TL;DR:
- One of John Lennon’s songs was similar to a famous nursery rhyme.
- John compared the song to a haiku.
- The “Imagine” singer discussed how haiku was different from the work of a famous Western poet.
John Lennon felt one of the songs from his post-Beatles career was similar to haiku. He discussed his feelings on haiku in general. Subsequently, he contrasted it with some Western poetry.
John Lennon said 1 of his solo songs was ‘just a feeling’ and compared it to a haiku
The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1971. In it, the interviewer asked about John’s song “My Mummy’s Dead” from the album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The song is very short and closes the album on a morbid note. The interviewer said the song sounded like “Three Blind Mice.”
“It was just a feeling,” John said. “It was almost like a haiku poem. Actually, I got into haiku in Japan just recently. I think it’s fantastic. God, it’s beautiful.”
John explained his and Yoko’s relationship to haiku. “We bought some haiku originals when we were there [in Japan],” he revealed. “But obviously when you get rid of a whole section of illusion in your mind, you’re left with a precision.”
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John Lennon contrasted haiku to the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
He contrasted haiku with the work of a famous Western poet. “The difference between haiku and [Henry Wadsworth] Longfellow or something is immense,” he opined. “Longfellow says, ‘Oh, beautiful yellow flowers standing quietly in the shadowy electric light,’ when the haiku would just say, ‘Yellow flowers in a white bowl on a wooden table” and that gives you the whole picture.”
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John said people were often accustomed to looking at the world through an intellectual lens. Because of this, a simple haiku could feel novel. John said he didn’t know how people who were not intellectuals looked at the world.
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How ‘My Mummy’s Dead’ and its parent album performed on the pop charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
“My Mummy’s Dead” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. On the other hand, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band became a minor hit. It reached No. 6 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for 34 weeks.
Since “My Mummy’s Dead” was not a single in the United Kingdom either, The Official Charts Company reports the tune did not chart there either. Meanwhile, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band hit No. 8 in the U.K. and remained on the chart for 11 weeks.
“My Mummy’s Dead” was not a hit but John felt it was comparable to a famous literary artform from Japan.
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