John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" - A Potentially Great Halloween Song

While I was coming up with the Halloween playlist, I remembered a song that isn't supposed to be scary... but it really, really could be: John Lennon's "Jealous Guy."  Now, before you read on, I warn you that you may never think of "Jealous Guy" the same way again.

"Jealous Guy" is my favorite John Lennon song... well, as far as his solo career goes.  "Imagine" is great when you feel all young and hopeful... but I'm older and bitter and am feeling way too jaded lately to imagine all the people sharing all the world... Hell, I'm prolly this crazy-cynical because I elected not to share this girl I was seeing with "several" other dudes... but that's another story (for another blog) altogether... Heh-heh... Life is terrible...

Ahem... I guess you could say, lately, I'm more of a "Jealous Guy."  (good segue, right?)  "Jealous Guy" is a sweet song told from the point of a jealous guy who's losing his beloved gal.  It's making him act like a douche, and he knows it.  We've all been there, right?  But it always struck me that, if the lyrics were sung with less regret and more menace, or less sadness and more anger, or less passion and more creepy detachment from reality, this song would be SOOOOO delightfully, terribly, and sinfully dark.

Consider the first verse as though it were sung to a 911 dispatcher...

DISPATCH

911, what's your emergency?

LENNON(in a near catatonic state)

I was dreaming of the past

And my heart was beating fast

I began to lose control

I began to lose control 

DISPATCH

Sir, what is the nature of your emergency? 

LENNON (singing to the broken, beaten body in front of him.)

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 

I mean... the chorus alone is kind of insane.  "I didn't mean to hurt you."  Maybe it's my line of work, but isn't that what abusive bastards say?  And "I'm just a jealous guy" is never good justification for inflicting pain.  There's another, less threatening verse...however it does contain the creepy lyric, "I was shivering inside."  And then he jumps into a whistle solo... When I think of people who whistle for no reason, I think unbalanced...

And then the 3rd verse

I was trying to catch your eyes

Thought that you was trying to hide

I was swallowing my pain

I was swallowing my pain.

Imagine that the first two parts of that, he means literally.  Literally trying to catch the severed eye... as she was literally trying to flee this monster!  But she can't!  Because she's blinded!  Then "I was swallowing my pain."  Well, she IS his pain, right?  HE IS SWALLOWING HER.  That's right, HE EATS PEOPLE!  And then he ends it with a variation of the chorus... I've emboldened the parts of interest.

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, BABE

I'm just a jealous guy 

I guess it never resonates as dark because John Lennon is not a threatening guy... but imagine you didn't know him.  Imagine you never heard of him or the Beatles.  Imagine his voice isn't that soothing.  Imagine you're friends with this guy...

Umm... imagine you're friends with this guy because you always wondered what Professor Snape and Harry Potter would have looked like if they had a baby... So, this guy starts stalking you and writing you creepy notes...  And one night he calls your phone and sings you "Jealous Guy" A capella.  Kind of scary, right?

I really wish the Toadies would cover it... Their music (at least the old stuff) goes to that dark place.  (Hell, this one's about dismemberment, but there's something exquisite about that kind of...rage.)  The closest thing I've found to my vision of a dark take on this song is the Deftones' cover.  I like this cover a lot and included it on the Halloween playlist...

Oh, and I also found a pretty Gavin Degraw version that's in-line with the original... I just like it...