John Lennon has spent much of his life asking for help, did he do it in the ’60s with the song?Help?y repeated in what was one of his last prophetic compositions: “Help me to help me”. The Beatles’ most idealistic, revolutionary and inspiring element has always hidden a traumatic story that has also served as a great creative impulse.
Sadness is said to be a powerful emotion, almost resembling that impulse that ignites certain minds in the most memorable artistic productions; We saw him, for example, in Janis Joplin, the powerful vocalist whose untimely death left us the memory of a melancholy girl, who curiously helped the world to be a little happier at some point in history.
- The Beatles.
- On the other hand.
- Did the same thing.
- But in an even more universal way.
- The musical.
- Cultural and social impact they caused was remarkable; however.
- Few focused on the sadness hidden by the group’s most intellectual figure: John Lennon.
- Who knew him most intimately.
- Knew that he exuded in him a sometimes suicidal and devouring figure.
- A shadow that led him into exile and personal isolation that lasted nearly five years.
Interestingly, one of the last songs he composed before Mark David Chapman murdered him at the entrance to the Dakota building attested to the exit of this personal tunnel and the search for an impatient second chance. He had hopes and trusted himself again:
? Dear John
Don’t be yourself.
Breathe.
Life wasn’t meant to run
No more race, have you won?.
When did John Lennon write the lyrics to the song?Help!? The rest of the group was a little surprised, but no one wanted to give it importance at the time, sounded good, was part of one of the best-selling albums and became the title of a film to be released in 1965. , in these words were the stress in which Lennon lived and the external pressure under which he was facing a series of events that were faster than he could deal with him.
Years later, in an interview Paul McCartney gave to Playboy magazine, he commented that at the time he could not see the personal reality that his partner and friend lived, Lennon shouted for help, but lived in a deaf world. song, spoke openly about his insecurity, his depression and the need for someone to help him, for someone to guide him back to earth.
There are those who comment that some of this vital anguish and eternal hidden sadness may have come from his childhood, his father was a sailor who left the family early, his mother, on the other hand, also stayed away from him for a while, leaving him responsible for his uncles. Years later, just as he reconciled with his mother, he witnessed his infatuation. A drunken cop took his mother’s life instantly; a high-impact scene that accompanied him for the rest of his life.
His biographers say that to overcome the tragedy he immersed himself much more in music. In the end, his passion for this art came from his mother; it was she who taught her to play more than one instrument, she who conveyed her fascination, and it is to him that she dedicated one of her most intimate songs: “Julia”.
When the Beatles separated in 1970, Paul McCartney, George and Ringo made more or less sticky records and continued to succeed; John Lennon, for his part, couldn’t follow this line. At the crossroads he felt very sensitive, even outraged, he reversed against political hypocrisy and attacked even young fans who idolized him and other rock personalities.
In one of his records he crudely expressed his deepest thoughts about this new stage: Don’t I believe in magic, don’t I believe in Elvis?I don’t believe in the Beatles, is the dream over?I was a walrus, but now I’m John? Making music no longer motivated him, it was no cause for joy or satisfaction, everything was a good business before his eyes and he felt even more trapped, trapped in a place where he was destroyed with drink and LSD.
Now, what not everyone knows is that, aware that neither music, nor meditation, nor drugs could silence the bitter sadness that lived in him, John Lennon began working with the psychotherapist Arthur Janov, renowned psychologist He has developed a primary therapy strategy to treat psychological trauma through primary crying and psychodrama.
With this approach, as well as with many other cathartic and expressive therapies, I believed in the premise that any repressed pain can become conscious and solved with the representation of the problem and the expression of the resulting pain. John Lennon continued for several years in this same therapy with good results, to the point that one of his last songs was the direct result of this therapeutic journey of wonderful internal reconciliations.
The title of this song was “Mother”.