to Paul Revere beyond the Charles River, who galloped off to arouse the countryside. The embattled farmers gathered at dawn with their muskets . . . There was a brief skirmish, eight Americans fell dead, and the Revolution was under way. Sam Adams was not far away, and as he heard the rattle of the guns, he exclaimed: ‘What a glorious morning is this!'”

    To give Palin some credit, she did recall correctly that the ride was prompted by the British plan to seize weapons. I suspect some of her critics did not recall that part of the story themselves. Further, she is not the first to make historically inaccurate statements about the ride.

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s Version

    In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s famous poem, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere,” he exaggerated Revere’s role by ignoring the other riders. And Longfellow’s poem inaccurately claimed that Revere made it all the way to Concord.  In fact, British soldiers captured him and took away his horse.

    But Longfellow’s goal was to tell a tale about a national hero, not to teach history. Hence we have the term, “poetic license.” Still, the famous opening lines of the poem make it easy for one to remember the correct date of the ride:
    Paul Revere and the Raiders
    Listen, my children, and you shall hear
    Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
    On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five;
    Hardly a man is now alive
    Who remembers that famous day and year.

    Paul Revere and the Raiders

    There is another famous “Paul Revere.” He was in Paul Revere and the Raiders, the band that had several hits in the 1960s and 1970s. Paul Revere the rider started out as a silversmith.  And the Raiders’ musician Paul Revere started out as a barber in Boise, Idaho. “Paul Revere” was his real name, although Revere was his middle name and his full name was Paul Revere Dick.

    The band’s biggest hit was “Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Reservation Indian),” which was written by songwriter John D. Loudermilk. Mark Lindsay, the lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders, was part Native American and wanted to record the song even though it was released a few years earlier by Don Fardon.

    During the summer of 1971, aided by Revere’s promotion of the song with a cross-country motorcycle ride, the Raiders version of “Indian Reservation” became the most popular tune in the U.S. and the biggest hit Columbia Records had ever released.

    “Indian Reservation” also became the most popular song in my childhood home that summer, as my older sister purchased the 45 record and played it repeatedly. Some Native Americans used the Paul Revere and the Raiders version in their struggle for civil rights.

    The song would later be covered by UK band 999 and be sampled in a Tim McGraw song. Below is the Paul Revere and the Raiders version of “Indian Reservation.”

    The Cherokee

    Like Longfellow’s poem about Paul Revere, the song by Paul Revere and the Raiders was based on historical events. In the early 1800s, Cherokee Indians lived around Georgia.  But as new pioneers came to the land with its fertile soil, conflicts soon arose. Although the tribes had built houses and settled in the area, the incoming white settlers desired more land.

    In 1838, the Federal government ordered that the Cherokee be resettled in the western United States. The Cherokee were sent from Georgia and other states along with other Native Americans, including Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles.

    Many of the Cherokee died as they made the long trip.  They traveled largely on foot and by wagon, facing exposure, hunger, and illness. Because of the sorrow and death caused by the removal, the forced march to what is now Oklahoma became known as the Trail of Tears.

    As Paul Revere and the Raiders sang, “Cherokee people, Cherokee tribe/ So proud to live, so proud to die.” In upcoming political campaigns, all of our politicians would do well to remember these parts of American history — and perhaps visit those historical sites too — in addition to taking pride in the the glorious stories like the one about Paul Revere’s ride.

    What do you think about Paul Revere, the Raiders, the song, or the media coverage of Sarah Palin’s statement? Leave a comment.

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