John Lennon says a period where he was writing like Bob Dylan had him feeling like both a loser and deity at the same time.
The Beatles member, who would go on to write hits like Imagine, Whatever Gets You Thru the Night, and Beautiful Boy, says he had a hard time adjusting to a period of time when his songwriting felt more like the works coming from the Mr. Tambourine Man hitmaker. Just when Beatlemania was sweeping the world, Lennon, along with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, was hard-pressed not to feel the influence of Dylan’s work on their own.
Lennon would reflect on this period and believes that songs like I’m a Loser and Hide Your Love Away reflected the influence of Dylan on his and The Beatles’ work. He said in 1980: “I don’t know when exactly it started, like I’m A Loser or Hide Your Love Away, or those kinds of things. Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would just try to express what I felt about myself which I had done in me books.
“That’s me in my Dylan period. Part of me suspects I’m a loser and part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.” One particular lyric, Lennon believes, is the giveaway to letting Dylan influence his work during this time.
“I’m a Loser is me in my Dylan period, because the word ‘clown’ is in it. I objected to the word ‘clown’, because that was always artsy-fartsy, but Dylan had used it, so I thought it was all right, and it rhymed with whatever I was doing.”
McCartney had a different read on the song to Lennon, though, and suggested it and Nowhere Man were concerning comments from his frequent writing partner. He said: “Looking back on it I think songs like I’m A Loser and Nowhere Man were John’s cries for help.
“We used to listen to quite a lot of country and western songs and they are all about sadness and ‘I lost my truck’ so it was quite acceptable to sing I’m a Loser’. You didn’t really think about it at the time, it’s only later you think, God! I think it was pretty brave of John.”
The Beatles would later cover Dylan in the studio, performing a snippet of I Shall Be Released. Their impromptu performance of I Shall Be Released has been hailed by fans, who say that even when “killing time”, The Beatles were in brilliant form.
An upload of the Dylan cover on YouTube was praised by members of the public, with many complementing the Fab Four on their cover. A description for the video reads: “A later take and sounding even more spontaneous, this version of Dylan’s song is just one more interesting little artefact. This one even has harmony vocals! Recorded during the Get Back sessions, this was probably just the Fab Four killing some time and having fun.”
