‘Look at Me’ comes at the perfect time in John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band album. The last minute of preceding track ‘Well Well Well’ is him screaming the word ‘well’ until he physically can’t anymore. So when the acoustic guitar and soft electric that play throughout on this one come in, you’ve just got to admire the dynamics.
Lennon does a lot of soul-searching on this album. There’s a lot of pointing out how shit the world actually is on his part too. It’s on ‘Look at Me’ that he brings it all to himself though, asking the listener what they see and what they think of him as if he was standing right in front of them. Though giving it another listen, I think he’s singing to Yoko Ono. She is the only other person he believed in after all.
This is probably the only song that sounds remotely like a Beatles track, and there is good reason. He wrote the song at the same time he wrote many others when he was in India for the group’s meditation retreat. The same guitar picking technique he employed on ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Julia’, he uses here. The three note introduction is identical to the beginning of ‘I’m So Tired’. These don’t necessarily make the song better. Just thought some people may want to know. It’s a very meditative track, serene, and very easy to listen to. The melodies from both guitar and Lennon’s vocal never really change and repeat themselves so they’re never very hard to forget. I’m not sure it’s considered a highlight by many from this album, but it is to me.
The Music in My Ears 