10 Songs You Probably Didn't Know Were Inspired By Horror Movies
5. John Lennon - Mother
John Lennon's first and best solo album, 1970's John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (and the sister record to Yoko's simultaneous release, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band) came in the wake of the big Beatles break-up, and brought much of that initial musical magic with it.
With a raw sound that ran parallel to his prior work with Ono, but contrary to the fairly polished, complete and well-tempered final Beatles record, Let It Be (released at the beginning of the same year), the album brought the stranger aspects of Lennon into the public eye, and with it the five-minute long lead track, Mother.
Though definitely a horror flick, the account of which particular film inspired Mother is vague at best. While writing and producing John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, Lennon was watching an old gothic horror movie on television and the bells in the film struck him as the perfect way to begin the opening song.
One can't help but feel some of that horror influence bled into the lyrics and composition, with his protracted screaming towards the end of the song, and the theme of parental abandonment that, while reflecting Lennon's own life, also contains echoes of horror films like Rosemary's Baby (released just two years prior).