“Watching the Wheels” will go down as one of the loveliest songs in John Lennon’s catalog. His mind clear and the restlessness of previous years largely cooled, he wrote a playful, tender ode to the joys of dropping out of the rat race to be with family. It’s a bitter irony that fate would take that all away from him and lend “Watching the Wheels” an entirely unintended context. Let’s take a look back at the meaning behind “Watching the Wheels” by John Lennon—how this amazing song came to be, starting with where Lennon was in his life at the time that he wrote it.
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The Stay-at-Home Rocker
It’s nothing these days for even the hottest musicians to take several years between major album releases. But that kind of thing just wasn’t done that often in the ‘70s. Rock stars were expected to churn out product on the regular. John Lennon was arguably the most famous musician in the world at that time. Yet he maintained radio silence for the entire second half of the decade.
[RELATED: A List of the Most Impactful and Unforgettable John Lennon Lyrics]
The reasons why were straightforward. He’d had the infamous “lost weekend” era in the earlier part of the decade. It was a time when he was separated from Yoko One and leading a life of decadence and debauchery. But then he made the decision to recommit to his marriage. He was also intent on being there for his son Sean, who was born in 1975.
But Lennon never stopped writing and making music during that stretch. He simply wasn’t going into the studio to record it. For example, the earliest versions of “Watching the Wheels,” which went through many incarnations before reaching its final form on Double Fantasy in 1980, can be traced back to 1977. Lennon had much of the music intact right off the bat, but the words were always changing. He eventually decided he’d use the song to answer all those who were wondering why he had stepped away from the scene.
Decisions, Decisions
In the book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon told David Sheff this decision wasn’t an easy one for him.
“I hadn’t stopped from ’62 till ’73 – on demand, on schedule, continuously. And walking away was hard. What it seemed like to me was, This must be what guys go through at 65 when suddenly they’re not supposed to exist anymore and they are sent out of the office. I thought, Well, oughtn’t I? Shouldn’t I? Shouldn’t I be, like, going to the office or something? Because I don’t exist if my name isn’t in the papers or if I don’t have a record out or in the charts, or whatever – if I’m not seen at the right clubs. It must be like the guys at 65 when somebody comes up and goes, ‘Your life is over. Time for golf.’”
Once Lennon decided on the lyrics, he took it into the Hit Factory in New York City to cut it with producer Jack Douglas and some ace studio musicians (Hugh McCracken and Earl Slick on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, Andy Newmark on drums, and George Small doubling up with Lennon on keyboards.) The extra keyboards were crucial to this song, as they gave it the circus feel suggested by the lyrics about a merry-go-round.
The wild card in this picture was a fellow named Matthew Cunningham. Producer Douglas decided he wanted the unique plinking tone of a hammer dulcimer on the track. He couldn’t find any professional players on short notice. But he remembered Cunningham, a street musician whom he’d seen playing the instrument nearby. He hustled him into the studio, and Cunningham did his part. But he was completely oblivious to the fact that the guy giving him instructions was an ex-Beatle.
The Meaning Behind “Watching the Wheels” by John Lennon
The verses in “Watching the Wheels” recount the concerns of people who couldn’t understand why Lennon had interrupted the standard recording cycle. Surely you’re not happy now?/You no longer play the game, they insist. And they question, Don’t you miss the big time, boy?/You’re no longer on the ball. They call him crazy and lazy—not the first time he’d been accused of laziness as Beatles fans will remember from the song “I’m Only Sleeping”).
Lennon answers them with some of the offhand wisdom for which he was famous: I tell them there’s no problems/Only solutions, he says to those lost in confusion. . The refrains, with the keyboards swirling dizzily around him, are where he states his case. He’s happy to stay on the sidelines and watch the activity instead of being at the center of it, watching the wheels instead of spinning. No longer ridin’ on the merry-go-round, he sings, his voice rising in emotion. I just had to let it go.
All indications are that Lennon was excited to continue recording after he finished Double Fantasy, as he was even talking about touring again. Maybe he indeed would have jumped back on that merry-go-round. But “Watching the Wheels” will remain a touching testament to his restructured priorities, and to how he’d realized that nurturing a family was every bit as important as changing the world.
Photo by Steve Morley/Redferns
