John Lennon was certainly not a man known for biting his tongue, whether conversationally or musically through his lyrics, and that included his feelings about a controversial career move Bob Dylan made in the late 1970s. (Though, to be fair to Lennon, everyone seemed to have an opinion on this interesting pivot in the singer-songwriter’s discography.)
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Lennon’s snarky response to arguably one of the best songs to come out of this Dylan era never made it to an official album. The song landed on posthumous archival releases, though, granting us insight into Lennon’s opinions that went deeper than what he was willing to divulge to the press.
John Lennon Said He Had “Nothing Against” This Bob Dylan Era
Love it or hate it, Bob Dylan’s Christian era was a pivotal moment in his career. For critics, it was difficult to reconcile this gospel-preaching Dylan with the 1960s rebel who spoke out against authoritarian figures of all kinds. For Dylan purists, it was one of many unique stages in his musical career, yet another testament to the songwriter’s broad abilities. These camps inevitably included some of Dylan’s contemporaries, who felt strongly one way or another about his late 1970s career shift. John Lennon tried to ride the fence on the issue…to the press, anyway.
“I don’t like to comment on it,” Lennon said of Dylan’s Christian crossover in one of his final interviews with David Sheff in 1980. “For whatever reason, he’s doing it. It’s personal for him, and he needs to do it. I’m not distressed by the fact that Dylan is doing what Dylan wants or needs to do. I like him personally. I’ve known him for years. Though, I haven’t seen him in years. I understand it and have nothing against it or for it. If he needs it, let him do it. People who don’t want to hear it will just leave the theater.”
The ex-Beatle was a bit franker with Playboy that same year. “I must say I was surprised when old Bobby boy did go that way. All I ever hear whenever I hear about him, and people can quote me and make me feel silly, too, but all I ever think of is “don’t follow leaders, watch the parking meters” [from “Subterranean Homesick Blues”]. It’s the same man, but it isn’t the same man. I don’t want to say anything about a man who is searching or has found it. There isn’t one answer to anything.”
This Snarky Song Suggests Otherwise
John Lennon was careful not to judge Bob Dylan too harshly in the media about his conversion to Christianity, but that didn’t mean he avoided the topic in his music. At some point in the late 1970s, Lennon wrote a rather scathing blues response to Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody,” a pulsing groove about finding a master to serve. “It may be the devil or it may be the lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Lennon’s song, not so subtly, was called “Serve Yourself” and followed the blues turnarounds of Dylan’s song.
You got to serve yourself
Ain’t nobody gonna do it for you
Well, you may believe in devils and you may believe in lords
But you’re gonna have to serve yourself
To be clear, the man who wrote “I Am the Walrus” just to confuse a group of schoolkids is undoubtedly capable of writing a song from an objective, impersonal point of view. Lennon could have been using Dylan’s “Serve Somebody” as a rubric for his own contemplations on organized religion.
Audio from a diary tape dated September 5, 1979, in which Lennon said, “‘Gotta Serve Somebody’. Guess [Dylan] wants to be a waiter now,” suggests the rock ‘n’ roller felt more strongly about Dylan’s controversial career shift than he let on to the press.
Photo by Richard Corkery/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
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