The Beatles Song John Lennon Worked Tirelessly on for Months: “I Was Irritated, and I Was Thinking”

Creating timeless artistic masterpieces is no easy feat. However, what makes a masterpiece a masterpiece in part is the work and the labor that goes into it. The work and the labor that drives the artist in question to the brink of madness. As history tells us, Glory is often gifted to those who grind through the process, and it was gifted to John Lennon after he toiled with “Across The Universe”.

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John Lennon is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He might not be your personal favorite, but you can’t deny him that. While Lennon certainly had an innate compassion and connection with the human condition and a knack for words, he didn’t garner this unofficial title of pure ability. According to this story, and others, Lennon acquired this title in the same way many others have acquired greatness—Through hard work.

John Lennon’s “Across The Universe” Started Far Before ‘Let It Be’

The writing process started far before the release of The Beatles’ final album, Let It Be. Specifically, Lennon started writing the single while he was still with his first wife, Cynthia Lennon. In the book, All We Are Saying, John Lennon was quoted as stating, “I was lying next to my first wife in bed, you know, and I was irritated, and I was thinking…She must have been going on and on about something and she’d gone to sleep and I kept hearing these words over and over, flowing like an endless stream.”

Hunter Davies, the famed journalist who has the only authorized biography of the Beatles, attested to Lennon’s work on the song. He wrote in his book, simply titled The Beatles, “At his home, and in his head, he had so many half songs, uncompleted bits of verse, which he would play with, before quickly tiring of them.”

Davies continued, “For months, I seem to remember he was mucking around with ‘Across the Universe’, or variations on it. He would play or sing me the same old bits every few weeks, having failed to make any progress with it since I’d last seen him.”

Needless to say, Lennon finished the song. Following the completion of the song and its appearance on Let It Be, The Beatles’ final album unsurprisingly peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Not only did it peak at No. 1, but it also became the most iconic final album of all time.

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