Mother

"Mother" is a song by English musician John Lennon, first released on his 1970 album John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. An edited version of the song was issued as a single in the United States on Apple Records, on 28 December 1970. The single edit runs 1:41 shorter than the album due to removing the tolling bells that start the song and a quicker fade-out. The B-side features "Why" by Yoko Ono. The song peaked in the United States at number 19 on the Cashbox Top 100 and number 43 on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada the song reached number 12. Conception The lyrics of "Mother" address both of Lennon's parents, each of whom abandoned him in his childhood. His father, Alf, left the family when John was an infant. His mother, Julia, did not live with her son, although they had a good relationship; she was hit and killed in a car accident on 15 July 1958 by an off-duty policeman named Eric Clague, when Lennon was 17. In one of his last concerts, Lennon stated that the song was not just about his parents, but was rather "about 99% of the parents, alive or half dead". "Mother" opens the album, starting with a funeral bell tolling slowly, four times. The song ends with Lennon repeating the phrase "Mama don't go, daddy come home", each time increasing in intensity until he screams the line as the song fades out. Lennon was inspired to write the song after undergoing primal therapy with Arthur Janov, originally at his home at Tittenhurst Park and then at the Primal Institute, California, where he remained for four months. Lennon, who eventually derided Janov, initially described the therapy as "something more important to me than The Beatles".