Photo: Press
John Lennon would have turned 75 today, so we thought it'd be the perfect time to go digging into the Beatles frontman's discography looking for the stories behind the music. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 50 years since these songs were written and they still hold up as examples of the most innovative, daring and exciting pieces of rock and roll - I don't care if you hate what they were about, The Beatles were amazing.
And that's not even to mention his solo efforts. If you excuse the questionable collaborations with Yoko Ono sounding like a broken landline, there's a wealth of fantastic songs that I'm sure you're all aware of but have always wanted to know the stories behind. Well rest easy, let's jump into the stories behind his 10 most legendary songs.
As an added bonus, Canadian rock band Blurred Vision have crafted this beautiful video to celebrate Lennon's 75th birthday. Check it out here and be sure to download it, all profits from the new single go to NY based charity WhyHunger.
The Beatles - 'I Am The Walrus'
After a student wrote John Lennon a letter telling him that his teacher was conducting a class analysing the Beatles' songs, Lennon was sweetly amused. This letter was the initial motivation for John to write a song that was beyond analysis for the simple reason that John didn't want it to make any sense at all. The whole purpose of the song was to confuse, befuddle, and mess with the Beatles experts. The track was written in three parts: part one and two were written during another acid trip, and part three was "filled in after [he] met Yoko."
The Beatles - 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds'
Contrary to popular belief, this song is not actually about LSD. After a day in pre-school, John's son Julian showed his father a picture of a classmate, named Lucy, flying in a sky full of diamonds, naturally the title came to John with very little ease. The story behind this song has a sequel which came a few years later when the 3.2 million year old hominid skeleton found in Kenya in 1974 was reportedly named 'Lucy' after this song since the archeologists were listening to it in the camp.
John Lennon - 'Give Peace A Chance'
The first single John Lennon ever released since leaving The Beatles as a part of his infamous Bed-In with Yoko Ono, it became an anti-war anthem. The title stems from an interview answer when a reporter, quite rightly so, asked Lennon what he actually planned to achieve with his glorified lie-in. It was recorded using four microphones and a four-track tape recorder rented from a local recording studio.
The Beatles - 'Come Together'
Possibly the most interpretive Beatles track, some suggest that each verse corresponds to a description each of The Beatles. We can't confirm this to be true but it would make sense since Ringo is a "flattop", George rarely wore shoes during his Yogi phase therefore needed "no shoeshine", John definitely had "Ono sideboard" by 1969 and Paul had "to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see". The song title came from a term used by Timothy Leary's in his campaign for governor of California against Ronald Reagan.
John Lennon - 'Imagine'
John Lennon's most successful single, he and Yoko recorded the single and album with Phil Spector. The track details collapsed dividers between humanity which are strung up by violence, inequality and religion. The lyrics came from a series of Ono's poems from the book entitled 'Grapefruit'. Speakign to NME, Lennon said: "'Imagine' is virtually The Communist Manifesto, even though I'm not particularly a Communist and I do not belong to any movement." What this statement reveals is that John Lennon basically admits to being a communist or grossly underestimates the work of Karl Marx.
John Lennon - 'Woman'
Not the most favoured track by Beatles fans, this track is a one-stop shop for all your Oko needs, though Lennon claimed the track was written for women worldwide. If you can get past the meglomanic homage, there's some truly beautiful moments on this track. For example, if you listen carefully, you can hear Lennon whispering "For the other half of the sky". This is a paraphrase of an ancient Chinese proverb. Some Lennon historians see 'Woman' as the sequel to The 1965 Beatles track, 'Girl'.
The Beatles - 'Hard Day's Night'
The title came about after Ringo Starr described the band's tireless schedule. The song written by Lennon in a night with lyrics scribbled on matchboxes since he was in competition with McCartney to write the single's A-Side and the only reason McCartney end up singing the track because he got hit the high notes, the little cherub.
John Lennon - 'Beautiful Boy'
Despite their falling out, Paul McCartney described this as his favourite song written by Lennon and chose it as a pick for his Desert Island Discs. The track was dedicated to Sean Lennon, John's only son with Yoko. At the end of the track, you can hear John whisper "Good night, Sean. See you in the morning. Bright and early" in a similar fashion to what Ringo Starr whispers at the end of the Beatles song 'Good Night', which was a song written for his other son, Julian Lennon.
The Beatles - 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)'
Strangely cited as the first instance of Doom Rock, this track ends side one of Abbey Road and was the last time the Beatles were all in the studio at the same time. The Moog Synthesiser used to create that atmospheric white noise was one of the first uses of the famous synth and was made specially for the band. There's a hidden easter egg for you audiophiles, if you play the song at 4:30 and listen very closely to the left speaker. In the bass break after John's scream, you can faintly hear someone say, "What was that about!?" in response to the scream.
The Beatles - 'Tomorrow Never Knows'
If you ever wondering why John's vocals on 'Tomorrow Never Knows' sound so apocalyptic, it's because they've been forced through a speaker commonly used on organs. Lennon wanted create the reverberation akin to Tibetan monks chanting on a mountaintops. In terms of the initial songwriting, John recorded himself reading from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, played it back while tripping on LSD, and just like that, the song was written.
