With the passing of what would have been John Lennon’s 70th birthday on October 9th, we are once again reminded of the life of a brilliant artist, his personal struggles and successes, and his senseless death in December 1980. As a celebration of his life, here is a list of his ten most significant songs with The Beatles.

“I’m A Loser”
This gem, from the 1964 album Beatles For Sale, provided the first glimpse into John Lennon’s mind. John felt confined by his fame with The Beatles. His leanings towards poetry and art were sidelined in favor of writing pop songs with Paul McCartney. Under the influence of Bob Dylan – and this song is as Dylanesque as they come – John offered an upbeat song with a frightening message. Sure, the verses portray a tale of love lost, but the song’s chorus – “I’m a loser / And I’m not what I appear to be” – offers an insight into his psyche previously unknown to pop music.

“Help!”
The title track to The Beatles’ fifth album presents a flat-out statement of John’s self-loathing. He looks back on his youth as an ideal period, bereft of problems, before condemning his insecurity in the present. Later in his life, John reflected that the song shouldn’t have been such a happy tune, but that’s what makes it so striking. There is a sense of relief in the chorus, when he says, “And I do appreciate you being ‘round / Help me get my feet back on the ground.”

“Nowhere Man”
This time, John depicts himself in the third person, “making all his nowhere plans for nobody.” He encourages himself by singing, “The world is at your command,” which, given his status as one of the four most famous men in the world at that point in history, is an honest assessment. With that in mind, it foreshadows John’s future role as a spokesman for his generation; with the world at his command, he was able to preach messages promoting peace and love.

“She Said, She Said”
Inspired by a bad drug experience, wherein actor Peter Fonda approached John and told him he knew what it was like to be dead, John’s retort was “You’re making me feel like I’ve never been born.” He again reflects on his youth – “When I was a boy, everything was right” – before asking the “she” of the song to leave him alone. It’s a startling glimpse into the dark underbelly of drug use, namely the sense of paranoia that comes from being in one’s own head.

“Strawberry Fields Forever”
With yet another look into his early life – Strawberry Fields was the name of a Salvation Army mission near his childhood home – John turns in one of his best sets of lyrics, yearning for some in Strawberry Fields. He describes the location as a place of wonder, without any worries from the outside world. His confused, staggered lyrics in the song’s verses portray his alienated mindset. This song also marks John’s emergence as a composer, with a beautiful melody and a haunting orchestration.

“All You Need Is Love”
If John’s work with The Beatles were to be encapsulated in a single song, it’s this. With a line like “There’s no one you can save that can’t be saved,” John gives us the solution to all of society’s ills: the simple act of love. George Harrison described the song as being “A bit of PR for God,” and John himself referred to it as a simple slogan that everyone could understand. In fact, The Beatles performed this song live on the television program Our World, the world’s first global broadcast via satellite. This song defined the entire Summer of Love, a perfect summary of the hope and optimism of the 1960’s.

“I Am The Walrus”
Here is John at his literary best, with Lewis Carroll as his poetic inspiration. The lyrics don’t make perfect sense, but they aren’t supposed to. Instead, the words flow in a stream of consciousness manner. Some of the imagery is surreal (“Sitting on a cornflake / Waiting for the van to come”), some of it is cheeky (“Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl / You let your knickers down”), and some of it is grotesque (“Yellow-matter custard / Dripping from a dead dog’s eye”), resulting in a bizarre litany of avant-garde poetry. It’s a fascinating piece of music to listen to, even 43 years later, with all sorts of tiny details in the production that can keep listeners interested to no end. Listen to it with headphones!

“Revolution”
This 1968 single was John’s response to the political upheaval in the United States, London, and Paris. The world received a wake-up call from the Summer of Love with the grim reality of political assassinations, racial tensions, and cultural turmoil. While at the same time, The Rolling Stones gave the world “Street Fighting Man,” and other voices in the US and the UK took radical stances including the advocacy of violence, Lennon offers a pragmatic viewpoint, warning “If you want money for people with minds that hate / All I can tell you is, brother, you have to wait.” The song also serves as John’s first foray into politics, but hardly his last.

“Julia”
John lost his mother at age 16, when she was killed by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run. This touching ode laid the groundwork for things to come with John’s early solo career. It’s also worth noting the line “Ocean child calls me,” as the name Yoko translates into English as “child of the sea.” It has a heart-wrenching, confessional tone that is deeply personal and yet somehow universally appealing. Such is the magic of an artist expressing his rawest sentiments through their work. It is easily the saddest song of John’s career with The Beatles.

“Don’t Let Me Down”
It isn’t a grandiose ballad, but this has to be one of John’s best love songs. He approaches his new relationship with Yoko Ono with an honest insecurity – witness the song’s title – before declaring in the song’s bridge “I’m in love for the first time / Don’t you know it’s gonna last?” Few other artists of his time give such a frank glimpse into the ups and downs of young love, matching the hyperbolic devotion with that sense of potential heartache just around the corner.

Alex DiBlasi is a musician pursuing a Master’s Degree in Musicology, specializing in rock and roll history at CUNY Brooklyn.