The only “true” songs John Lennon wrote
Almost universally deemed one of the finest songwriters of all time, perhaps only second to Bob Dylan, John Lennon covered many topics through song. From self-loathing to profound odes to world peace, the Liverpudlian left almost every stone unturned. Aided by the strength of his general musicianship, he had a defining hand in The Beatles’ meteoric rise to becoming the most important band the world has ever seen.
Yet, per his own admission, Lennon only wrote a small number of “true” songs, which he means in the genuinely personal sense. Although he couldn’t name them all, in his famous 1971 interview with Rolling Stone’s Jann S. Wenner, he mentioned 1965’s ‘Help!’ and 1967’s ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ as the two of this small set that stood out.
Sitting down with Wenner to discuss his latest album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Lennon asserted that the record was his best because of the honesty he imbued it with. The former Beatles man revealed that for a long time, he seldom wrote about personal matters, but this then changed during the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band era, as he enjoyed the honesty of his reflective music.
He then looked back at some of his earlier pieces, stating: “‘Help!’, ‘Strawberry Fields [Forever],’ they are…personal records,” Lennon 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.”
Discussing the finest “true” songs he wrote, Lennon reflected on two of The Beatles’ best-loved hits. “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”. He explained that these tracks were different as they were steeped in his lived experiences.
Notably, ‘Help!’ was written as a cry for help. In a 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon said, “I was fat and depressed, and I was crying out for help” Speaking to Billboard in 2015, Lennon’s Beatles songwriting partner, Paul McCartney, offered his take on this account. “He didn’t say, ‘I’m now fat, and I’m feeling miserable.’ He said, ‘When I was younger, so much younger than today.’ In other words, he blustered his way through. We all felt the same way,” said McCartney.
He added: “Looking back on it, John was always looking for help. He had [a paranoia] that people died when he was around. His father left home when John was three, the uncle he lived with died later, then his mother died. I think John’s whole life was a cry for help.”
As for ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, it was written as a nostalgic paean to his childhood. Lennon said that the famous lyric “nothing is real” was a reflection of the truth. “In a way, nothing is real if you break the word down,” he explained to 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.”
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