Written by: Lennon
Recorded: 26 May 1971
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector
Released: 8 October 1971 (UK), 9 September 1971 (US)
Available on:
Imagine
Personnel
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar
George Harrison: dobro
Nicky Hopkins: piano
Ted Turner, Rod Linton: acoustic guitar
Klaus Voormann, Steve Brendell: upright bass, drumsticks
Alan White: drums
The second song on John Lennon’s Imagine album, ‘Crippled Inside’ married the soul-searching themes of the earlier John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band to a rockabilly musical style.
The song acts as a bridge between the album’s stately title track and the introspective ‘Jealous Guy’. By varying the mood with an upbeat country rock number, Lennon revealed that Imagine was more musically varied than its predecessor.
‘Crippled Inside’ contained one of Lennon’s bleakest lyrics, but the delivery suggests he may have been parodying his earlier work. The song also contains a reported dig at his former bandmate Paul McCartney in the line “You can live a lie until you die”.
Lennon’s song was partly inspired by the folk song ‘Black Dog’, as performed by Koerner, Ray & Glover. That song was also played by The Beatles during the Let It Be sessions on 31 January 1969. There are considerable melodic and lyrical similarities between the two songs.
In the studio
‘Crippled Inside’ was recorded at Ascot Sound Studios, the eight-track facility Lennon had installed at his English home, Tittenhurst Park. The version on the Imagine album was the final attempt, take 6.
Lennon recorded a guide vocal along with the rhythm track, which helped give ‘Crippled Inside’ a suitably live feel. He later described the sound as “very corny country and western”.
Key to the song’s sound were Nicky Hopkins’ jaunty piano work and George Harrison’s dobro. Klaus Voormann played a bass guitar, and the rock ‘n’ roll spirit was further enhanced by an upright bass part by Steve Brendell.
‘Crippled Inside’ was recorded on 26 May 1971. Track 1 of the eight-track tape contained double bass and drumsticks played by Klauss Voormann and Steve Brendell.
Alan White’s drums were on track 2, while 3 contained Harrison’s dobro.
Track 4 had Lennon’s electric guitar, and acoustic guitars played by Rod Lynton and Ted Turner were on 5.
Track 6 contained Nicky Hopkins’ electric piano, and Lennon’s vocals were on 7. Overdubs of Harrison’s dobro and Lennon’s vocals were overdubbed onto track 8.
An alternative mix, with a different solo by Harrison, has circulated on bootleg recordings.
“You can live a lie until you die”
I would bet my life this line was about John AND Paul.
“Living is easy with eyes closed; misunderstanding all you see”
“I told you about the walrus and me-man, you know that we’re as close as can be-man, well here’s another clue for you all, the Walrus was Paul”
I wonder if John would still feel the Beatles were a “lie” if he were alive today, given how popular they still are. Somehow I think not.
‘Crippled Inside’ is pretty clearly a re-write of McCartney’s ‘When I’m Sixty-four’, as another gratuitous dig at him.
It may have developed in Lennon’s perception into corny C&W, but it surely started as a pastiche of what Lennon considered as McCartney’s “grannie songs”, missing the point that McCartney very effectively made a pastiche of Music Hall an interesting element of the Beatles’ rejigging the basis of contemporary pop.
To say this is a bit rich of Lennon is to put it mildly. Both Lennon and Harrison were way off-mark in criticising McCartney. They were in fact ‘projecting’ their own shortcomings.
Harrison and Starr also complained about Paul’s granny songs. The best example was that the other three Beatles were fed-up to the teeth with the numerous takes for Paul’s ” Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”.
Lennon, Harrison and Starr all quit the Beatles because of one of Paul’s main shortcomings—Paul was the last one to realize that the Beatles were through.
Major business differences as well contributed to another example of three against one.
Your remarks seem to imply that McCartney was above criticism and all of the blame for the break-up belongs to Lennon and Harrison.
Paul and George also complained about Yoko. Hell everyone complained about her. And are we forgetting how everyone felt about Revolution 9 being included on the album? There were hundreds of takes for a lot of songs, not just those. All the Beatles had instances of being irritated and resentful toward each other, but this narrative that Paul was the only Beatle to make mistakes or cause dissent is so tired, and frankly, incorrect. One need only examine the evidence. Forget the Let It Be movie which is cut with an agenda to up drama and listen to the Get Back audio tapes, for instance.
3 v 1 means nothing and proves nothing. The majority isn’t always right. And you’re wrong about why Harrison and Lennon quit… Lennon quit because he wanted to self-destruct the group. Harrison quit because Lennon kept letting Yoko talk for him and they got into a ‘row.’
John had outgrown the Beatles. They all had outgrown the Beatles. John had new things to say. George had new things to say. Paul had nothing new to say. So he wanted to stay. As for Yoko, if Harrison left because of her, why does he play on this song and others on Imagine, but never on a Paul album? Paul was great, but as Lennon loosened the reins, Paul showed he wasn’t much of a bandleader. Couldn’t keep Wings together, either. Only when he became part of the nostalgia circuit did he formulate the glue to keep his band together. Yet, they’re mere well-paid sidemen.
If you were somehow to cross/hybridize ‘Black Dog’ with the ubiquitous (for the time) song ‘San Francisco Bay Blues’ you would definitely come up with Crippled Inside. Or perhaps JL said to the band in the studio, ‘ok, let’s do a cross between BD and SFBB fellas,’ and off they went. Really. Go listen to Eric Clapton’s unplugged 1992 version of SFBB and you’ll see what I mean. Lennon’s disarming lyrics belie the honky tonk tone though.