The Beatles Lyric that Had John Lennon Snapping Back at a Critic

They were the biggest band in the world, but they certainly weren’t above criticism. In fact, you could argue that The Beatles invited more scrutiny than their rock band peers. Because of their track record, much was expected them with each new song and album.

John Lennon was always a bit sensitive to that criticism, especially when he believed it was unwarranted or unfair. Occasionally, he came out swinging in interviews to defend himself and the group. That certainly was the case when it came to the “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” a song he penned that the band released in 1969 on their final studio album Abbey Road.

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“Heavy” Music

The Beatles did a ton to advance the art of lyric writing in pop and rock music. They were influenced by the early albums of Bob Dylan, an artist who proved the pop form could withstand adult themes and complex, personal writing. Because of their popularity, the Fab Four’s efforts to push their lyrical boundaries in turn influenced just about every other band and artist that competed with them in the ’60s.

John Lennon was responsible for much of this advancement. Songs like “In My Life,” “A Day in the Life,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” all of which are credited to Lennon/McCartney but were mostly composed by Lennon, proved how evocative and profound rock music verses and refrains could be, an effect only amplified by the incredible music around the words. (McCartney was no slouch himself in writing the stellar lyrics to songs like “Eleanor Rigby,” “She’s Leaving Home,” and “Blackbird.”)

But Lennon also began to feel that people were focusing a little bit too much on the words to his songs, to the point where he started writing purposely oblique lyrics to try to throw them off on tracks like “Glass Onion” and “I Am the Walrus.” It only proved his point when obsessive fans began finding “hidden meanings” in those songs and others like them that weren’t really there.

When Lennon met Yoko Ono, the focus of his life drastically changed. Everything, including The Beatles, began to take a back seat to his burgeoning relationship with her. His songwriting naturally reflected this as well, as many of the songs coming from his pen were aimed at wooing her and describing his feelings for her.

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was one of those songs. It reflected to an extreme degree Lennon’s move towards simpler, direct lyrics. The verses in the song basically come down to the repeated lines, I want you / I want you so bad / It’s driving me mad. And the chorus is simply She’s so heavy.

Lennon Strikes Back

With “I Want You (She’s So Heavy”), John Lennon was stating, in the simplest terms, the overwhelming nature of his desire for Yoko Ono. The intensity of the music, which was suitably heavy to fit the song’s lyrics, did most of the work anyway. But it wasn’t enough for some critics who felt Lennon was somehow abandoning his loftier goals with such simplistic lyrics.

In an interview with Rolling Stone a year after the song was released (and in the aftermath of The Beatles’ breakup), Lennon shot back:

“A reviewer wrote of ‘She’s So Heavy’: ‘He seems to have lost his talent for lyrics, it’s so simple and boring.’ ‘She’s So Heavy’ was about Yoko. When it gets down to it, like she said, when you’re drowning you don’t say ‘I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,’ you just scream. And in ‘She’s So Heavy’ I just sang, ‘I want you, I want you so bad, she’s so heavy, I want you,’ like that.”

Lennon’s point has been borne out, as “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” has stood the test of time and is considered by most to be a Beatles classic. His “scream”-ing would continue on his first post-Beatles album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. And his love affair with Yoko Ono, proved, through the test of time and many ups and downs, that Lennon’s intense, simply expressed feelings on that initially divisive song were no flash in the pan.

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