Help Me to Help Myself

I'm not sure when exactly this was written, but it was included on the remastered edition of the Double Fantasy album as an extra track.

I think that John was saying that no matter how hard he tried, he always kept doing wrong, and he knew in his heart that even though he had fallen away in the past and had not been living his life the way that he should, that he never really parted with God. He then goes on to say that he wants God to give him strength to help himself become better.

I know that John isn't generally stereotyped as being a religious person, but I don't think you can really interpret these lyrics any other way than being sort of a plea to God for help.

I personally think SgtPepperGirl actually made a great observation: you really cannot interpret these lyrics and fail to recognize the sole fact that John Lennon was indeed a very spiritual and religious person; ; John Lennon was not against being religious or spirit; John Lennon was simply against specific fashions of expressing religious and spiritual feelings: as in organized groups such as the Catholic Church or Christian community.

If you go back and take a look at the lyrics to "Oh My Love," it becomes very apparent that Lennon indeed always remained spiritual and religious in his own personal ways in the majority of his entire life. Lennon reveals the notion that Yoko managed to "open" his "mind," and that he now sees the clouds, sky, trees, and the wind -- the everyday things which commonly go unnoticed by the irreligious and low-spirited persons (as I personally have experienced). Lennon also says that for the first time in his life his "mind can feel," which would, to me, mean he no longer perceived the world in concepts, but actually began to ascribe symbolic value to everything he saw via emotion. As far as I see it, no one can live life complete, in all of its entirety, given the many aspects of life which are possible to experience, either never once practicing in those faculities of life which come from emotional influence, or never once praciticing in those faculties which come from intellecual influence. Religion and science must become balanced; no one must so unemotional and cold as to always view everything in concepts and think logically all of the time; but then again, no one can also ever tend to always view the world in symbols and feelings, and never once attempt to grasp it all in a logical manner.

Lennon simply had the tendency to criticize the over-zealous ways of other humans, while never truly going so far as to also never criticize other humans who are devoid of those religious feelings. Lennon was a man who balanced between religion and science, intellect and feeling, and like Da Vinci, knew how important criticism is sometimes. A teacher must criticize a direct or indirect student, and in the same way, Lennon must have felt as though he was watching over everyone as a teacher, criticizing as a duty. And so he wrote his famous Imagine, his most famous song, one which expresses his concerns and criticism of the wrongs of other human beings.

Lennon was a genius at heart, and no one can deny it. This song only goes to show how Lennon held a person God, but didn't believe there was really "A God". He must of seen "God [as] a concept," as he himself coined it -- a concept which allows humans to "help themselves," again, as he put it. THis is a great song.

Actually, John was a very spiritual person. In fact, in John Lennon: One Day at a Time, he is revealed to have changed religions constantly in a search to find the "right" one -- incidentally, he was "reborn" as a Christian a number of times.

This song reads like a strange prayer, one that, rather than asking God to look down and give salvation, asks for the ability to change oneself. John says himself, "I was never satisfied," and this is reflected in his struggle to find religion.

I think that in the end of the recording Lennon is saying something interesting but i can't understand.