John Lennon Said ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ Was Like 1 Song from the ‘Imagine’ Album

John Lennon‘s “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” was “wild and rough,” according to the former Beatle. He compared “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” to a tune from his record Imagine. The Imagine song was about being in a bad headspace.

John Lennon wrote a song called ‘Crippled Inside’ for his ‘Imagine’ album

During a 1974 interview from the book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon, John discussed his then-new single “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” “Yeah, and it’s wild and rough,” he said. The tune has a lot of energy but it could very easily be understood as song about substance abuse.

“I call it ‘Crippled Inside,’ y’ know?” John said, referring to a less famous song from Imagine about dealing with internal struggles. “It’s like releasing ‘Crippled Inside’ from the Imagine album instead of ‘Imagine.’ But I took a consensus of opinion because after I’d done it, I just couldn’t make head or tail which one could be commercial, y’know, so they told me that one. So here we go, and it seems to be doing all right.”

Why John Lennon’s ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ and ‘Crippled Inside’ are so distinct

“Crippled Inside” and “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” have similar meanings but John executed them differently. The former is sad, saying that nice clothes and fake smiles cannot hide emotional issues. It’s also got an old-school, honky tonk feel that makes it sound like one of The Rolling Stones’ country outings.

In contrast, “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” is about doing everything and anything to feel better. One could interpret the song as being about self-care or drug use, it’s not clear from the lyrics, since “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” is one of those John songs where the chorus is essentially just the title and the verses are a bunch of nonsense (see “Give Peace a Chance,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “Come Together.”) It’s also far removed from “Crippled Inside” because it’s a jazzy, funky song that hits like a dynamite blast. There’s a reason why “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” was a radio smash and “Crippled Inside” was a non-entity.

1 of the biggest stars of the 1970s worked on ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’

“Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” might have more commercial appeal than “Crippled Inside” because another top 40 genius worked on it. During a 1975 interview with Rolling Stone, John discussed how another classic rock star helped him finish “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night.” “Elton sort of popped in on the session for Walls and Bridges and sort of zapped in and played the piano and ended up singing ‘Whatever Gets You Thru the Night’ with me. Which was a great shot in the arm. 

“I’d done three-quarters of it, and it was, ‘Now what do we do?'” he said. “Should we put a camel on it or a xylophone? That sort of thing. And he came in and said, ‘Hey, ah’ll play some piano!'” 

“Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” and “Crippled Inside” are both good songs and it’s interesting that John connected them.