Real meaning behind John Lennons cry for help in The | Music News

John’s struggles to adapt influenced some of his music. In a 1980 Playboy interview, he confessed: “The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help.”

This plea for help grew to become the music ‘Help!’, which served as the title monitor for the band’s second movie and its accompanying album. John started penning the music in spring 1965, after the title for the upcoming movie was altered.

John’s good friend Stanley Parkes remembers him saying: “Came in from the studio one night. ‘God,’ he said, ‘they’ve changed the title of the film: it’s going to be called ‘Help!’ now. So I’ve had to write a new song with the title called ‘Help!’.”

Lennon delved into his personal battles with stardom when penning the hit. In a 1980 reflection, he mentioned: “When ‘Help!’ came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song.”

He later realized the depth of his plea: “I didn’t realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.”

He likened this period to “So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: he – I – is very fat, very insecure, and he’s completely lost himself. And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was.”

John also channeled his personal struggles into different Beatles songs, including ‘I’m a Loser’ from their fourth album ‘Beatles for Sale,’ launched in December 1964 in the UK. This monitor marked the start of John’s introspective songwriting, which continued with ‘Nowhere Man’ and ‘Help!’.

‘I’m a Loser’ touches on a doomed love affair, with poignant lyrics like: “Although I laugh and I act like a clown, beneath this mask I am wearing a frown. My tears are falling like rain from the sky, is it for her or myself that I cry?”

In 1974, John mentioned the affect behind ‘I’m a Loser’: “‘I’m A Loser’ is me in my Dylan period, because the word ‘clown’ is in it. I objected to the word ‘clown’, because that was always artsy-fartsy, but Dylan had used it so I thought it was all right, and it rhymed with whatever I was doing.”

McCartney mirrored on the depth of his former bandmate’s songwriting, saying: “Looking back on it I think songs like ‘I’m A Loser’ and ‘Nowhere Man’ were John’s cries for help.”

He also famous their influences from nation music, recounting: “We used to listen to quite a lot of country and western songs and they are all about sadness and ‘I lost my truck’ so it was quite acceptable to sing ‘I’m a loser’.”

McCartney admired Lennon’s vulnerability, including: “You didn’t really think about it at the time, it’s only later you think, God! I think it was pretty brave of John.”