I like the song and it’s a good pick me up but I just can’t make sense of the lyrics. Could someone explain the song to me?
Thanks
A useful site for understanding song lyrics is songmeanings.net. Pretty self-explanatory, and the Hey Jude entry has 159 comments, so I’d imagine you’d find a decent interpretation in there somewhere.
Paul McCartney wrote it, as “Hey, Jules”, for young Julian Lennon during John’s divorce from his first wife, to try to console the lad.
I’ve heard the “comforting Julian after the divorce” idea, but I don’t get it. How is Julian, the son, supposed to let, who exactly, under his skin and into his heart? He’s looking for who to perform with? Go out and get who? Mom? That’s weird, that is.
It does sound like an advice-to-a-young-person song, but I’d have gathered it’s young love/dating advice. Perhaps it happened about the same time as the divorce, but I don’t see what the song itself has to do with coping with a divorce, if you see what I mean.
Frankly, the (debunked) theory that it was about letting Yoko Ono into his heart and loving his stepmother-to-be makes more literal sense. But still, letting your stepmom under your skin sounds creepy, too.
With lines like “let her under your skin,” “let it out and let it in,” “the movement you need is on your shoulder,” and “anytime you feel the pain, refrain,” I can only interpret it as heartfelt advice to a young man unsure of whether to submit to his girlfriend’s strap-on.
Interestingly enough, When Lennon read it, he thought it meant that McCartney was supporting him in his divorce and relationship with Yoko (no cite, I heard it on a TV special).
I remember reading that too, in a published interview with Lennon—and also that some of the words (“the movement you need is on your shoulder”?) were placeholder lyrics that Paul planned to change to something more coherent, but John said something to the effect of “No, that’s brilliant, leave that in.”
For what it’s worth, Steve Turner’s A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles’ Song corroborates the “comforting Julian” theory. It says Julian was five at the time, and “to show his support for mother and child during the break-up, Paul drove down to Weybridge from his home in St. John’s Wood bearing a single red rose. [uh, okay.] Paul often used driving time to work out new songs and, on this day, with Julian’s uncertain future on his mind, he started singing “Hey Julian” and improvising lyrics on the theme of comfort and reassurance.”
Etc. etc. then it eventually became “Hey Jules”, and then finally “Hey Jude”. But it also says, “As with so many of Paul’s songs, it was the music that drove the lyric, with sound taking precedence over sense.”
Regarding the “on your shoulder” line that Thudlow Boink mentioned, the book says Paul told John it sounded like he was talking about his parrot. Thanks, Paul… now that’s what I will think of!
That might be the Playboy interview.
Hey Jude=Jules/Julian explanation is in Cynthia Lennon’s book as well. I read it decades ago but I’m sure she described Paul visiting their house to comfort her and Julian.
It’s also the story Paul offers in the Anthology, which also include Lennon’s interview where he says he thought it was more about him and Yoko than it was about Julian.
That “movent on your shoulder” line perfectly illustrates why reading things into songs lyrics is a fool’s game.
By all accounts, Paul wrote the line as filler – something to sing until he thought of better lyrics. It made no more sense than “scrambled eggs” (the original lyrics of “Yesterday”). When Paul sang the song for John, he sang the line and said basically, “pay no attention to that line. I’m going to rewrite it.” John said, “Why? It’s the best line in the song.”
Paul then argued that the line made no sense (years later, he brought up the pirate analogy), and John said, basically, “the listeners will decide what it means.”
So, if you’re trying to interpret the line in terms of the song, it’s purely your own interpretation and has nothing to do with any meaning intended or otherwise built into the lyrics.
Concur with the comforting Julian story – it was told at the time and I’ve never seen anything contradicting it, and a fair amount supporting it, over the years. But it (probably; only Sir Paul can say for sure) never started as “Hey Julian” – “Jules” was Julian’s nickname, in much the same way as Prince William is “Wills” and the schoolboy Tolkien was “Tollers” to his friends. And while the song originated as “advice to a kid dealing with his dad’s new wife,” Paul allowed it to get some vague imagery that doesn’t quite fit that scenario but does fit a boy dealing with an emotional conflict, which is to say, virtually every teenager at one time or another. Hence its massive popular appeal.
Meh, just typical McCartney silliness toughened up and made rock and roll respectable by Lennon’s presence. Exit Lennon, exit McCartney’s relevance—a certain gift for cloying yet hummable melodies notwithstanding.