10 Greatest Diss Tracks In Rock Music History
2. How Do You Sleep - John Lennon
As the Beatles were starting to fall apart towards the end of the '60s, fans tended to focus on the wrong parts of the breakup. While many people are quick to blame Yoko Ono as the one who dissolved the group, most of the inter-band squabbling normally came down to business decisions that ended up going horribly wrong. So if you thought that the Quiet Beatle had some harsh words for Paul McCartney, you can imagine what his former writing partner thought about him.
After hearing Paul come out with a statement about the Beatles' breakup, John Lennon was absolutely seething with anger, since he was the one who originally wanted to end the group. Looking to get away from the business environment at Apple, John's second studio album Imagine featured How Do You Sleep, which isn't even subtle in its criticism of McCartney. From implying that Yesterday was his only good song to saying that his entire repertoire sounds closer to elevator music, John was looking to air every single piece of dirty laundry that he could find about McCartney in this one song.
In fact, things ended up getting a little too mean spirited, with George Harrison listening to the track during the recording and eventually asking John to tone down the language a little bit. As much as the press might love drama though, this is the kind of song that you can't help but feel sad listening to. This isn't a statement of anger...it's the death of one of the greatest friendships in rock and roll.