Remember

You guys are missing the boat.

Its not about politics at all. Lennon is referring to his nasty youth. And so when things look bad, remember how bad it was, and don't worry about getting older and losing your youth, and don't worry about the things you have done, its all better than what happened long ago.

The man who left you empty handed is his father, who always always let him down, leaving his mother destitute. Right before this album, his old man tried to come back into his life, and it through him for a loop, because on the one hand, he wanted a father, and wanted his father's love, and on the other hand he has intense anger about what his father did.

So don't change you mind about leaving it all behind.

And in his youth, his mother and father wanted him and themselves to be a star, to get rich the easy way, which he seems to have hated (he refers to it more than once, always negatively).

So if you ever feel sad... remember.

That being said, I have long wondered about the 5th of November. Guy Fawkes day is a celebration, with fireworks and bonfires, explosions. Usually, like the USA july 4th, associated with happy memories, patriotism.

I think he has a particularly bad memory of what was supposed to be a happy time, in which case the theme works perfectly: Our youth is supposed to be a happy time, but for him, it wasn't, and Guy Fawkes is supposed to be a happy time, too, but i suspect it wasn't.

Remember, too, that the rest of the album is quite personal, not political. The screams about his mother's death (momma don't go) and his fathers desertion (Daddy come home) evidence real pain from his childhood.

This reading puts this song right in the theme of the album.