10 Darkest Songs John Lennon Ever Wrote
1. Yer Blues
Featured on: The Beatles (The White Album) (1968)
Yer Blues’ opening lyrics, the repeated “Yes, I'm lonely. Want to die”, is as dark an opening as any. If the suicidal ideation wasn’t clear enough, Lennon’s preceding lyrics, “I feel so suicidal. Just like Dylan's Mr. Jones” and “Feel so suicidal. Even hate my rock and roll” clarify his anguish.
The lines “The eagle picks my eye. The worm he licks my bone”, provide macabre body horror.
Lennon wrote the lyrics in Rishikesh, India while at the Maharishi’s camp. Lennon stated “although it was very beautiful and I was meditating about eight hours a day, I was writing the most miserable songs on earth. In ‘Yer Blues’, when I wrote, ‘I’m so lonely I want to die,’ I’m not kidding. That’s how I felt”. The girl to who the song is addressed is assumed to be Yoko Ono who sent regular letters to Lennon at the retreat.
Though the song was a satirical jab at English musicians who attempted to emulate Blues, it has courted a post-ironic appreciation among generations of fans. Ringo star aptly summed up Yer Blues as “like grunge rock of the sixties, really – grunge blues”.