John Lennon was no stranger to socially conscious music, contributing many notable tunes to the canon of protest songs. One of his standouts is “Working Class Hero” off of his 1970 album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono. While some of his songs might come across as simple sloganeering, “Working Class Hero” is an insightful social commentary on class splits and how society tries to exploit folks to become cogs in the machine. It also touches on how religious indoctrination and media cause people to lose sight of the big picture (“Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV”).
Green Day also covered the tune which they contributed to the 2007 compilation Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur. Proceeds helped support Amnesty International’s campaign to focus attention on the conflict in Darfur, Sudan.
Explaining why they picked the song, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said, “We wanted to do ‘Working Class Hero’ because its themes of alienation, class, and social status really resonated with us. It’s such a raw, aggressive song — just that line: ‘you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see’ — we felt we could really sink our teeth into it. I hope we’ve done him justice.”