In its rewritten form, the song serves as a confessional in which Lennon addresses the feelings of inadequacy that resulted in his failings as a lover and husband. ‘Jealous Guy’ is one of the most commonly recorded Lennon songs, with almost 100 cover versions. Released as a single, Roxy Music’s version reached number one in several countries three months after Lennon's death in December 1980.
Today’s song deals with an emotion that has never been a feeling that has badly affected me; one of jealousy. I have always thought the act of being a bit jealous can prove beneficial in keeping a couple on their toes and not taking their partner for granted but will always see ‘being jealous’ as being a somewhat pointless exercise in which vital energy is wasted regretting one’s own past and instead envying the future of another. There is nothing positive that can ever come out of being jealous; only hurt. There is nothing wrong with feeling disappointed, hurt, rejected after some meaningful relationship has ended/broken up, but to feel the emotion of ‘jealousy’ because one’s ex-partner has found another love in his/her life and has emotionally ‘moved on’ from their former relationship with you is to deliberately replace in one’s body feelings of former love with feelings of current ill will.
In many ways, 'jealousy' is the emotion that kills off love under the pretence of keeping it alive, One can only be jealous of someone who has something that you think you should have yourself. I have always held the view that a self-confident person is incapable of jealousy, and that such is more often a symptom of neurotic insecurity; a kind of mental disease that is bred on doubt and sustained by senseless body activity scanning for evidence to prove one's imaginary point. In short, being jealous is to rub salt into one’s own emotional wounds, thereby jaundicing one’s healthy attitude.
I leave you with one of my favourite quotations on 'jealousy' by Francois de La Rochefoucauld who was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. It is said that his world-view was clear-eyed and urbane and that he neither condemned human conduct nor sentimentally celebrated it:
‘Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness.’
Love and peace Bill xxx