John Lennon: Whatever Gets You Through the Night: The Stories Behind Every John Lennon Song 1970-1980

by Paul Du Noyer

As John Lennon said to Playboy in 1980, "I like to write about me, because I know about me." John Whatever Gets You Through the Night is a song-by-song analysis of every song Lennon wrote and recorded after the Beatles breakup in 1970 until his death in 1980.
In his songs he explored the traumas of his childhood, the bitter legacy of the Beatles, his love for Yoko, his infidelities, and his insecurity. There are also the classic anthems of social protest, like "Give Peace a Chance" and "Power to the People." Even his choice of covers like "Stand by Me" and "Be-Bop-A-Lula" tells much about his musical roots. Finally there are Lennon's accounts of his domestic contentment and optimism for the future.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 1999

Reviews

[George]

An enjoyable, informative read about John Lennon’s solo career, from 1970 to 1980, with brief comments about his childhood and time with the Beatles. With a brief biography of the period interspersed with a detailed, song by song analysis of Lennon’s entire solo catalogue. Lennon’s songwriting became more confessional, giving fans an insight into his life, feelings and beliefs.

The book comes with many photos, a concise chronology of Lennon’s life, and a discography.

I gained a good understanding of the last ten years of Lennon’s life and found the book informative.

(Die hard John Lennon fans would probably want a more detailed biography. Whilst I am a Beatles fan and a fan of all the Beatles as individual artists, this book provided me with sufficient information about Lennon during the period 1970 to 1980.

(I believe John Lennon’s golden period was from 1964 to 1967 with songs, including ‘In My Life’,’ ‘Norwegian Wood’, ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘A Day in the Life’, Strawberry Fields’, ‘I am A Walrus’……..)

A very satisfying reading experience.

This book was first published in 2020.

[Cynthia]

This is a harsh rating for a book that actually told the stories behind his songs in an interesting and insightful manner. I enjoyed the book all the way to the end when the author felt it necessary to include a picture of the insect who ended John's life. No.

[Nicolas]

This wasn't particularly in depth, but it was a good conversational overview of John's solo output. I enjoyed it.

[Alexia Polasky]

4.5 stars. I’m loving these books. I have two more, but I think I’ll start looking for the others to complete the collection.

[Matt]

Not the greatest book I’ve read about Lennons works. Interesting but in all honesty not really much more info on his lyrics and songs that isn’t covered in more detail in other books.

[Bridget Smith]

John Lennon: Whatever Gets You Through the Night tells the stories behind every song John wrote from 1970, when the Beatles officially disbanded, to that terrible day in December 1980 when he was so savagely taken from this world. By learning each song's backstory, the reader learns much about John himself - his love for Yoko, his anger, his pain, his insecurities, his political beliefs, his nostalgia, and the inner peace he finally seemed on his way to achieving before his murder. John Lennon was a contradiction in terms, but his legacy cannot be denied. For those of us who were too young to have experienced John Lennon in "real time", it is wonderful to find a book like this that teaches so much. I absolutely loved it. I gave it four out of five stars, but it deserves at least 4 1/2. My only complaint is that there was not more. But, then I guess you could say that about John's music and his life, too.

[Ben]

A good book to borrow from the library. Gives a pretty decent potted summary of Lennon's solo years with some pretty pictures.