Dr. Arthur Janov believed the repressed pain of childhood trauma led to neurosis and felt the resolution could be achieved by re-experiencing specific incidents and expressing the resulting pain through therapy. He called it primal therapy, and it was developed to elicit the repressed pain in a way traditional talking therapy does not. John Lennon, actor James Earl Jones, and pianist Roger Williams all advocated primal therapy. It was in 1970 that Janov published his first book The Primal Scream. In March of that year, he started treating both John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Mother” by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.
Mother, you had me
But I never had you
I, I wanted you
You didn’t want me
So, I
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye
Julia
Lennon’s father Alf was a merchant seaman who was away from home the majority of the time. When Lennon was 5 years old, his father returned and planned to take the youngster to New Zealand. Lennon’s mother Julia objected and convinced her estranged husband to leave the boy. She gave custody to her sister Mimi, who lived close by. Lennon couldn’t help but feel abandoned even though he reconnected with his mother in his teenage years. She bought him his first guitar and showed him banjo chords, encouraging his love of rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm & blues. On July 15, 1958, Julia Lennon was killed when she was hit by a car after leaving her sister’s house.
Father, you left me
But I never left you
I needed you
You didn’t need me
So, I
I just got to tell you, mm
Goodbye
Goodbye
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Lennon had not recovered from losing his mother as a teenager. Primal therapy sessions with Janov began in England, where Lennon began writing “Mother.” After several weeks, they moved to Los Angeles for four months of therapy. Lennon completed the song in LA. The Beatles had officially broken up, and when Lennon and Ono set out to record their next album, he wanted to signify the end of the band. “Mother” is the opening track of the album, and it begins with four church bells, signifying the death knell of The Beatles. In 1970, Lennon told Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, “I was watching TV as usual in California, and there was this old horror movie on. I just heard the bells, which sounded like that to me. But they were probably different ’cause those that I used on the album were actually other bells slowed down. I just thought, ‘That’s how to start “Mother.”‘ I knew ‘Mother’ was going to be the first track.”
Children, don’t do
What I have done
I couldn’t walk
And I tried to run
So, I
I just got to tell you
Goodbye
Goodbye
Guitar vs. Piano
Lennon recorded many demos of the song, with the earliest featuring guitar rather than piano. The release of emotion as he screams at his parents is palpable. Janov’s influence is unmistakable. Said Lennon, “I express myself best in rock, and I had a few ideas to do this with ‘Mother’ and that with ‘Mother,’ but the piano does it all for you. Your mind can do the rest of it. I think the backings on it are as complicated as the backings on any record you’ve ever heard. If you’ve got an ear, you can hear. Any musician will tell you, just play a note on a piano, it’s not a lot of harmonics in it. So it got to that. What the hell, it didn’t need anything else.”
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
The Recording
Lennon and Ono recorded the song at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in September and October 1970. Bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Ringo Starr also contributed to the final recording. Lennon overdubbed the screams at the end of the song after the rest of the vocals had been recorded. He attempted different passes each night to avoid harming his voice. He told Wenner, “Many, many people will not like ‘Mother’; it hurts them. The first thing that happens to you when you get the album is you can’t take it. Everybody reacted exactly the same. They think, ‘f–k!’ That’s how everybody is. And the second time, they start saying, ‘Oh, well, there’s a little …’ so I can’t lay ‘Mother’ on them. It confirms the suspicions that something nasty’s going on with that John Lennon and his broad again.”
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Primal Scream
Lennon felt his primal therapy sessions were successful. Besides “Mother,” other songs on the album showed signs of the effects of Janov’s influence: “I Found Out,” “Working Class Hero,” “Isolation,” “Remember,” “Well Well Well,” “God,” and “My Mummy’s Dead.” In 1971, Lennon told The Pittsburgh Press, “I no longer have any need for drugs, the Maharishi or The Beatles. I am myself, and I know why.”
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
Mama, don’t go
Daddy come home
The Single
“Mother” was the lead single from the Plastic Ono Band album. “Why” by Yoko Ono was on the flip side. It only reached No. 43 on the Billboard Hot 100 and failed to reach the charts in the UK. Lennon told Wenner, “See, I keep thinking ‘Mother’ is a commercial record because all the time I was writing it, it was the one I was singing the most and it’s the one that seemed to catch on in my head. … I write singles. I write them all the same way. But ‘Mother’—you’ve got to take into account the lyrics, too. If I can capture more sales by singing about love than singing about my mother, I’ll do it.”
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Photo by George Konig/Shutterstock
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