“The very best”: Listen to David Bowie’s unreleased cover of John Lennon’s classic ‘Mother’
The Beatles were always destined to split up. It’s a shame, given they were such an influential band, but they were going in different creative directions, and a split was inevitable. You can clearly hear the creative differences beginning to show themselves towards the end of the Beatles, as Paul McCartney was focused on writing pop songs, while Lennon was trying to tap into something more experimental and honest than that.
From the moment the Beatles landed in America, the band had to compromise on a lot of things. John Lennon noted that the band needed to cut their hair and wear suits in a bid to be accepted by a wider American audience. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it sowed the seed for what became a problem throughout John Lennon’s time in The Beatles.
While he was in the band, despite the fact that he was celebrated as one of the greatest songwriters ever and had the world at his fingertips, there was a part of John Lennon that felt as though he wasn’t allowed to be his authentic self. He wanted to write honest songs, not just love songs, but tracks that spoke about the human struggle, internal issues and that were a reflection of the world as he saw it. However, he was rarely allowed to explore these themes when working with the band.
As such, it was inevitable they would split, and when they did, Lennon started some of his more honest and brutal music. One of the rawest and most uncomfortable tracks that he recorded during his solo career was ‘Mother’. It was a song about feeling distant from his parent that he knew would give fans deeper insight into him as a person.
“Many, many people will not like ‘Mother’; it hurts them,” said Lennon, “The first thing that happens to you when you get the album is you can’t take it. Everybody reacted exactly the same. They think, ‘fuck!’ That’s how everybody is. And the second time, they start saying, ‘Oh, well, there’s a little…’ So I can’t lay ‘Mother’ on them. It confirms the suspicions that something nasty’s going on with that John Lennon and his broad again.”
While some fans weren’t as keen on viewing this more honest side of Lennon, a lot of people thought his ability to write great music while also being unrelenting in his approach to honesty was deeply moving. One of these people was David Bowie, who had a lot of positive things to say about Lennon.
“He was one of the major influences on my musical life. I just thought he was the very best of what could be done with Rock and Roll,” said Bowie, “And also ideas – I mean I felt such kin to him inasmuch as he would rifle the avant-garde and look for ideas that were so on the outside, on the periphery of what was the mainstream and then apply them in a functional manner to something that was considered populist and make it work. He would take the most odd idea and make it work for the masses. I thought that was just so admirable, I mean, that was like making artwork for the people and not having it as an elitist thing. There was just so much about him that I admired. He was tremendous, you know.”
Bowie was such a huge admirer of Lennon’s work that he decided to record his own rendition of the heart-wrenching track ‘Mother’. It’s a song well-suited to Bowie, as his vocal range is perfect for it, and he gives it an added layer of energy that elevates the song to new heights. A particular highlight is the rock-heavy outro, littered with pained vocals and screeching guitar solos. Any fan of Bowie or Lennon should listen to this, as it reflects the musical talent of both artists.
Listen to David Bowie’s moving cover of ‘Mother’ below.
