The collaborative approach to the Beatles’ songwriting allowed John Lennon and Paul McCartney to bolster one another creatively, and it also opened the door for one musician to blame a song on another, as was the case for the Beatles song John Lennon later denied writing.
His denial came over a decade after he first wrote the song, so maybe he really forgot that he was the creative force behind the “rubbish” he brushed off in his final interview with David Sheff in 1980. Perhaps Lennon felt a bit embarrassed by the fact that the recording session for that particular song caused their chief engineer to quit.
Or maybe it was a mix of both. Whatever the reason, Lennon had no intention of taking responsibility for the fifth track on the Beatles’ 1968 eponymous “White Album’s” fourth side.
John Lennon Denied Writing This 1968 Beatles Song
In his final interview with David Sheff, John Lennon gave his no-holds-barred opinions about countless tracks from his former band’s extensive discography. Sheff would call out song titles like “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Yesterday,” and “Across the Universe,” and Lennon would offer anecdotes, accolades, and critiques where fit. But when Sheff called out, “Cry, Baby, Cry,” Lennon was curt.
“Not me. A piece of rubbish,” Lennon said (via All We Are Saying).
Sheff didn’t press Lennon on the topic, moving right along to other songs like “Good Night” and “Mother Nature’s Son.” But eagle-eyed fans would notice that Lennon’s glib remark wasn’t entirely truthful. If one were to believe Hunter Davies’ writing in The Beatles: The Authorized Biography, he captured the moment Lennon was writing it.
In the biography, Davies describes Lennon at the piano, noodling with song ideas. “I’ve got another one here, a few words. I think I got them from an advert,” Davies recalled Lennon saying. “‘Cry, baby, cry, make your mother buy.’ I’ve been playing it over on the piano. I’ve let it go now. It’ll come back if I really want it. I do get up from the piano as if I have been in a trance. Sometimes, I know I’ve let a few things slip away, which I could have caught if I’d been wanting for something.”
The “Cry, Baby, Cry” Was The Final Straw For Their Engineer
The “Cry, Baby, Cry” studio session proved to be just as tumultuous as its composer’s relationship with the song. In The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, engineer Geoff Emerick explained that he finally got fed up with the Beatles’ worsening interpersonal dynamics while recording this White Album track.
“I lost interest in the “White Album” because they were really arguing amongst themselves and swearing at each other,” Emerick recalled. “The expletives were really flying. I said to George [Martin], ‘Look, I’ve had enough. I want to leave; I don’t want to know any more. George said, ‘Well, leave at the end of the week.’ I think it was a Monday or Tuesday. But I said, ‘No, I want to leave now, this very minute.’”
Similar to his later remarks about the song, Lennon had an interesting excuse for the band’s overwhelmingly negative attitude in the studio. “I went down to the studio to explain it to the group,” Emerick continued. “And John said, ‘Look, we’re not moaning and getting uptight about you, we’re complaining about EMI. Look at this place, studio two, all we’ve seen is bricks for the past year. Why can’t they decorate it?’ Admittedly, the studio did need smartening up a little bit, but I knew this was just an outlet for a bigger problem. They were falling apart.”
