The song
Jealous Guy is one of
John Lennon's masterpieces, and as well as appearing on his album
Imagine it was also a hit for
Roxy Music in
1981 in the wake of Lennon's death.
The song is actually one of the few Lennon solo songs to have its roots in the Beatles years. While the band (along with Mike Love, Donovan and Mia Farrow) were on retreat in Rishikesh in 1968 with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Maharishi gave a lecture which inspired both Lennon and Paul McCartney to go off and write songs. McCartney wrote Mother Nature's Son while Lennon wrote a song that is variously known as Child Of Nature or On The Road To Rishikesh.
The lyrics to this song were:
On the road to Rishikesh (in some versions Marrakesh)
I was dreaming more or less
And the dream I had was you
And the dream I had was true
I'm just a child of nature
I don't need much to set me free
I'm just a child of nature
I'm one of nature's children
Underneath the mountain ranges
Where the wind that never changes
Touched the windows of my soul
Touched the windows of my soul (in some versions these lines are 'and my thoughts returned to home)
repeat chorus
Although this song was demoed at Esher it was not included on the White Album, presumably because of it simillarity to McCartney's song, though it may also be that Lennon was unhappy with the chorus changes, which were altered for the eventual release of Imagine.
Although the song was dropped, Lennon continued tinkering with the song throughout the Get Back sessions, and it was eventually rewritten with new lyrics about an argument he had with Yoko Ono.
Strangely, the song was never included in its original form on either the Beatles or Lennon Anthology sets of the 90s, and so will probably remain unreleased (officially) for the forseeable future.
Oddly, the other Beatle-era song on Imagine, Gimme Some Truth, was actually one of Lennon's relatively rare collaborations with McCartney (who is obviously uncredited). The song was originally done by the Beatles during the Get Back sessions with McCartney writing the 'no short haired yellow bellied...' section, and singing it in his Little Richard voice.