Two Lennon Ballads: 180 Out

In 2025, CultureSonar’s “Lennon Matters” column initiated a series on John Lennon’s intrinsically melodic songs. After a six-month hiatus, we resume this study with an examination of two of Lennon’s most acclaimed ballads – two songs that at first glance seem complete opposites.

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When William Mann wrote his now-famous (John would say “infamous”) article for the London Times, proclaiming Lennon and McCartney to be “the outstanding English composers of 1963,” Mann specifically cited two Lennon songs as examples of the group’s unanticipated (and unrivaled) excellence. Mann stated that John’s haunting “Not a Second Time” possessed a poignant “Aeolian cadence” – a cadence, Mann noted, that held “the same chord progression which ends Mahler’s Song of the Earth.” He also lauded Lennon’s “This Boy,” a song in which “chains of pandiatonic clusters” made the melody remarkable. That was no small praise from one of the United Kingdom’s most revered music critics. Clearly, John Lennon’s music catalogue – from Day One to 1980’s “Woman” – was far from “merely rhythmic.”

Certainly, John could write a song from one or two chords…or one or two notes.  John’s “Tomorrow Never Knows” fits that bill, as does his tender confessional, “Julia,” with its pattern of slight variations on C. Paul McCartney does the same thing with “Helter Skelter” (using transitions around F) or “Rocky Racoon” (built on transitions around C). But the far-too-pat evaluation of John’s work as based on one-chord or one-note does not apply to scores of Lennon songs penned throughout two decades of unforgettable Beatles and solo melodies including “It’s Only Love,” “In My Life,” “Goodnight,” (which he gave to Ringo Starr to sing), “Because,” “No. 9 Dream,” and “Grow Old With Me.” Let’s look beyond the sheet music at two of Lennon’s most artistic ballads.

If I Fell

In her book, John, Cynthia Lennon reveals that John was constantly asking her, “You’re not going to leave me, are you?” Cynthia says, “He wanted proof daily that he mattered most to me. He was jealous of my best friend Phyl.”

The lyrics of “If I Fell” reflect John’s deep insecurity, an uncertainty engendered by his perceived parental abandonment at age five. Years later, John would discover that his father did not abandon him but was barred (by Aunt Mimi) from writing to him, reaching out to him. Similarly, after John’s death, John’s Auntie Mater informed Julia Baird (John’s half-sister) that John’s mother, Julia, was forced to surrender John to Mimi and George Smith so that the boy could be reared in “an acceptable household.” Had John known these two secrets, history might have changed. John’s fear of abandonment might have been assuaged. His “sadness too deep for words” healed. However, when John wrote “If I Fell,” he knew neither of these things. Writing from a Jungian chasm of searing childhood pain, John’s ballad reveals the broken heart of a child left behind.

The poetry of this song is appropriately childlike: simple and touching. It is a vulnerable plea. John asks his new love not to abandon him as “she” (some other woman) once did: “If I give my heart to you, I must be sure from the very start that you will love me more than her…” He seeks a promise that if he falls in love, his new girl will “promise to be true” – a vow that she will not “run and hide” or “break my heart like her.” This aching ballad flows organically from a man whose wounds have produced trust disfigurements and who candidly confesses: “’cause I couldn’t stand the pain.” In unpretentious verbiage, John reveals an injured but hopeful spirit – willing to trust one more time.

The musical arrangement of “If I Fell” amplifies and animates the emotional nuances in Lennon’s lyrics. Calling the song “wonderingly tender,” Wilfred Mellers in Twilight of the Gods explains the important role of Lennon’s melody, harmony, and instrumentation in drawing listeners into his personal story. “The middle section,” Mellers states, “…by a surprising chord of the ninth, make us aware that there’s…potential pain in this love experience, for there seems to be ‘Another Woman’ who has hurt him…The pain will be just bearable if the new love is for real and for ever [sic]; but the pain none the less [sic] exists, provoking dark subdominant triads, and a slightly more agitated rhythm.”

And the harmony in the song tells the story as well. In Long and Winding Roads, The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, Kenneth Womack says that this ballad of “a bewildered soul…is brought to life by one of Lennon and McCartney’s most beautiful and heart-rending harmonies.” Tim Riley points out that the song almost appears to have been written in harmony. In Tell Me Why, he observes, “…both lines are so lyrical, it’s hard to say just which is the ‘melody.’” (p. 102) Indeed, Spignesi and Lewis in 100 Best Beatles Songs note that while the lyrics are simple, “John’s songwriting is musically sophisticated.” They call the introduction a “tour de force,” leaving listeners “wide-eyed at John’s intricate changes.” While the melody is straightforward, Lennon’s chord changes take the listener on emotional swings from hopeful highs to fearful lows.

Lennon called “If I Fell,” his “first attempt at a ballad proper,” although those who love 1963’s haunting “This Boy” would disagree. But clearly, John was proud of the emotion, honesty, and artistry he painted with this beautiful ballad for A Hard Day’s Night. He even referred to “If I Fell” as “the precursor to ‘In My Life.’”

The next Lennon ballad falls as far from “If I Fell” as a song can! It’s…

Help!

Certainly one of Lennon’s most poignant songs, “Help!” was – out of necessity – retooled into a “happy and peppy, and bursting with love” show-starter, an uplifting pop number to open and close The Beatles’ second United Artists’ film, Help! (And to open the soundtrack LP as well.) However, the song was initially written as a soft ballad. (Spignesi and Lewis refer to John’s original as “a Dylanesque folk song.”) Listening to Tina Turner perform the song (although she alters the melody on the chorus), we get a glimpse of what Lennon originally had in mind for his creation:

Understanding George Martin’s (and United Artists’) need for an upbeat title track, John agreed to record the now-familiar version of “Help!” in EMI on 13 April 1965. But in 1980, John reminded David Sheff that although “most people think it’s just a fast rock-‘n’-roll song…I really was crying out for help.” John admits that when he penned “Help!” he was “fat, very insecure” – a soul who had “completely lost himself.” (The Playboy Interviews) It was this John who created the emotional ballad that never reached our ears.

For years, the general public never really noticed that Help’s signature song was, as Walter Everett states, a stark “contrast between [John’s] memories of the past and the present situation, a dilemma Lennon explores again in ‘She Said She Said’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’” (The Beatles as Musicians). “Help!” comes across as a romp – a lively introduction to the film’s “jolly with a knife” mayhem. But listening closely, one can hear the need and anxiety in John’s voice on “Won’t you please, please help me!” And the lyrics of the second verse are laden with an overwhelming depression that not even the pell-mell music can conceal.

On 14 June 1965, Paul McCartney recorded the lovely “Yesterday” (arguably his greatest ballad) in the exact spot where John had recorded “Help!” Had Lennon been permitted to present “Help!” to the public as it had been originally conceived, both composers would have created their most memorable ballads within 8 weeks of one another. And John, who later regretted the fact that the music and tone of “Help!” failed to adequately mirror its lyrics (Spignesi and Lewis), would have been recognized – alongside his mate – as the powerful ballad writer he is. Over the last three decades, John has increasingly been classified as “Lennon the Rocker” and Paul, as “McCartney the Ballad Writer.” This is, of course, an oversimplification; in truth, both men were uniquely talented composers, delivering mega-hits in both genres.

Over the next 12 months, we’ll continue to explore the “intrinsically musical” songs of John Lennon, including “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” “Yes It Is,” and “Across the Universe.” I look forward to sharing this walk with you.

-Jude Southerland Kessler

Photo: public domain