Re: Lennon and Sleep


Chris Jepson wrote:
I suppose this is all pretty obvious, but what the hell...

Sleep was a continuing theme in John Lennon's work -- he devoted three
Beatles songs to it ("I'm Only Sleeping", "I'm So Tired", "Goodnight").
It seems to respresent peace, relief, refuge from life's worries.
Lennon clearly had a very active mind, and I would venture to guess that
he was one of those people whose mind won't let them alone... probably
spent a lot of time listening to his inner demons, stuck in cycles of
anger, fear, need. So he probably placed great value on the ability to
"turn off your mind, relax and float downstream" (OK, that lyric isn't
specifically about sleep, but still...). "I'm Only Sleeping" states
most clearly his view of sleep as nirvana. "I'm So Tired" is the
opposite side of the coin -- he's so obsessed by need that he can't even
find relief in sleep. "Goodnight" seems to present sleep as an
opportunity to return to the innocence of childhood.

(Given all this, it seems a little incongruous that he was so into acid,
which certainly doesn't "turn off" one's mind. However, acid creates
such a sensory overload that it's virtually impossible to think
coherently about any one topic for more than about 30 seconds, so that
may have had medicinal value for him... cutting off those long circular
trains of negative thought.)

cj

I noticed that in real time.

It always intrigued me, even when I was a teen as the songs were coming
out. I always equated it with daydreaming, and escaping.

.

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