The John Lennon Song That Viciously Parodied a ‘Pathetic’ Bob Dylan Song
In the late 1970s, Bob Dylan began releasing music with overtly Christian themes, a development that made John Lennon roll his eyes. Lennon was once an avid Dylan fan, but by this stage of his life, his respect for the other musician had cooled considerably. He even wrote a song to mock a Dylan tune he hated.
John Lennon wrote a song that made fun of something Bob Dylan wrote
In 1979, Dylan released the album “Slow Train Coming,” his first of three Christian albums. Lennon said he found Dylan’s embrace of religion surprising, though he didn’t want to comment on it.
“I don’t like to comment on it,” he said, per the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview With John Lennon and Yoko Ono by David Sheff. “For whatever reason he’s doing it, it’s personal for him and he needs to do it. I’m not distressed by the fact that Dylan is doing what Dylan wants or needs to do. I like him personally. I’ve known him for years, though I haven’t seen him in years. I understand it and have nothing against it or for it. If he needs it, let him do it.”
In private, though, Lennon was much harsher on the song. An unearthed recording of Lennon showed that he reportedly took issue with Dylan’s song “Gotta Serve Somebody.”
“I was listening to the radio and Dylan’s new single or album or whatever the hell it is came on. ‘Everybody’s got to be served.’ I mean, what was it? ‘You’ve got to serve someone’… ‘You’ve got to serve somebody.’ So he wants to be a waiter now? A waiter for Christ,” Lennon said per Rolling Stone, adding that the “Backing was mediocre … the singing really pathetic and the words were just embarrassing.”
Given his private hatred of the song, it’s unsurprising that Lennon parodied “Gotta Serve Somebody.” In 1979 he wrote “Serve Yourself” in response to Dylan’s song. It takes a clear and vitriolic issue with Dylan’s religious turn.
“You got to serve yourself/Ain’t nobody gonna do for you/ You got to serve yourself/Ain’t nobody gonna do for you/(That’s right, lad, you better get that straight into your f***in’ head),” he sings.
John Lennon grew increasingly frustrated with Bob Dylan over the years
Early in his career, it would be difficult to imagine Lennon writing a scathing response to a Dylan song. He took inspiration from Dylan and used his lyrics to push The Beatles’ songwriting. Lennon and Dylan became friendly and spent time together throughout the 1960s. As time went on, though, Dylan and Lennon drifted apart.
By the time Lennon wrote “Serve Yourself,” he hadn’t seen Dylan in years. He had also grown increasingly critical of the American artist. He spoke about how he stopped listening to Dylan’s music and no longer found him interesting. With this in mind, his harsh criticism doesn’t seem so surprising.
Bob Dylan wrote a song to parody The Beatles
Long before Lennon wrote “Serve Yourself,” Dylan wrote a parody of a Beatles song. He noticed how similar the song “Norwegian Wood” sounded to his music. At this time, he’d been noticing more and more artists who sounded like him, and he grew frustrated. He wrote the song “4th Time Around” to parody “Norwegian Wood,” which disturbed Lennon.
“I was very paranoid about that,” Lennon told Rolling Stone. “I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, ‘what do you think?’ I said, ‘I don’t like it.’ I didn’t like it. I was very paranoid. I just didn’t like what I felt I was feeling – I thought it was an out-and-out skit, you know, but it wasn’t. It was great. I mean, he wasn’t playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit.”
