Everyone thinks John Lennon is one of the greatest song writers we’ve seen. He wrote some unforgettable lines. And he wrote it with rhythm. Adding the Beatles melody to it made them songs stay in peoples heads long after the songs finished playing.

Lennon had a trick that he often used to begin his song writing. This trick meant that he hardly faced writer’s block as well. Songs just flew. 

The trick? Lennon stole the lines.

But he didn’t steal it from other musicians. Lennon knew that he judged himself harshly. He had an inner critic which needed to be bypassed if he had to finish his task. And so, he didn’t so much write lyrics as find lyrics.

• A Daily Mail article about 4000 potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire became the source for the lines he wrote in “A day in the life.”
  
• He just starts describing a Victorian circus poster he bought from an antique shop in “Being for the benefit of Mr Kite.”
  
• Lennon found The Tibetan Book of the Dead at a bookstore and the instructions from the book: Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream – became the lyrics for “Tomorrow never knows.”
  
• “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” was a phrase on the cover of the American Rifleman magazine which became the title of his song.

“Great artists steal.” But

But after stealing, they give it their own twists. Lennon bent the words he stole till they sounded like pure Lennon. He treated the source material simply as the seed. 

He would then shuffle the words, rearrange them, make them rhyme, and add his own flavour of surrealism to it. He would take a cold text line and increase its emotional temperature. And of course, the music and melody would transform the words to match the emotional energy.

It’s this ability to borrow but then distort it with his own voice which meant that no one even realized he copied lyrics till he himself didn’t speak about it in interviews.

But how can you distort an idea to sound like yours?

The trick is to infuse your own uniqueness to it. Some quirk of yours. Lennon did it with surrealism. He turned lines into hallucinations.

For example, the Victorian Circus poster announced an act by Henry the Horse. In Lennon’s lyrics, it became “Henry the horse dances the waltz.”

Or by adding “mother superior jumped the gun” – he converted a slogan about firearms into religion and absurdity.

Uniqueness can stem from:

• Your purpose and processes
• Your fears and frustrations
• Your quirks

Lennon had a very brutal childhood where he was abandoned by both his parents. He quickly learnt that direct emotions are dangerous. That’s what gave rise to surrealism. Using imagination and dreamlike nonsensical phrases. Because this allowed him to feel without admitting his feelings.

Surrealism allowed Lennon to express without exposing himself. It made him feel protected. He could say anything without getting caught in a crossfire!

How can you infuse your uniqueness?

Notice how you are odd. What do you do naturally that others don’t?

• How do you chase your purpose? 
• What do you do to avoid and overcome your fears?
• What quirks can’t you hide? 

Lean into these. Most people try to hide these, but you’ve got to lean into them. Exaggerate your voice.

That’s what Lennon did. His childhood fears shaped his style. His love for Lewis Caroll got him into wordplay. Into nonsense and absurdity. Into thinking in broken images and making puns. He doubled down on these cognitive habits to become one of the greatest song writers of the world!

Action Summary:

• Don’t start from nothing. Collect, rearrange, personalize. Take someone else’s idea and wrap it in your own uniqueness.