John Lennon is one of the most acclaimed songwriters ever, with good reason. At one point in his life, he said he only wrote a few “true” songs — two of which became massive hits for The Beatles.
The classic Beatles songs which were ‘personal’ to John Lennon
In 1971, Jann S. Wenner of Rolling Stone interviewed John. They discussed John’s most recent album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. John declared the album to be his best work because of its honesty.
John said at one point in his life, he rarely wrote about himself but began to write about himself often during the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band era. He liked writing about himself because of the honesty of his reflective music. Then he reflected on earlier songs from his career which he considered honest.
“‘Help!’ ‘Strawberry Fields [Forever],’ they are…personal records,” John told Rolling Stone. “I always wrote about me when I could. I didn’t really enjoy writing third person songs about people who lived in concrete flats and things like that. I like first-person music.”
John continued discussing the songs of his which he liked the best. “I don’t know about anything else, really, and the few true songs I ever wrote were like ‘Help!’ and ‘Strawberry Fields [Forever].’ I can’t think of them all offhand. They were the ones I always considered my best songs.” John said these songs were based on his lived reality rather than any stories he concocted.
The reality behind the Beatles’ ‘Help!’
It’s fascinating how John viewed “Help!” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” as two of his only “true” songs. On a purely musical level, the two tracks couldn’t be more different. “Help!” is a bouncy pop-rock tune while “Strawberry Fields Forever” is one of the most avant-garde Beatles singles. However, it’s hard not to see why John thought the two songs were honest.
“Help!” might be buoyant, but it was born from John’s pain. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, the song was born from John feeling depressed and uncomfortable with his weight. Paul McCartney noted how “Help!” deals with those feelings in an indirect way.
In addition, Paul recalled John was “always looking for help” because of his tumultuous life. First, John had to deal with an absent father and deaths in his family. Later in life, he dealt with being a member of the Fab Four, which was totally overwhelming.
What inspired ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’
Why is “Strawberry Fields Forever” honest? Though the lyrics of the song are oblique, they reflect John’s life. The song was named after a real place, a Salvation Army children’s home called Strawberry Field. When John was a child, he would play there. The song “Strawberry Fields Forever” was designed as a nostalgic reminiscence of John’s childhood experiences at Strawberry Field.
In addition, John felt the lyric “Nothing is real” (ironically) reflected reality. “In a way, no thing is real, if you break the word down,” John told Rolling Stone. “As the Hindus or Buddhists say, it’s an illusion. … We all see it, but the agreed-upon illusion is what we live in. And the hardest thing is facing yourself.”
John Lennon was a pop genius. It’s hard to ignore that fact. Whatever your feelings towards the artist as a person is by the by, for when you gave John Lennon the chance to write a song he rarely disappointed. At the start of his career with The Beatles, he was the principal songwriter of the group, slowly incorporating the work of Paul McCartney and later still George Harrison as he began to let go of the reins of control and welcome the new sounds. He and McCartney would initially share an incredibly fruitful working relationship before they would begin to split.
The songwriting partnership so resolutely heralded as pop’s finest was the main propellant behind The Beatles colossal success. But as the duo’s routine for songwriting, usually comprising of being holed up in a hotel or touring van, deteriorated, they wrote more routinely on their own, still sharing the credit. Truth is, there was always a ‘main composer’ for each of the songs credited to Lennon-McCartney. Below, we’re paying tribute to John Lennon’s contribution to the Fab Four’s back catalogue and revisiting every song he wrote for The Beatles.
There’s a lot of them — 73 to be exact — with each one telling a story about Lennon at that time. While we won’t paw through all of those songs some of them Lennon hasn’t been shy about sharing his feelings on. While there were plenty that he hated or labelled “garbage” or “meaningless” there were also songs that stayed with him as his best right up until his sad death. Though Lennon gets a lot of grief for being an acidic interviewee, he also championed his band wherever he could.
One such spot where Lennon offered a candid view of his songs was meeting Rolling Stone. While many interviewers attempted to prise personal opinion out of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, very rarely did they play ball. However, as part of Lennon’s now-iconic conversation with Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, the founding member is talking about just that, a time when he openly shared some of his favourite songs from The Beatles extensive back catalogue amidst a hefty interview.
With it, he offers the one fundamental theme throughout all of the Fab Four’s work; authenticity. After avoiding a simple question from Wenner on Lennon’s favourite song he ever wrote for The Beatles, he delivers a typically flagrant response. Lennon says.”I always liked ‘[I Am The] Walrus’, ‘Strawberry Fields’, ‘Help’, ‘In My Life’,” Wenner soon interjects, “Why ‘Help!’?” Lennon delivers a typically coloured response.
The singer and guitarist replied: “Because I meant it, it’s real. The lyric is as good now as it was then, it’s no different, you know. It makes me feel secure to know that I was that sensible or whatever—well, not sensible, but aware of myself. That’s with no acid, no nothing… well pot or whatever.” Lennon clarifies his point, “It was just me singing ‘help’ and I meant it, you know. I don’t like the recording that much, the song I like. We did it too fast to try and be commercial.”
When asked why he liked the 1967 anthem ‘Strawberry Fileds Forever’, Lennon replied, “Because it’s real, yeah. It’s like talking you know, ‘I sometimes think no but then again I mean‘ you know, like that. It’s like that Elton John one where he’s talking to himself sort of singing which I thought was nice.”
This authenticity can be heard throughout the below playlist. As Lennon grows out of his pop group phase, motors through his Bob Dylan appreciation phase and the begins enacting his own singular vision, we gain a real sense of the man behind the tunes. If you ever wanted some real insight into who John Lennon really was, then you need only listen to the music.
Every song John Lennon wrote for The Beatles:
- Please Please Me
- Ask Me Why
- There´s a Place
- Do You Want to Know a Secret
- It Won´t Be Long
- All I´ve Got to Do
- Not a Second Time
- I Call Your Name
- You Can´t Do That
- I Should Have Known Better
- Tell Me Why
- If I fell
- I’m Happy Just to Dance With You
- A Hard Day’s Night
- I’ll Cry Instead
- I’ll Be Back
- Any Time at All
- When I Get Home
- I’m a Loser
- I Don´t Want to Spoil the Party
- No Reply
- Ticket to Ride
- You´ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
- You´re Going to Lose That Girl
- Help!
- It’s Only Love
- Run for Your Life
- Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
- Nowhere Man
- Girl
- Tomorrow Never Knows
- Doctor Robert
- And Your Bird Can Sing
- I’m Only Sleeping
- She Said She Said
- Good Morning Good Morning
- Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
- Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
- I Am the Walrus
- Revolution 1
- Revolution 9
- Everybody´s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
- Good Night
- Cry Baby Cry
- Sexy Sadie
- Yer Blues
- Dear Prudence
- Glass Onion
- Happiness is a Warm Gun
- I’m So Tired
- The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
- Julia
- All You Need is Love
- I Want You (She´s So Heavy)
- Come Together
- Sun King
- Mean Mr Mustard
- Polythene Pam
- Because
- Across the Universe
- Dig a Pony
- Dig It
- One After 909
- This Boy
- I Feel Fine
- Yes It Is
- Day Tripper
- Rain
- Strawberry Fields Forever
- Don’t Let Me Down
- The Ballad of John and Yoko
- You Know My Name (Look up the Number)
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