John Lennon Songs - Mother Lyrics

John Lennon - Mother

John Lennon - Mother Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band
Released: 1970

Mother Lyrics

Mother, you had me
But I never had you
I wanted you
But you didn't want me
So
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye

Father, you left me
But I never left you
I needed you
But you didn't need me
So
I just got to tell
Goodbye
Goodbye

Children, don't do
What I have done
I couldn't walk
And I tried to run
So
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye

Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go
Daddy come home
Mama don't go

Writer/s: LENNON
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Mother

Lennon wrote this while he was undergoing "Primal Scream" therapy, where he was dealing with a lot of issues that were detailed in the lyrics: He lost his mother at a crucial period in his life to a drunk-driving, off-duty policeman who ran her over in a crosswalk, and his aunt Mimi raised him, which explains the line, "Mother you had me, but I never had you." His father, a merchant seaman, left him for the sea and for work. "I wanted you, you didn't need me" explains his feelings about his dad. Lennon's primal screaming on this song expresses the pain of his childhood. (thanks, Bob - Boston, MA)

The church bell heard at the start of this track was actually faster and higher-pitched initially, and John actually slowed it down to make it sound spookier and more haunting. His intention was to sound the death knell for his old life with The Beatles.(thanks, Noel - Barrow-In-Furness, England)

This features Klaus Voormann on bass and Ringo Starr on drums. In addition to his work in music, Voorman is an artist, and designed the cover of The Beatles album Revolver. He also played bass with Manfred Mann. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

On many of his early solo recordings such as this one, Lennon's arrangements are more simpler and sparser than on the Beatles songs. In the January 1971 edition of Rolling Stone, he explained this was because, "I've always liked simple rock." The former Beatle added: "I was influenced by acid and got psychedelic, like the whole generation, but really, I like rock and roll and I express myself best in rock. I had a few ideas to do this with 'Mother' and that with 'Mother' but when you just hear, the piano does it all for you, your mind can do the rest. I think the backings on mine are as complicated as the backings on any record you've ever heard, if you've got an ear.

Anybody knows that. Any musician will tell you, just play a note on a piano, it's got harmonics in it. It got to that. What the hell, I didn't need anything else."

Producer John Leckie explained to Uncut magazine August 2010 that the screams heard on this track were actually edited into the song once the rest of the vocal had been recorded. Lennon would attempt the screaming finale every night, careful never to try it in the daytime in case it destroyed his voice. "The screams were double-tracked," Leckie pointed out. "John didn't like the raw sound of his own voice. He always wanted lots of stuff on it. Spector's contribution, really, was to be generous with reverb and echo."

This is one of three songs which Lennon wrote for his mother, along with "Julia" and "My Mummy's Dead".

The psychologist Arthur Janov created primal scream therapy, which he detailed in his book The Primal Scream. Folks were always sending Lennon books, and a copy of Janov's book found him. Lennon was intrigued because the therapy reminded him of the screaming Yoko would often do in her works, but then he looked into it as a way of helping him resolve issues from his childhood. John and Yoko invited Janov to England, where they met with him to vet his practice. They liked what they heard and decided to try some sessions when they went to Los Angeles. For Lennon, it was a breakthrough, and led to this song.

"It's just a matter of breaking the wall that's there in yourself and come out and let it all hang out to the point that you start crying," Yoko said in describing the therapy (Uncut, 1998). She added: "He was going back to the days of when he wanted to scream, 'Mother.' He was able to go back to that childhood, that memory."