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Emotional honesty was the Lennon brand, and whereas “Bless You” seemed a bit half-assed and forced, “Scared” has it in spades. Beginning with wolf howls, it feels like the late-night ruminations of a Hollywood vampire who’s reached the breaking point. The party’s over and the void beckons. John is scared, he’s scarred (in early versions of the song he’s also stoned), and he’s not candy-coating it.
Every day of my life
I just manage to survive
I just want to stay alive
Everything he thought he believed in seems false and hollow:
Hatred and jealousy, gonna be the death of me
I guess I knew it right from the start
Sing out about love and peace
Don’t want to see the red raw meat
The green eyed goddamn straight from your heart
It’s a dark piece of work and closes out Side 1 of Walls and Bridges on a note of existential anguish (cry of “Baby!” at the end notwithstanding). “Its emotional rawness harked back to his earlier confessionals on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine,” says The Beatles Bible. “Indeed, were it not for the string and brass overdubs, ‘Scared’ would not have sounded out of place on either of those releases.”
“Scared” resonates today, as we prepare to cope with four more years of a bloated bag of orange pus as President of the United States. We shall survive, I suppose. Lennon pulled himself together and got back with Yoko, which I guess was what he wanted. In the 50-years-ago timeline, Sean Lennon (DOB 10/9/1975) had been conceived by now, most likely.
Life goes on.