4 Beatles Songs That Were Inspired by John Lennon’s Personal Struggles

John Lennon was a great artist, but he wasn’t without his issues. Here are some Beatles songs that give a little insight into John Lennon’s personal struggles.

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“Getting Better”

Of all Beatles songs, this one is definitely a little bit controversial, to say the least. In “Getting Better”, Lennon is brutally honest, singing about his struggles with anger and domestic violence.

“It is a diary form of writing,” Lennon explained to David Sheff. “All that ‘I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved’ was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically – any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything’s the opposite.”

“I’m A Loser”

This one sings about letting go of a lover and feeling regret afterward. Written primarily by Lennon, even Paul McCartney thought the emotional depth in this song was particularly brave.

“Looking back on it, I think songs like ‘I’m A Loser’ and ‘Nowhere Man’ were John’s cries for help,” McCartney admitted to Barry Miles. “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.’ 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.’”

“Help!”

Although this song sounds kind of upbeat and fun, according to Lennon, this song was literally him asking for help.

“When ‘Help!’ came out, I was actually crying out for help,” Lennon explained to David Sheff. “Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song. I didn’t realize 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. So it was my fat Elvis period.”

“You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away”

Like “I’m A Loser”, this song was written during what Lennon called his “Dylan period,” a time during which the songwriter took quite a lot of inspiration from the “Blowin’ In The Wind” singer.

“‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ is my Dylan period,” he explained in The Anthology. “It’s one of those that you sing a bit sadly to yourself, ‘Here I stand, head in hand…’ I’d started thinking about my own emotions. I don’t know when exactly it started, like ‘I’m A Loser’ or ‘Hide Your Love Away’, those kinds of things. Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself, which I’d done in my books.”

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