John Lennon had a very painful childhood that both shaped and embittered him for years to come. Son to an absent father, given up by his mother when he was 5 and raised by an aunt, Lennon still overachieved thanks to and in spite of his shadow, doing nearly as much as any contemporary figure to fight a Joseph-like fight against spiritual and emotional famine as an artist. The beauty of “Beautiful Boy” is not just a love song of a father to a son, but a song of integration of shadow and light Lennon sings to himself. He is the beautiful boy — cast off and then becoming wildly successful like Joseph — who now finds a measure of peace with himself as a father. More on Carl Jung, Joseph, and John Lennon here.
