Free (The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection) Ben Urish, Ken Bielen-The Words and Music of John Lennon-Praeger (2007) by Ken Bielen Ben Urich

John Lennon
    put on. No matter what their outward appearance or what bogus activities
    they participate in, it is what is in the heart that counts. And the lyrics make
    it sound as though just about everyone is “crippled inside” in one way or
    another.
    The song combines a country and western feel with a little Tin Pan Alley
    sensibility, creating an ironic contrast with the lyrics. George Harrison pro-
    vides some exuberant slide guitar work, with Lennon urging him on with a
    “Take it, cousin!” The piano work by Nicky Hopkins is also notable, bring-
    ing a ragtime / early jazz feel to the song. Lennon has to be using satire here,
    because his singing is vaguely affected as if he is hinting at a Southern U.S.
    accent without wanting to really do one. The lyrics contain clichés (“a cat has
    nine lives”), the music is light and bouncy, and all the while he is happily sing-
    ing about the pervasiveness of emotional disability and the ultimate futility of
    trying to ignore it. To Lennon, putting on a happy face does not do anything
    except make one a hypocrite.
    While the first verse certainly sets up the song’s denunciation of trying to
    hide one’s true self with trappings of success, false piety, or lashing out at
    others, it may also contain a reference to Lennon’s former Beatle band mate
    Paul McCartney. He addresses someone who “wear[s] a suit,” “look[s] quite
    cute,” and “hide[s] ... behind a smile.” These descriptions can easily apply to
    Lennon’s characterizations of McCartney as seen in a later track, “How Do
    You Sleep?” from Imagine.
    His description of the false person in the suit who, in the second verse, also
    “wear[s] a collar and tie” complements the premise of the mid-1950s popu-
    lar film The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. People conform to an appearance,
    but inside they harbor emotions that stifle their potential as well as hurt oth-
    ers. It does not work, Lennon says, because being “crippled inside” is “One
    thing you can’t hide.”
    Paralleling his earlier attacks on religious hypocrisy, Lennon speaks of
    churchgoers singing from the hymnal while they are actually crippled inside.
    He also notes how people compensate for their insecurities by transferring
    their issues to others through racism and prejudice. For Lennon, there are
    many methods of masking inner pain, but none of them really work. The
    song’s real strength lies in the humorous approach and performance.
    Except for a slightly altered line about dreaming, the confessional ballad
    “Jealous Guy” had a whole different set of lyrics when Lennon composed
    it as “Child of Nature” for The Beatles’ White Album three years earlier.
    “Child of Nature” exists in demonstration form, offering some rather dreary
    and mundane lyrics—such as “I’m just a child of nature, I’m one of nature’s
    children”—that may account for its never being finished as a Beatles track.
    Turning the song into “Jealous Guy” was not the only legacy of the music,
    since it matches up very closely with the opening of Lennon’s later hit “What-
    ever Gets You through the Night.” The Beatles’ opportunity lost became
    Lennon’s positive gain.
    Gimme Some Truth, 1970–1973 29
    Ethereal strings sweep the song along, making it sound more languidly
    paced than it really is. A piano that combines rhythmic accompaniment with
    countermelody provides an interesting bridge between the vocals and the
    strings. Lennon sings both a confessional and an apology about the pain his
    jealous actions have caused, eventually psychoanalyzing himself by saying he
    was “swallowing my pain.”
    The relaxed nature of the piece reaches its apex when Lennon breez-
    ily whistles the melody before playfully intoning the warnings of “Watch
    out” and “Look out,” reminding the beloved that he is still “just a jealous
    guy.” This part seems out of place in a song where the narrator is “shivering
    inside” with a