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.

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“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.

Lennon utilized Eric Clapton, who played in that live show, to add the scorched-earth guitar part to the recorded version of the song. In many ways, “Cold Turkey” would be a test run for the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album in 1970, as it also included bassist Klaus Voorman and drummer Ringo Starr, and featured Lennon belting out unrestrained vocals over spare but potent instrumental backing.

Examining the Lyrics to “Cold Turkey”

“Cold Turkey” is a blow-by-blow account of the symptoms of Lennon’s withdrawal from heroin use. There are the physical manifestations: Temperature’s rising / Fever is high, he sings to start the song, and there are also references to an aching body, insomnia, and general pain and anguish.

But what makes the song so potent is how Lennon describes the mental torment that accompanies his efforts. Can’t see no future / Can’t see no sky, he sings, suggesting all hope departs during that time. I wish I was a baby, he moans, hoping for a return to innocence. Knowing that’s not possible, he hints at a direr alternative: I wish I was dead.

Lennon asks to be left alone to suffer through the consequences, but the song is a cry for help, one that truly can’t be answered even if someone was willing to try. He goes through the bargaining stage at the end of the final verse, making one more futile plea: Oh, I’ll be a good boy / Please make me well / I promise you anything / Get me out of this hell.

Thanks to Lennon’s skills as a songwriter and his willingness to relive that awful experience as accurately as possible without filters, “Cold Turkey,” for all the invigorating aspects of the music, truly does sound like hell. Few other songwriters would go there, so we’re lucky someone as talented and fearless as Lennon was the one who did.

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