The Primal Story Behind “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon

After The Beatles broke up in April 1970, John Lennon and his wife, Yoko Ono, began primal therapy sessions with Arthur Janov. The technique emphasized reliving repressed traumas. Lennon threw himself into the process, just as he had done with Transcendental Meditation several years before. Revisiting his emotional wounds became “too primal.” Ono later said the therapy helped curb his possessiveness toward her when he realized his jealous feelings were rooted in events from before they met. Let’s take a look at the story behind “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon.

I was dreaming of the past
And my heart was beating fast
I began to lose control
I began to lose control
I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh no, I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

Possessive and Insecure

Lennon told author David Sheff in 1980, “The lyrics explain themselves clearly. I was a very jealous, possessive guy toward everything. A very insecure male. A guy who wants to put his woman in a little box, lock her up, and just bring her out when he feels like playing with her. She’s not allowed to communicate with the outside world—outside of me—because it makes me feel insecure.”

I was feeling insecure
You might not love me anymore
I was shivering inside
I was shivering inside
Oh, I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh no, I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

Who Is This Song About?

There are some conflicting opinions about exactly who is the subject of the song. Paul McCartney told Playgirl magazine in February 1985, “He used to say, ‘Everyone is on the McCartney bandwagon.’ He wrote ‘I’m Just a Jealous Guy,’ and he said that the song was about me. So I think it was just some kind of jealousy.”

Yoko Ono told Uncut magazine in 1998, “He was jealous about the fact that I had another language in my head, you know, Japanese, that he can’t share with me. It was almost on a very conceptual, spiritual level. It wasn’t on a level of physical or anything ’cause I just would never give him a reason for that.”

Of course, the song could be about many people or situations.

I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh no, I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy

The Recording

Joey Molland of Badfinger was asked to play guitar on “Jealous Guy.” In Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger, he remembered, “We cruised down to Lennon’s place in Surrey. He had a beautiful estate there, and his house was very different. Instead of paintings and things, he had hammers and screwdrivers hanging on the wall in frames, black carpets everywhere. There was a stepladder where you climbed up and looked through a magnifying glass on the ceiling. It said, ‘YES.’

“We spent about half an hour in a daze looking at all his stuff, the jukebox, the Sgt Pepper room, his magic stuff. … Finally, in walks John Lennon and he’s really bug-eyed, really gone—’Hello everybody!’ He was shouting. It was 11 o’clock at night, and he’d just gotten out of bed. There was a bunch of people there: Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann, Jim Keltner, Mike Pinder, and he was really brusque with us, really almost rude, but not rude. I was just in awe, just ga-ga. Then he sits down on the stool and starts playing ‘Jealous Guy,’ and I’m so flabbergasted I can’t play. He was singing, and I’m literally astounded, ‘It sounds like John Lennon.’ So, we recorded acoustic guitars on that, and John said, ‘You can fuck off now if you’d like.’ Of course, he wasn’t being like, ‘Fuck off.’ It was like, ‘Do what you like.’ … One of the most exciting nights of me life.”

I was trying to catch your eyes
Thought that you was trying to hide
I was swallowing my pain
I was swallowing my pain
I didn’t mean to hurt you
I’m sorry that I made you cry
Oh no, I didn’t want to hurt you
I’m just a jealous guy
Watch out, I’m just a jealous guy
Look out, baby, I’m just a jealous guy

Drums and Bass

Bassist Klaus Voorman said in the 2019 documentary Above Us Only Sky: “It was very personal. That was the moment when I got so much into what he was saying and what he was playing that I didn’t know what I was playing—it was like a trance. I didn’t know what key I was in. It just floated automatically.”

Added drummer Jim Keltner, “‘Jealous Guy’ was a beautiful piece of music, so typical of John Lennon. Intuitive, like nothing to worry about. And Klaus, the way he hugged the beat. It was a gentle thing, but we weren’t being precious with it. It just was accommodating the lyric.”

Child of Nature

The melody was born in 1968, during a trip to India, where The Beatles studied meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The original lyrics were inspired by a lecture by the Maharishi about a “son of mother nature.” McCartney also wrote a song based on the talk, “Mother Nature’s Son,” which would appear on The Beatles, also known as the White Album. Lennon recorded a demo of his song “Child of Nature” at George Harrison’s Esher bungalow, preparing for the White album sessions. The Beatles never seriously tried to record the song, although it was jammed on during the Let It Be sessions.

On the road to Rishikesh
I was dreaming more or less
And the dream I had was true
Yes, the dream I had was true
I’m just a child of nature
I don’t need much to set me free
I’m just a child of nature
I’m one of nature’s children

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Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns