John Lennon’s Earliest Song For The Beatles Shows His Anguish
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A Sensitive Soul
John Lennon struggled mentally and emotionally since his childhood, brought about by growing up without a solid family. Throughout The Beatles career in the ’60s, he wrote most of their classic hits – about the usual rock ‘n roll themes, love songs, or even about sleep. But one of his earliest compositions reflected his pain and anguish – making it something so personal to the legendary singer-songwriter.
With a plethora of well-loved tracks, “I Call Your Name” has often been overlooked and forgotten even by the most ardent Beatles fans.
He wrote this before The Fab Four was even formed. He first gave it to The Dakotas’ Billy J. Kramer but was unsatisfied with the arrangement so The Beatles made their own recording.
Lennon said, “That was my song. When there was no Beatles and no group. I just had it around. It was my effort as a kind of blues originally, and then I wrote the middle eight just to stick it in the album when it came out years later. The first part had been written before Hamburg even. It was one of my first attempts at a song.”
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It was bandmate Paul McCartney who realized that Lennon may have let us in on his life – even just a little.
Macca recalled, “We worked on it together, but it was John’s idea. When I look back at some of these lyrics, I think, Wait a minute. What did he mean? ‘I call your name but you’re not there.’ Is it his mother? His father? I must admit I didn’t really see that as we wrote it because we were just a couple of young guys writing. You didn’t look behind it at the time, it was only later you started analysing things.”
Check out the song below.
