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
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can't really function you're so full of fear
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV
And you think you're so clever and classless and free
But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
A working class hero is something to be
A working class hero is something to be

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


Lyrics submitted by kevin

Working Class Hero Lyrics as written by John Winston Lennon

Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing

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Working Class Hero song meanings
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    General Comment

    I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already been said about this song (the meaning is fairly clear in this one I think), but I have to object to the summery of A Clockwork Orange in the fourth post. That doesn't sound anything like anything the film, or indeed the book it was based on. You might be thinking of some other film?

    The book is certainly about rebelling violently against a system which messes you up, but it's set in a dystopian future society rather unlike ours (or representing the consequences of the collapse or ours), whereas this song is about the ways our current system fails us.

    BCMMon July 12, 2006   Link

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