John Lennon's song 'Help' was a genuine cry for help, says Paul McCartney

Forty years ago, on this day, the iconic singer John Lennon, a member of the legendary Beatles band, was shot dead by a deranged fan outside his New York apartment. The assassin, Mark Chapman, said 10 years later that by snuffing the life out of the ex-Beatle he had "murdered an age of innocence."

News of the murder sent millions of Lennon's fans not just in Britain but all across the world into shock and grief.

Along with another ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, Lennon is considered one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 20th century. In a survey conducted in 2004 by Q magazine, once a cornerstone of the British music press, he was voted the greatest rock ‘n’ roll icon of all time.

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McCartney said he realised after the release of “Help!”, written by John Lennon, that it was a genuine “cry for help".

“You know, John [wrote] ‘Help! I need somebody’. And I thought, ‘Well, it’s just a song,’ but it turned out to be a cry for help,” he said.

Lennon made a similar comment in 1980, telling Playboy: “The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help.”

But not all was hunky-dory with the band. Paul McCartney has spoken about the various struggles The Beatles members went through during the height of their fame, from mental health issues to drinking problems.

 Paul McCartney performs in concert during his One on One tour at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre. File

The musician, who releases his new solo album McCartney III next week, told The Sunday Times that he believed each Beatle went through periods where “we weren’t as happy as we should have been”.

“There were a lot of things we had to work through [and] you didn’t talk about mental health,” he said.

“It was something really that, as four guys, you were more likely to make fun of than be serious about. And the making fun of it was to hide from it.”

Same kind of thing happened with me, mainly after the break-up of the band,” McCartney continued.

“All of us went through periods when we weren’t as happy as we ought to be. Ringo had a major drinking problem. Now he’s Mr Sober of the Year!”

McCartney III serves as the follow-up to the artist’s 1970 self-titled solo debut and 1980’s McCartney II. Each song on McCartney’s new album was written and recorded by him, at his home in Sussex, England.

“I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day,” McCartney said in a statement announcing the album in November.

“I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track. And then when it was done, I thought, ‘What will I do next?’ I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years, but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished. So I started thinking about what I had.”

“Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up; it was a lot of fun,” he added. “It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”

Mirroring how the photos for McCartney and McCartney II were taken by his late wife, Linda, McCartney asked his daughter, Mary, to take the shots for the new album.

McCartney III is releasing on Friday, 18 December.