The Harrowing John Lennon Lyric About Withdrawal
One of the things that set John Lennon apart from other songwriters was his fearlessness. He wrote about topics from which others would generally shy away. And he would sing about personal subjects without worrying if they might cast him in an unflattering light.
“Cold Turkey,” a single he released in late 1969, openly described Lennon’s attempts to kick his heroin habit. The song is a harrowing listen but an essential one, in large part due to his courage in going to such a dark place. In From the “Cold”.
The tumult of The Beatles’ final years together has been well-documented, but it’s still easy to overlook just how pressurized that situation must have felt for the four men going through it. In the case of John Lennon, he had bottled up childhood trauma that was about to burst, embarked upon a new relationship with Yoko Ono that people close to him (including other group members) openly disdained, and like others in the band, felt artistically constrained.
Seeking an outlet to escape the reality of that scenario, Lennon and Ono started using heroin heavily during the sessions for the White Album in 1968. When they decided to try and quit the drug in 1969, they did so “cold turkey,” meaning that they simply stopped using it all at once instead of weaning themselves off it.
As always, Lennon couldn’t help but writing about what he was experiencing, which meant he penned “Cold Turkey” about the dark days he and Ono had while trying to get clean. He initially hoped The Beatles would be interested in the song, but that was a no-go. It was a bit of a moot point, because not long after he wrote and performed the song for the first time with the Plastic Ono Band in Toronto, he told the band he was quitting.
Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com