4 Beatles Songs That Prove Just How Witty John Lennon Was

The Beatles brought a lot of qualities to the table as songwriters and performers. We tend to underrate just how cleverly humorous they could be within their songs. And no one was better in that department than John Lennon.

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Lennon often delivered songs that contained a heaping helping of biting humor. Here are four songs that Lennon spearheaded as a writer that might just have you chuckling as much as grooving.

“Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”

After mostly writing generic songs about love and romance in their first few years of recording, The Beatles started to get a bit more confessional by the mid-60s. “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)” proved groundbreaking for several reasons. George Harrison’s use of the sitar brought Eastern flavor to Western pop music. On top of that, Lennon unabashedly recounted an affair, or perhaps even created an amalgam of several extramarital trysts. He does so with dry humor, such as this exchange: “She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh/I told her I didn’t and crawled off to sleep in the bath.” Lennon also added the devilish, flat-burning twist at the end of the song to top it all off.

“Doctor Robert”

Here’s another case where Lennon fearlessly detailed an incident taken from real life that directly contrasted with The Beatles’ image as lovable mop-tops. “Doctor Robert” sort of referred to a real doctor who would provide the group with occasional drugs without much concern about whether they had a medical need for them. Lennon also might have been referencing himself, as he acted as a one-man apothecary shop for The Beatles when they were on the road. He has a lot of fun with the name “Robert” throughout the song. “Take a drink from his special cup,” Lennon cheekily invites the listener. “You’ll pay money just to see yourself with Doctor Robert,” he insists.

“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”

Many songs on the White Album originated with events that took place during The Beatles’ summer retreat to India in 1968 to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In the case of “The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill”, Lennon aimed his barbs at a young man on the trip who decided to go out and kill some animals for sport. That struck Lennon as a bit incongruous with the intent of the retreat. The songwriter made the hunter sound like a bit of a buffoon, especially when he uses his mother as backup when confronted. “The children asked him if to kill was not a sin,” Lennon sings. Yoko Ono guests as the mother to say, “Not when he looked so fierce.”

“Polythene Pam”

After The Beatles fell apart, John Lennon showed a great deal of candor in discussing what he thought were weaknesses in the band’s catalog. Among several other criticisms he leveled, he mentioned that he felt that the second side of Abbey Road was overrated. His main complaint was that the medley was mostly comprised of songs that were only half-finished. Nonetheless, “Polythene Pam” managed to bring the funny stuff even in a couple of quick verses. The song tells the story of a girl who dresses in garb that might strike some as unorthodox. Lennon makes the narrator a bit of a lecher as he observes Pam. “You could say she was attractively built,” he contends with a wink after describing her wild getup.

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