John Lennon heard a man “psychologically destroyed” but Beatles fans heard one of his greatest songs

John Lennon criticised the Beatles’ recording of ‘Across the Universe’, saying he was emotionally exhausted and that the performance was not done properly. Yet the imperfections that bothered him have helped listeners hear the song as an unusually honest and affecting moment in the band’s catalogue.

The article says the track emerged after an argument with Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, when lines kept coming to him and he got up to write them down. Lennon later called it “one of my best songs”; the slightly out-of-tune guitars and vocals, in the article’s view, capture the mood rather than undermine the song.