Born in a Prison
1972 song performed by John Lennon
"Born in a Prison" is a song written by Yoko Ono and first released on her 1972 album with John Lennon Some Time in New York City as part of their Plastic Ono Band project.
Lyrics and music
The lyrics to "Born in a Prison" use prison as a metaphor for the constraints society places on individuals. To music critic Johnny Rogan, the song reiterates themes from Lennon's earlier song "Working Class Hero" and equates all of life to a prison sentence. Author John Blaney gives an alternative view that with "Born in a Prison", Ono abandons the abstract metaphors of her earlier work, feeling that the song represents "simple leftist dogma". Cinema professor Jonathan Kahana claims that with lyrics such as "born in a prison/raised in a prison/sent to a prison called school," the song anticipates the disciplinary institutions suggested by Michel Foucault in works such as 1975's Discipline and Punish. In the verses, the lyrics complain about how humans are constrained by unjust social conventions which not only limit individuals, but also the society that imposes the constraints. Blaney finds the verses full of despair, replacing Ono's earlier ability to imagine a better world with a view that human existence is meaningless. But the refrain provides some hope:
Wood becomes a flute when it's loved
Reach for yourself and your battered mates
Mirror becomes a razor when it's broken
Look in the mirror and see your shattered fate
To Kahana, this suggests that institutions can be transformed just as objects can, although when making these transformations it is critical to "use both love and violence creatively".
On Some Time in New York City, Ono provides the lead vocals with Lennon providing harmony during the refrain. Lennon also plays guitar, Jim Keltner plays drums, and Elephant's Memory provides the remaining backing instruments.
“Born in a Prison” enters the record as 1972 song performed by John Lennon. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Born, Prison and song can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16204775. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972 and 1975.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Born in a Prison” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.