 Beatle historian Bruce Spizer describes the "heavy drums and percussion" as giving the song "a reggae-styled military march sound".The instrumental parts include "wailing" guitars and saxophones played, respectively, by Lennon and Elephant's Memory's Stan Bronstein, both of which Spizer finds "weak".Ono screeches the words "Sunday Bloody Sunday" as background vocals to the refrain, in a manner that Rogan considers "distracting" but Urish and Bielen find "emotionally appropriate" and "Uncut" writer John Lewis finds particularly effective.