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Nobody did self-pity like John Lennon. From “Help” to “I’m So Tired” and “Yer Blues” to “Crippled Inside,” he was never shy about sharing his misery with the world. Before emo was a thing, before wellness was a trend, before everybody and their dog had a therapist, he was on record screaming about his dead mother.
“Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)” is a little subtler than that. It seems in particular to address John’s relationship with his fans, which was famously knotty. He sometimes reacted with hostility to people’s expectations of him, thinking they asked for too much, and at the same time feeling unappreciated:
I’ve been across to the other side
I’ve shown you everything, I got nothing to hide
And still you ask me, “Do I love you?”
What it is, what it is
All I can tell you is, it’s all showbiz
As a Lennon fan I’m not sure how to react to this… it’s a bit passive/aggressive, innit? But John could be a dick sometimes, this we know. What matters is that the motherfucker could write a song. “Nobody Loves You” is an epic, propelled by horns, buoyed by strings, with Jesse Ed Davis outdoing himself in the crying-guitar department. Dark as the subject matter may be, by the end it has whistled itself right into the stars.
John said he thought Frank Sinatra should do this song. (It could have been the flip side to “That’s Life.”) But really it is Lennon through and through. “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground,” he says, and boy was he right about that. John’s been gone 45 (!) years now but is still ever-present, whether it’s “I Am the Walrus” playing in Starbucks or an ill-advised cover of “Imagine” at the New Year’s ball-drop. Unfortunately he is often reduced to a peace-and-love caricature, but those of us who care about these things know him for what he was: a complicated, troubled, gifted man who played the role of tortured artist like no one before or since.
In the end, yeah, it’s all showbiz. And to borrow a phrase from Paul, what’s wrong with that, I’d like to know?
John is one of my first heroes. I have tried to live up to the example he set for being self-aware, truthful, and, as they say in the 12-step meetings, rigorous honesty.
Wow, I had forgotten this one. What an amazing song … and the arrangement! I saw a video on YouTube, “Why Boomers hate todays music.” Didn’t watch it, because I know the answer … none of them (with a couple exceptions) aspire to write songs like this anymore. Same four chords, pre-wrapped and sliced American cheese.