John Lennon: Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple) / Attica State

"Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)" is a protest song written and performed by John Lennon from his 1973 album Mind Games.After the politically heavy album Some Time in New York City in 1972, Lennon returned to the style of his previous albums, the emotionally revealing John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and the more commercial yet equally emotional Imagine. "Bring on the Lucie (Freeda Peeple)" is one of the few political statements on the album.Like many of Lennon's political songs, "Bring on the Lucie" protests war and killing (the song was released two years before the end of the Vietnam War), taking a critical stab at self-important government with lyrics such as, "We don't care what flag you're waving/We don't even want to know your name/We don't care where you're from or where you're going," later saying, "You're making all our decisions."In the song, he demands that the government, "Free the people now" (the song's refrain, with Lennon shouting, "Stop the killing now!," over the final verse), and stop its efforts to control them and the world around them. With its repeated refrain and repetitive melody, the song is reminiscent of Lennon's past political anthems, "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People." In the song, Lennon at one point likens the refrain to a prayer, urging listeners to "shout it aloud."Lennon further continues to disparage the government by equating them to Satan by using the Number of the Beast, 666, before describing officials "jerking off each other" and telling them that, "You still gotta swallow your pill."This contributes to the second half of the song's darker, more biting atmosphere, wherein Lennon alerts the government to the citizens' power and mocks their unenlightened ways.The Attica Prison riot occurred at the Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, United States in 1971. The riot was based in part upon prisoners' demands for better living conditions. At the time, inmates were given one shower per week and one roll of toilet paper a month. On September 9, 1971, responding to the death of prisoner George Jackson, a black radical prisoner who had been shot to death by corrections officers in California's San Quentin Prison on August 21 while armed and attempting to escape, about 1,000 of the prison's approximately 2,200 prisoners rioted and seized control of the prison, taking thirty-three correction officers hostage. The State began negotiating with the prisoners.During the following four days of negotiations, authorities agreed to 28 of the prisoners' demands, but would not agree to demands for complete amnesty from criminal prosecution for the prison takeover, or for the removal of Attica's superintendent. Under order of then Governor Nelson Rockefeller, state police took back control of the prison. When the uprising was over at least 39 people were dead, including ten correction officers and civilian employees.