# What does "I believe in yesterday" mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567 "2008-09-21T18:42:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/1 "2008-09-21T18:42:44Z")
From the song, by Paul McCartney. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/2 "2008-09-21T19:40:15Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > From the song, by Paul McCartney. He believes in the possibilities of love and happiness akin to that which he knew in the past, even though neither of those states are currently part of his life. “He,” of course, being the speaker, not Paul McCartney. McCartney may well believe something entirely different. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/3 "2008-09-21T19:52:45Z")
Scrambled eggs. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/4 "2008-09-21T23:14:59Z")
Of course, this was the Sixties, so it didn’t really have to make sense… ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/5 "2008-09-22T01:35:33Z")
He was so confident the song would be a hit, he couldn’t wait for the song to finish to say so. The Beatles infused several songs with this type of meta-commentary—other examples include _“She Loves You”: Yeah, yeah, yeah!_ and George’s characteristically downplayed _“Here Comes the Sun”: It’s all right._ ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/6 "2008-09-22T01:47:02Z")
It sounds nice, though it doesn’t mean anything, and it makes a good song to sing when you’re drunk and maudlin with a bunch of friends. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/7 "2008-09-22T02:00:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Scrambled eggs. Oh, baby how I love your legs. “I believe in yesterday” = “I wish things were like they were before.” ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/8 "2008-09-22T02:04:51Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > “I believe in yesterday” = “I wish things were like they were before.” This. And that he still believes in their love. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/9 "2008-09-22T02:17:02Z")
It means Paul McCartney never has to work another day in his life. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/10 "2008-09-22T03:58:05Z")
And on a similar vein, what one thing did he say that was “wrong” enough to end his relationship? > [@](#): > > Why she had to go I don’t know, > She wouldn’t say. > I said something wrong, > Now I long for yesterday. 'Cause like saying one thing wrong isn’t going to end a relationship. Unless it was something like: “Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, coffee-nosed, malodorous, pervert!” Then, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/11 "2008-09-22T04:02:47Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 'Cause like saying one thing wrong isn’t going to end a relationship. Unless it was something like: Or “your sister is better in bed”. I can think of any number of "one thing"s that could be said to end a relationship. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/12 "2008-09-22T04:28:26Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > And on a similar vein, what one thing did he say that was “wrong” enough to end his relationship? > > 'Cause like saying one thing wrong isn’t going to end a relationship. Unless it was something like: > > “Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, **coffee-nosed** , malodorous, pervert!” > > Then, perhaps. Stupid cut and paste. Yes, I know it’s supposed to be “toffee-nosed.” Serves me right for believing everything I read in teh intrawebs. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/13 "2008-09-22T10:27:48Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 'Cause like saying one thing wrong isn’t going to end a relationship. Unless it was something like: > > “Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, coffee-nosed, malodorous, pervert!” Well let’s say what we’ve got: \*"Why she had to go I don’t know She wouldn’t say. I said: “Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, coffee-nosed, malodorous, pervert!” Now I long for yesterday."\* A bit of a stretch fitting it into the meter of the song but certainly plausible. Sir Paul does owe us an explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/14 "2008-09-22T13:27:36Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > 'Cause like saying one thing wrong isn’t going to end a relationship. Well you know, Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/15 "2008-09-22T13:33:26Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > And on a similar vein, what one thing did he say that was “wrong” enough to end his relationship? “I am the Walrus?” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/16 "2008-09-22T16:14:23Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > “I am the Walrus?” More specifically, the yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye. She was eating at the time, and it represented just how unconsiderately oblivious he could be. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/17 "2008-09-22T16:49:35Z")
I’m pretty sure I read a biography some years ago that indicated the song was written after a beloved relative passed away. Perhaps I’m thinking of a different song. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/18 "2008-09-22T17:45:43Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I’m pretty sure I read a biography some years ago that indicated the song was written after a beloved relative passed away. Perhaps I’m thinking of a different song. There’s a lot of detail in various Beatles/McCartney books about the melody but surprisingly little concerning the lyric. For example, in the McCartney biography _Many Years From Now_, author Barry Miles has only this to say: '_It has been suggested that the lyrics are about the loss of Paul’s mother, and one line_\* could possibly be read as that. If so, it was an unconscious element in the song’s composition.\* The rumour goes that when Paul’s mother died he cracked an off-colour joke about her which, in due course, he came to regret. There’s nothing about the lyric in _Revolution in the Head - The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties_ (Ian MacDonald) or in _The Beatles Anthology_ or other literature I recall reading. However [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_(song)) notes as follows, presumably from one of the sources it lists, but I don’t know which: > [@Paul McCartney](#): > > “I remember mulling over the tune ‘Yesterday’, and suddenly getting these little one-word openings to the verse. I started to develop the idea … da-da da, yes-ter-day, sud-den-ly, fun-il-ly, mer-il-ly and Yes-ter-day, that’s good. All my troubles seemed so far away. It’s easy to rhyme those a’s: say, nay, today, away, play, stay, there’s a lot of rhymes and those fall in quite easily, so I gradually pieced it together from that journey. Sud-den-ly, and ‘b’ again, another easy rhyme: e, me, tree, flea, we, and I had the basis of it.” Also, in John Lennon’s opinion extracted from The Beatles Interview Database: > [@John Lennon](#): > > (the lyrics didn’t) "resolve into any sense… They’re good — but if you read the whole song, it doesn’t say anything; you don’t know what happened. She left and he wishes it were yesterday — that much you get — but it doesn’t really resolve. … Beautiful — and I never wished I’d written it. \*\* The one line in question must be ‘I said something wrong’. Speaking of which, in Eva Cassidy’s version of _Yesterday_ she sings ‘I said some things wrong’, thus giving more probable cause for her guy breaking up with her in that he perceived her misdemeanours to be plural. Songwriters have been, are, and always will be asked about the meaning of their lyrics. One such, whose name currently escapes me, responded to his questioner with something like ‘Man, it’s all I can do to get the words to rhyme!’ ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/19 "2008-09-22T21:15:52Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > There’s a lot of detail in various Beatles/McCartney books about the melody but surprisingly little concerning the lyric. For example, in the McCartney biography _Many Years From Now_, author Barry Miles has only this to say: > > '_It has been suggested that the lyrics are about the loss of Paul’s mother, and one line_\* could possibly be read as that. If so, it was an unconscious element in the song’s composition.\* > > The rumour goes that when Paul’s mother died he cracked an off-colour joke about her which, in due course, he came to regret. > > There’s nothing about the lyric in _Revolution in the Head - The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties_ (Ian MacDonald) or in _The Beatles Anthology_ or other literature I recall reading. However [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_(song)) notes as follows, presumably from one of the sources it lists, but I don’t know which: > > Also, in John Lennon’s opinion extracted from The Beatles Interview Database: > > \*\* The one line in question must be ‘I said something wrong’. Speaking of which, in Eva Cassidy’s version of _Yesterday_ she sings ‘I said some things wrong’, thus giving more probable cause for her guy breaking up with her in that he perceived her misdemeanours to be plural. > > Songwriters have been, are, and always will be asked about the meaning of their lyrics. One such, whose name currently escapes me, responded to his questioner with something like ‘Man, it’s all I can do to get the words to rhyme!’ I may have read it in “A Twist of Lennon”, by Cynthia Twist, John’s first wife. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567/20 "2008-09-22T23:44:55Z")
I disagree with Lennon’s take on the song. It’s a lament for a happier past in the singer’s life and that’s all. It doesn’t need any more resolution. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-i-believe-in-yesterday-mean/464567.md?page=2)