Charles Rammelkamp

JEALOUS GUY

“Ever notice how John Lennon
goes almost Full Othello
in some of those early Beatles songs?”

“Such as?”

"Well, there’s that song
from the Hard Day’s Night album,
‘You Can’t Do That’:
If I catch you talking to that boy again..."

"Oh right! The guy threatening
his girlfriend because she dares
talk to his pals. He tells her
they’d laugh in his face
if they’d seen the way she was flirting."

“Everybody’s greeeeeen.”

“The green-eyed monster!
It’s a matter of pride.
Only, there’s no Iago goading him on.”

“Then there’s that one from Rubber Soul,
‘Run for Your Life.’ Even the title’s threatening!
He tells the girl he’d rather see her dead
than to ‘catch her with another man.’
Same deal with the jealousy.
You read stories in the tabloids
about jealous guys killing their girlfriends.”

“And here I was thinking
all those Beatles songs reeked
of puppy love, holding hands.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”


Charles's YouTube video reading of "Jealous Guy"


Charles confesses: "I was always a little astounded by how vicious some of those Beatles songs sounded. Even “She Loves You” – is the guy the “hurting kind”? Is that verbal or physical? Well, best not to overthink it. All you need is love, right?"

CHARLES RAMMELKAMP is Prose Editor for BrickHouse Books in Baltimore. His latest poetry collection, A Magician Among the Spirits, poems about Harry Houdini, is a 2022 Blue Light Press Poetry winner and has just been published. Another poetry collection entitled Transcendence has also just been published by BlazeVOX Books. A collection of flash fiction, Presto!, will be published in 2023 by Bamboo Dart Press.