Lennon was stung by the criticism he received from the New Left . Having campaigned for world peace with Ono throughout 1969 , he began to embrace radical politics after undergoing primal therapy in 1970 . In a conversation with British activist Tariq Ali in January 1971 , he said of " Revolution " : " I made a mistake , you know . The mistake was that it was anti-revolution . " Lennon then wrote " Power to the People " to atone for the perceived apathy of " Revolution " , and instead sung : " You say you want a revolution / We better get it on right away . " After moving to New York in 1971 , he and Ono fully embraced radical politics with Chicago Seven defendants Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman . Lennon abandoned the cause following Richard Nixon 's victory in the 1972 presidential election and he subsequently denounced revolutionaries and radical politics as useless . In the final interview he gave before his murder in December 1980 , Lennon reaffirmed the pacifist message of " Revolution " , saying he still wished to " see the plan " for any proposed revolution . With reference to Lennon 's comments in this interview , MacDonald wrote in 1994 : " Tiananmen Square , the ignominious collapse of Soviet communism , and the fact that most of his radical persecutors of 1968 – 70 now work in advertising have belatedly served to confirm his original instincts . " " Revolution " made its LP debut on the 1970 US compilation album '' Hey Jude '' , which was also the first time that the track was available in stereo . The stereo mix was carried out on 5 December 1969 , supervised by Martin . The song was subsequently issued on the Beatles compilations '' 1967 – 1970 '' and '' Past Masters , Volume Two '' . Lennon disliked the stereo mix used on '' 1967 – 1970 '' , saying in a 1974 interview that " Revolution " was a " heavy record " in mono but " then they made it into a piece of ice cream ! " In 1987 , " Revolution " became the first Beatles recording to be licensed for use in a television commercial . Nike paid $ 500,000 for the right to use the song for one year , split between recording owner Capitol-EMI and song publisher ATV Music Publishing ( owned by Michael Jackson ) . Commercials using the song started airing in March 1987
his murder
Murder of John Lennon
Revolution (Beatles song)