Rock 'n' rolling to freedom

In their song "Revolution," the Beatles sang "We all want to change the world."

Now, according to Hungarian baby boomers, the Fab Four might have done just that.

Andras Simonyi, Hungary's ambassador to the United States, claims that American rock 'n' roll — from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to Traffic — spurred on the reformers during the country's 40 years in the wilderness of communism. In Hungary, in other words, the cry of liberty sounded an awful lot like "La, la, how the life goes on!"

Good for John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Nevertheless, though rock music might have provided the sound-track for Hungary's reformation, we suspect what the East European kids were really hearing in those songs was the sound of free expression; the sound a free people saying and playing what they wanted, how they wanted, where and when they wanted. In his day, Jimi Hendrix gave a lot of aging Americans the willies. But the U.S. government never censored his work. The Hungarian Communist Party did. And that contrast likely sent more than a few young idealists to the barricades to fight for the kind of individuality they heard in the Hendrix Experience.

Chances are good, as well, that young rebels in Hungary who were painters responded to Andy Warhol and that author John Irving likely has fueled the fires of dissent among the nation's novelists.

Young actors might have held up Brando as a standard bearer.

It is ironic, however, that in free nations, the arts are often viewed as subversive (remember the National Endowment disputes over the work of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe?). Sometimes a book will rub people the wrong way and be pulled from the shelves or a movie will be the target of pickets. James Watt banned the Beach Boys from the White House. But the artists are always allowed to express themselves. Their work is not confiscated and burned. And that sense of tolerance is the real spark that kindles a desire in repressed people to throw off the shackles of tyranny.

When people live by solid principles, others resonate to those same principles.

The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" may not tickle the fancy of everyone; but everyone has a stake in letting it be sung.

Americans should keep that in mind the next time they feel like muffling a rapper.

One person's noise, in the end, just may turn out to be another person's national anthem.