One of John Lennon’s best-known songs, ‘Jealous Guy’ had its origins in The Beatles’ 1968 trip to India, where they studied meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The song was originally ‘Child Of Nature’, of which Lennon taped a demo at George Harrison’s Esher bungalow before the recording sessions for the White Album.
My song, melody written in India. The lyrics explain themselves clearly: I was a very jealous, possessive guy. Toward everything. A very insecure male. A guy who wants to put his woman in a little box, lock her up, and just bring her out when he feels like playing with her. She’s not allowed to communicate with the outside world – outside of me – because it makes me feel insecure.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The original lyrics were inspired by a lecture given by Maharishi about a “son of the mother nature”, which also influenced Paul McCartney’s song ‘Mother Nature’s Son’. The similarity meant ‘Child Of Nature’ was never seriously attempted by The Beatles, although it was performed during the Let It Be sessions in January 1969.
[‘Mother Nature’s Son’] was from a lecture of Maharishi where he was talking about nature, and I had a piece called ‘I’m Just A Child Of Nature’, which turned into ‘Jealous Guy’ years later. Both inspired from the same lecture of Maharishi.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
When Lennon began work on Imagine, he cast aside the 1968 lyrics and rewrote them about Yoko Ono. However, in an interview published in the February 1985 edition of Playgirl magazine, Paul McCartney revealed that Lennon wrote it with him in mind.
He used to say, ‘Everyone is on the McCartney bandwagon.’ He wrote ‘I’m Just a Jealous Guy’, and he said that the song was about me. So I think it was just some kind of jealousy.
Playgirl, February 1985
Although the lyrics appear to be about a relationship, if one reads them as being about McCartney it provides a revealing insight into Lennon’s viewpoint on The Beatles’ breakup, and a counterpoint to Imagine’s ‘How Do You Sleep?’, Lennon’s vitriolic attack on his former songwriting partner.
‘Jealous Guy’ was the last song John Lennon ever performed in public. In 1977 he stayed for two months in the presidential suite of Tokyo’s Okura Hotel, while Yoko Ono was visiting relatives. One day he was playing an acoustic guitar and singing the song to himself, when a Japanese couple accidentally arrived in the suite after taking the elevator to the wrong floor.
The couple sat and listened as Lennon performed the song, after which they left and walked back to the elevator. Although nobody at the time knew it, this is believed to be the last time members of the public ever saw Lennon perform a song.
I had no idea that it was about Paul. Fascinating.
It wasn’t about Paul. He’s just that much of a narcissist to think & say it was….
Hmmm, he said it was John who told him it was.
Yes but we wouldn’t want to miss an excuse to back Paul in the name of Our Lord Lennon, now would we?
In John’s absence, Paul has said a lot of things.
Yeah and John said a lot of things even though Paul was still alive to debunk them. I mean he thought Hey Jude was about him. Are they both narcissists now? I like to think that there is at least a kernel of truth to the majority of things they’ve said, otherwise it just gets depressing
hey Jude was about John…. why would you be telling a 5 year old to go get a girl? I think it’s about John and Jules.
I think Paul meant to say got after you’re mum and don’t hurt her.
Paul was writing this Song “Hey Jude” to comfort Julian but was thinking about Linda, whether to go out and get her, not about John Lennon.
Guess you’d know better, eh?
The lyrics give the impression that it’s to a current or former lover. I don’t hear anything about a bandwagon.
Johnny, this is your view only, You can’t say it was not about Paul. If John said so, maybe it was. I imagine you were not there. Unless you are a close friend of them and didn’t explain.
This song is to me a major redeeming thing of John. If it wasn’t about Paul, then it SHOULD have been about Paul !
That’s not fair to Paul. I’ve always thought that the song was to the Beatles in general and Paul in particular, not Yoko. But I can’t prove it. I believe Paul, why would he lie about it? It makes perfect sense.
John wrote the song while he was in India with his wife, Cynthia. Yoko wasn’t quite in the picture yet. John had not lived with Yoko yet. He had only lived with Cynthia up to the time he wrote this song. John use to knock Cynthia around (as he did Thelma Pickles). On one occassion when Stuart Sutcliffe and Cynthia were dancing together John became furious and dragged her away. John was a jealous guy the most with Cynthia.
He was never jealous about Yoko being around other guys.
That’s not correct. He started writing this song in India when he was entirely over Cynthia. Read about India and Cynthia and how terribly distant he was to her. This song is definitely about Paul. Leftover feelings from their beatles days, a startling contrast to How Do You Sleep — which goes in line with John’s up-and-down feelings towards Paul. It probably hurt to care so much.
Also, John was extremely jealous about Yoko and other guys. He told Paul to stay away from her (which is weird….) and he wouldn’t let her see her ex-husband without him.
Jealous guy was written in inspiration after a Maharishi lecture, alongside Paul’s Mother’s Nature’s son. Jealous guy could also just be about John Lennon himself, describing his jealous emotions. But when you look at John Lennon’s relationship with jealousy, the main figure is constintently Paul.
Not the lyrics, the original
Lyrics would have been for a song titled Child of Nature. As John says, the chord progressions was salvaged from a song written in India in 1968. Hence the melody was from the Maharishi trip but the lyrics are from the beginning of his post Beatles period. Clearly he repurposed the melody, and clearly he had control issues and resented Paul for filling the power vacuum which occurred when he essentially abdicated leadership or even partnership in the band in exchange for a debauched druggie lifestyle. I know all about drug addicts as I’ve been one for 18 years, and they are totally selfish and self absorbed. After the death of Brian, if Paul hadn’t tried to steer the Beatles ship then it would have foundered a couple years earlier. Lennon was Jealous that Paul was an equal talent but maybe even more so that he was much more stable and able to steer than he was. In the early years, up through 1965, Lennon was first among equals with Paul. Then progressively his control weakened, and only because he was busy watching tv and taking acid all day and then later snorting heroin with Yoko. Even John later said he appreciates Paul Shepherding the Beatles and keeping them going after the death of Brian, when he stopped frankly caring anymore. George didn’t care anymore either. Poor Paul was left to Carry That Weight. Paul loved The Beatles and never wanted to be anything else, ever. He loved the Beatles more than the Beatles loved themselves. It’s a shame that John and George stopped caring. I believe Ringo still would have carried on, but with John checking out on a regular basis the writing was on the wall to the point that Paul even finally had to admit the reality that he lost his best friend to drugs. It’s sad. It’s very sad.
Best comment! Thank you and I think you’re 100% right. None of us will ever know for sure but all these circumstantial pieces of info do add up to your explanation. Thank you.
Yeah well Paul’s dislike and distrust of Allen Klein while the other three were giving the dude the keys to the kingdom cemented Paul’s insistence that they have more control , not some suit. He had to sue the other three just get his proper royalties from Klein. That had a LOT to do with the band breaking up.
Not surprised.
Great song, I love it and love to play it on the piano.
Is my opinion that it is a totally Yoko-intended song.
And I don’t like the Roxy Music’s cover at all.
Rod Stewart’s early 70’s version is damm good.
I was never a big fan of this song until I heard the Anthology version. The Imagine version’s good, but it’s a bit over produced with the strings and whistling and the whole Wall of Sound bit. A nice George Harrison slide guitar in place of the whistling (or humming on Anthology) would have been perfect.
This song does not really have a wall of sound. Listen to the Crystals or the Ronettes for the real wall of sound.
True enough. “Be My Baby,” “Then He Kissed Me,” and “River Deep And Mountain High” are true examples of the WoS. I just think that even being reigned in or “not being given his head” by John, Phil’s productions of “Jealous Guy” and “Imagine” are slightly over done. The harmonium on Anthology sounds better than the strings. John’s piano playing is too perfect on the album version while the lower octave, looser sounding piano on Anthology sounds terrific. Plus, I always love John’s warts-and-all vocals on his demo’s and early takes as much and sometimes more than on the finished records. He was too critical of his own singing. He was an egotistical prat about just about every one of his other talents (“I can make a guitar speak”), but when it came to his singing he was far too modest and never satisfied.
Same with Paul. How anyone could be dissatisfied with “Oh! Darling” is beyond me…
It’s Nicky Hopkins who plays the piano on the album version. And I think also on the Anthology.
“Overdone” in reference to any production that goes beyond guitar, bass, vocals, and drums is one of the easiest, most over-used descriptions this side of 1955. Back in your grandparents and great grandparent’s era….recorded music was usually always orchestrated. Big Band, classical, dixieland, Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley, etc. People who fear orchestration are thick. “Imagine” and “jealous guy” are flawless productions on a musical level. They’re incredibly minimal, well-placed, and balanced. Don’t confuse your opinion with the truth.
Maybe Paul. Maybe Yoko. Maybe Cynthia. I suspect John was remembering them all.
Agreed!
John couldn’t have been remembering Yoko when he wrote this song. He hadn’t left Cynthia yet to be with her. John wrote the song in India when he was there with his wife Cynthia. Yoko wasn’t on the scene yet. But, when John was in India with his wife he was contemplating leaving Cynthia for Yoko. Perhaps John knew what was coming for Cynthia and he was apologizing to her for all the harm he did and was going to do to her and their son, Julian.
I think it’s about Cynthia …
I think it’s about Stuart Sutcliffe
I heard this song in a movie about the Beatles, in which there was a love triangle between Stuart, Astrid & John. John was jealous. He liked Astrid too. But she fell in love w/Stu – & then Stu left The Beatles to be w/ Astrid. Which made sense to me w/ the lyrics. Collective Soul does a good version of this song.
You can’t write a better YA novel plot…
I don’t see how this could possibly be about Paul!
I see why people don’t accept he had Paul in mind when wrote this song. Why not? Of course, it is possible. John was a jealous guy indeed. Makes more sense to me than being about Yoko.
It’s good to listen to this song right after “Run For Your Life”. The change is powerful.
Hmm… Interesting. What other songs were written while the Beatles were still together but were recorded and/or released after the breakup?
Oh, quite a lot, Paulie and George were especially prolific. Let’s see:
John Lennon: ‘Jealous Guy’, ‘Look at Me’
Paul McCartney: ‘Every Night’, ‘Hot As Sun’, ‘Teddy Boy’, ‘Junk’
George Harrison: ‘I’d Have You Anytime’, ‘Isn’t It a Pity’, ‘Behind That Locked Door’, ‘All Things Must Pass’, ‘Circles’
There’s probably a ton more I’m forgetting, but these are the major outliers.
One of the best songs off the great Imagine album. Beautiful piano work by Nicky Hopkins, especially at the beginning. John Lennon at his most vulnerable. I love the whistling.One of the highlights of the film Imagine is where it shows the recording of this. Like the title song Imagine, a great collaborative production between he and Phil Spector. Always conjecture about who this song is about ,Yoko? Paul? Either way this is one of Lennon’s best.I love Roxy Musics 1981 cover of this, released as tribute after his death. Magnificent.
With Cynthia recently passing, my thoughts have been going to her. And I can’t help but to think this song is about her. I mean, John was possessive over her and the lyrics seem more about Cynthia rather than Paul or Yoko.
However, John himself told Paul it was about him. It seems the problem is only because it is a romantic song. People are homophobic, we know. Most people are. But those who feel uncomfortable, ( I don’t) remove the romantic bit. After all is quite possible to add something romantic only for being more popular. Also to let Yoko think it was for her. LOL Anyway, it makes sense to be about Paul. They were fighting. John was terribly rude composing How to do you sleep. Deep inside they both liked each other in spite of all problems. Very natural to include another song saying he was sorry, and he didn’t mean to hurt him. It’s totally acceptable.Much more sense than for Cynthia, who was not with him anymore. John used to write only about what he was living at that moment. But of course, though he had Paul in mnd ( if Paul told so I see no reason to doubt) he could also have thought about everybody else he hurt in his life.
There’s actually not necessarily a romantic element to the lyrics.
Great whistling solo by John!
Wait, where is “Child of Nature” on Anthology? It wasn’t on any of the original 3. Also, I think most of you all are thinking too narrowly. John Lennon was a brilliant, complex person(duh). As a songwriter, the meaning of your lyrics are often directed or more accurately sourced from a variety of inspirations. My opinion is the song, or parts of it, ARE about Paul (new idea I had never heard but makes sense), and definitely about Cynthia, and definitely about Yoko, and other women he had been with in his life. So, it can also be looked as an apology from him to all the women in his life, and thus women in general. That’s often how lyrics work. True, obviously, sometimes you’re obsessed with one person or subject, but otherwise it gets grey quickly, and you don’t even know yourself necessarily where it all came from, where one influence ends and another begins. A lot of song- (or any kind of) writing is inspired by all sorts of things, consciously and subconsciously. Sometimes the writer themselves may not realize until afterwards, sometimes years later, exactly what was going on in their mind, or emotionally. I find lyrics (especially in the case of someone like Lennon, who’s writing was SO from the heart) are often more about what you’re feeling than thinking, and that makes the waters much muddier if you’re truly honest with yourself.
When people disagree its likely about what they’re thinking. How can one person disagree with what someone else says they are feeling? Respectfully, it seems impossible for one person to say they know without question what John was thinking — more possibly its a reflection of what that one person is feeling. Remember John kindly, he had a lot of good points.
If one song paints a picture of an exasperated John yelling in the studio “Just play it like Paul!”, it’s this one…that’s McCartney’s bass all over…great song, by the way.
You’re all wrong about the subject of this song (Jealous Guy) – John wrote it for me. I recently lost my love and soulmate through my own stupidity; I happened to be listening to the song a few weeks later and immediately realised it captured in a few short, but searingly honest, sentences my exact emotions. Whether by John, Roxy, Donny or whoever, listening to it gutted me. Sent her youtube of John’s version – hope it works.
It reads more of a song about Paul than Yoko. Just like hey Jude , to me, sounds like s song about John. I
I…?? The suspense is killing me!
It sounds like he would be singing Jealous Guy to a woman. “I didn’t mean to make you cry”, seems like it would be directed towards Cynthia or Yoko.
I mean, you would think so………Mal Evans would probably disagree. I remember him saying something about him driving Paul somewhere right after John told him ‘The Beatles were done’, ‘i want a divorce’, ‘i don’t want to hold your hand anymore’ (at least one of those, I mean). He said that Paul cried the entire drive (and Paul was certainly a wreck for a short period after that)…………………….So, anyway, John did make him cry.
John never acknowledged or confirmed Mal’s anecdote and he made it clear that it was about a guy and a woman.
When he told Paul that the Beatles ‘were done’, he ‘wanted a divorce’, and he ‘didn’t want to hold his hand anymore’, Paul cried a lot, according to Mal Evans.
This song is one of my favorites as just like with much of his solo work it shows a growing maturity in Lennon. As is well known John was definitely not a good husband in his younger years being very possessive and toxic to Cynthia. Hell in his younger years he was even prone to violence towards her (and a lot of people seeing as John was kind of a violent dude when he was younger). By the time he rewrote Child of Nature he had been introduced to the second wave of feminism through Yoko Ono and for the first time was in an equal romantic partnership with another person. Its at this point that John realized and understood the wrong he did to his previous wife and writes Jealous Guy at least partially with her in mind. As a song for Cyn its essentially him admitting his wrong doing and how he regrets and is aware of why he acted the way he did. Its a show of maturity from the man who once wrote Run For Your Life (not dissing that track just pointing out that it does show Johns possessive view of women at the time).
I’m glad that John wrote “Jealous Guy”, in which he acknowledged his feelings of inadequacy that caused his failure as a husband and romantic partner, and the contrite lyrics are evident in the chorus, “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I’m sorry that I made you cry, I didn’t want to hurt you, I’m just a jealous guy.”
It’s just disgraceful that the media ignores the fact that he repented his past violent behaviour and that was why he became a peace activist.
As far as I know, he never said that he wrote it about Paul and he made it clear in his final interview that it was about a woman.
It’s definitely about Paul. I believe anything he says over anything some random fan says.
And it’s probably also about other people. Hopefully Cynthia more than Yoko – she was certainly the one who deserved an apology.
This song is definitely NOT about Yoko due to its opening line … “I was dreaming of the past”
Yoko was only in the mix for 2 and a half years when he wrote the new lyrics. Not long enough to be considered the past. I never considered this song to be about Paul until this moment. Reading them now I realize that it could very well be about Paul. The love and admiration between these two talented artists is fascinating!
John and Yoko met in 1966, five years before Jealous Guy was released. Of course Lennon could have been thinking of his past with her, be it a day, week, month, year or more ago.
Understood, Joe. They met in 1966 but didn’t get together until 1968. And I’m pretty sure, if Lennon was dreaming of the past and his heart was beating fast and he began to lose control and apologize to someone for hurting them… is was not Yoko. Their glow of inseparable love was in full force from the Beatles breakup to the re-election of Richard Nixon. Unless Paul made up the story in 1985 it seems plausible that he took a song he wrote in India (with Paul) and turned it into an apology, especially after How Do You Sleep?