10 Songs That Emotionally DESTROYED Artists

John Lennon had a lot to unpack once he left the Beatles behind. After being one of the most famous people in the world for nearly a decade, he had become desensitized to almost everything and was in need of some guidance. While he had originally got into primal scream therapy to deal with his emotional turmoil, he poured every piece of it into the songs he wrote for Plastic Ono Band.

This entire album is already a lot to take in, but the mission statement of the record is Mother, where John speaks about the separation that he had between his parents. After his father left the family to work as a seaman and his mother handed him off to his aunt to raise him for most of his life, John is still reeling from that separation and lays it all out here, talking about how he wanted that emotional relationship with his parents but knew that his parents didn’t really need him. In fact, this entire song may as well be a therapy session by itself, where he tries to make peace with not having anyone to look up to and closing that chapter of his life.

That’s not to say that it isn’t hard to let go, with John screaming towards the end of the song for his mother and father to come back home to him. The screams might sound a bit abrasive when you first hear them, but underneath those wire rimmed glasses is a frightened man who never got the love he needed from his parents.