John Lennon Explained Why Writing Songs Was Like ‘Being Possessed’

John Lennon was one of the most talented songwriters in classic rock history. He wrote dozens of hit songs for The Beatles and proved he could write meaningful solo tracks after The Beatles broke up. Lennon often portrayed himself as a tortured artist who expressed his inner demons in his work, which could explain why he compared songwriting to “being possessed.”

John Lennon preferred to write songs about his personal experiences

As John Lennon’s career progressed, his songwriting became more introspective and revealing. One reason was that he was heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, who trademarked the more vulnerable and personal style of music. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lennon looked back on his time with The Beatles, and he said there were only two “true songs” he wrote because he wasn’t writing from a third-person perspective. 

“I don’t know about anything else, really, and the few true songs I ever wrote were like ‘Help’ and ‘Strawberry Fields.’ I can’t think of them all offhand,” Lennon shared. “They were the ones I always considered my best songs. They were the ones I really wrote from experience and not projecting myself into a situation and writing a nice story about it. I always found that phony, but I’d find occasion to do it because I’d be so hung up, I couldn’t even think about myself.”

Lennon said songwriting was like being ‘possessed’

John Lennon preferred to write more introspective songs because he had something buried deep within his soul that he had to let out. According to Far Out, Lennon once compared songwriting to “being possessed” because there was a demon that needed to be released. 

“Songwriting is about getting the demon out of me,” Lennon said. “It’s like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won’t let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you’re allowed to sleep.”

In the final interview before his death, he looked back on many of the comments he made about songwriting, and he said it’s a challenging process. He usually isn’t happy with what he writes, and only a few songs appear like magic. 

“What I realized when I read ‘Lennon Remembers’ or the new Playboy interview was that I’m always complaining about how hard it is to write or how much I suffer when I’m writing – that almost every song I’ve ever written has been absolute torture,” Lennon explained. “I always think there’s nothing there, it’s shit, it’s no good, it’s not coming out, this is garbage, and even if it does come out, I think, ‘What the hell is it anyway?’ It’s just stupid. I just think, ‘That was tough. Jesus, I was in a bad way then’. Except for the 10 or so songs the gods give you, and that comes out of nowhere.”

Paul McCartney said Lennon struggled to finish songs

Paul McCartney and John Lennon were a dynamic songwriting duo who wrote many classic songs for The Beatles. In an interview McCartney gave in the 1990s, Paul said it was often difficult to write with Lennon because he wasn’t great at finishing songs. He could only write the first half, and then McCartney would be asked to finish it. 

“There tended to be four verses in our songs, one chorus that repeated endlessly, and a middle-eight. So if it was John’s idea, generally I would come in at the second verse,” McCartney expressed. “The first verse was always good to finish with– it was like, ‘Remember what I told you at the beginning of this song? I’m going to reiterate it now.’ That was always a good little trick”.