I've heard this interpeted as being about the assasination of John Lennon, which would kind of make sense; "John" could refer to Lennon, and as he was shot down by an obsessed fan, the bullets could be "bullets of pure love". It certainly is an eerie way to look at it.
On the other hand, they admitted stealing the title from an old Mahavishnu Orchestra song (which they never actually heard until after the fact), so it's also likely the lyrics just kind of grew out of the title phrase without any real underlying meaning to them.
I've heard this interpeted as being about the assasination of John Lennon, which would kind of make sense; "John" could refer to Lennon, and as he was shot down by an obsessed fan, the bullets could be "bullets of pure love". It certainly is an eerie way to look at it.
On the other hand, they admitted stealing the title from an old Mahavishnu Orchestra song (which they never actually heard until after the fact), so it's also likely the lyrics just kind of grew out of the title phrase without any real underlying meaning to them.