Although John Lennon originally intended for Ringo Starr to record ‘Nobody Told Me’, the song remained unreleased until the posthumous 1984 album Milk And Honey.
Lennon begun the song in 1976, when he wrote and recorded what was then known as ‘Everybody’s Talkin’, Nobody’s Talkin”. Performed on a piano with a drum machine backing, the song had most of the final lyrics of ‘Nobody Told Me’, and the chords were in place, although some fine-tuning was needed before it was complete.
Lennon later added more vocals and an acoustic guitar track onto the 1976 demo prior to recording Double Fantasy. This version kept the verses of ‘Everybody’s Talkin’, Nobody’s Talkin”, but Lennon sang the chorus of ‘Nobody Told Me’ over the top of the previous one.
He then taped a new version of the song, which was intended for Starr. It was recorded on acoustic guitar with a drum machine backing, and Lennon overdubbed a lead vocal part. Starr considered the song for his 1981 album Stop And Smell The Roses, but following Lennon’s death he decided he was unable to record any of his songs.
One of the lines in the song, “There’s a little yellow idol to the north of Katmandu”, was adapted from the opening lines of J Milton Hayes’ 1911 poem ‘The Green Eye Of The Little Yellow God’:
There’s a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Kathmandu,
There’s a little marble cross below the town;
There’s a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.
‘Nobody Told Me’ also had the line “There’s UFOs over New York, and I ain’t too surprised”. This was inspired by Lennon’s alleged sighting of a UFO in 1974. The liner notes of his album Walls And Bridges carried the announcement: “On the 23rd August 1974 at 9 o’clock I saw a U.F.O. – J.L.”.
Lennon brought ‘Nobody Told Me’ to New York’s Hit Factory studio on 7 August 1980, the second day of the Double Fantasy sessions. Take one was eventually released on the 1998 box set John Lennon Anthology. Ten takes were recorded altogether, the best of which was selected for Milk And Honey.
‘Nobody Told Me’ was issued as the first single from the album, with Yoko Ono’s song ‘O’ Sanity’ as its b-side. The song peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and at number six in the United Kingdom’s singles chart.
Really fun song, nothing but hooks. I always thought it was “Mother told me there’d be daze like these”! Maybe John would’ve liked that, too.
When I was a boy, I also thought the lyric was “Mother told me…”
It’s an intentional take on that saying, obviously
I loved this song when it was released in early 1984 along with the album Milk and Honey.It has a retro feel and those quirky John Lennon lyrics. As the above response says it is a fun song but also a damn good one. I love the fade out at the end of the song and the great promotional video that went with it.
Never really cared for this one. It always sounded like something John was in the process of writing and hadn’t finished. That chorus sounds rushed and forced, and I’ve always felt John would’ve re-written that part if he’d had the chance.
Guide vocal for Ringo. This one could have been a John Lennon’s single in 1975, with arrangement of a truly stax record, with a Carlos Alomar’s band as a companion.