Throughout his decade spent co-writing with Paul McCartney for The Beatles, John Lennon developed an innovative and multi-faceted approach to composition and lyricism. In complex, Beat Generation-inspired compositions like ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun’ and ‘A Day in the Life’, he strode the fine line between progressiveness and pop. Meanwhile, songs like ‘Revolution 9’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ helped redefine the role of the recording studio.
When listening to The Beatles’ earlier material, you might notice that Lennon and McCartney set out writing love songs. Not only were these young tykes attempting to impress the opposite sex, but they followed the thematic example set by their most prominent luminaries, such as Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley.
Approaching the middle of the 1960s, The Beatles broadened their horizons, taking cues from contemporary artists, most importantly Bob Dylan. Like Dylan, whom the Beatles met in 1964, Lennon and McCartney also enjoyed the experimental literature of Beat Generation poets and authors like Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
Although their creative output constantly evolved, 1965 could be seen as a major turning point for the Lennon-McCartney partnership. Earlier in the year, Help! bore Lennon’s first emotional plea in its revealing title track and McCartney’s early lyrical masterpiece, ‘Yesterday’. However, later in the year, Rubber Soul would venture into even more colourful and unprecedented pastures, both thematically and compositionally.
Famously, Bob Dylan felt that Lennon’s song ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ ripped off his contemporary folk-rock style. While listening to Rubber Soul during an interview in the mid-’60s, Dylan said: “What is this? It’s me, Bob. [John’s] doing me! Even Sonny & Cher are doing me, but, fucking hell, I invented it.” In response, he penned ‘Fourth Time Around’ as a parody of ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, with a jab at Lennon in the final line: “I never asked for your crutch, now don’t ask for mine”.
Whether or not Lennon was guilty of artistic imitation, it’s hard to deny that his lyrical abilities were growing impressively at the time. Triumphs like ‘A Day in the Life’ and ‘Across the Universe’ were still a few years away, but his notebooks were beginning to swell with intriguing word forms.
To accommodate words unsuited to and unready for songcraft, Lennon published a book of poems and verse in 1965, titled A Spaniard In The Works. Among the weird and wonderful pieces preserved in its pages is ‘The National Health Cow’, a satirical jab at the UK government’s exploitation of the National Health Service.
Read ‘The National Health Cow’ and hear John Lennon reciting is on a BBC radio station below.
The National Health Cow by John Lennon:
I strolled into a farmyard
When no-one was about
Treading past the troubles
I raised my head to shout.
‘Come out the cow with glasses,’
I called and rolled my eye.
It ambled up towards me,
I milked it with a sigh.
‘You’re just in time’ the cow said,
It’s eyes were all aglaze,
‘I’m feeling like an elephant,
I aren’t been milked for days.’‘Why is
this?’ I asked it,
Tugging at its throttles.
‘I don’t know why, perhaps it’s cause
MY milk comes out in bottles.’
‘That’s handy for the government,’
I thought, and in a tick
The cow fell dead all sudden
(I’d smashed it with a brick).
