Lady Madonna children at your feet
wonder how you manage to make ends meet.
Who finds the money, when you pay the rent
Did you think that money was heaven sent?
Friday night arrives without a suitcase
Sunday morning creeping like a nun
Monday’s child has learned to tie his bootlace.
See how they run.
Lady Madonna baby at your breast
wonder how you manage to feed the rest.
See how they run.
Lady Madonna lying on the bed
listen to the music playing in your head.
Tuesday afternoon is never ending
Wednesday morning papers didn’t come
Thursday night your stockings needed mending.
See how they run.
Lady Madonna at your feet
wonder how you manage to make ends meet.
The Inner Light
‘The Inner Light’ was the B side of ‘Lady Madonna’, released on 15 March 1968. It was the first time a song written by George had appeared on a Beatles single in the UK.
After ‘Within You Without You’, Juan Mascaro, a Sanskrit lecturer at Cambridge University, wrote to George suggesting he should write a song using the words from a holy book by Tao Te Ching, which he had translated. Its theme of searching for inner light greatly appealed to George, who was still searching for his own inner truths. In the original, the words were ‘Without going out of my door I can know the ways of heaven’. George changed it to: ‘Without going out of my door, I can know all things on earth.’ But in essence, he used all the lines, though Mascaro was not credited as the lyricist on the single.
In I Me Mine George reveals the background, and thanks Mascaro. He sounds regretful that the song didn’t catch on: ‘I think the song went unnoticed by most people as I was getting a bit out of it as far as Western popular music was concerned, at that period.’
The manuscript, in George’s hand, is written in capitals, the better to be understood. At the end, he has written ‘Yeah–Yeah–Yeah’ which I take to be a bit of self-mockery, poking fun at his seriousness.
‘The Inner Light’, George’s first Beatles single, the B side of ‘Lady Madonna’, March 1968, in George’s hand–including his satirical ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ at the end.
Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth
Without looking out of my window
I can know the ways of heaven
The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows
Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth
Without looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven
The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows
Arrive without travelling
See all without looking
Do all without doing
Hey Jude
This began as ‘Hey Jules’–meaning Julian, John’s five-year-old son. Paul was driving down to see Julian and his mother, Cynthia, after John had left them for Yoko and divorce was imminent. He found himself humming along to ‘Hey Jules’ and then came the lines ‘don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better’.
It was typical of Paul to care about Julian. He has always had a rapport with kids, of any age, and could play with them and amuse them–unlike John, who found it harder to connect, apart from drawing with them. When Paul, along with Linda and her daughter Heather, visited us for a holiday in Portugal in 1968, my own children were constantly clamouring to play with Paul, be with him, climb all over him.
When he first played the song to John, Paul was a bit embarrassed by the line ‘the movement you need is on your shoulder’, as it was just a fill-in line, till he thought of something better, but John said no, it’s great, go for it. Personally, I am still not sure what that line means, and probably Paul didn’t either. He feared it might suggest a parrot. The best explanation is that on your shoulder is your head, and the movement is to nod, thus saying yes to the world.
In fact John got it into his head that the song was really about him–encouraging him to go off with Yoko, because of the lines ‘you have found her, now go and get her’ and ‘you’re waiting for someone to perform with’.
The verses get more complicated as they go on, progressing from a simple encouragement to cheer up, don’t make it worse, then to accept things, not let people down, go out and meet the world, moving on from personal advice to guidance in general.
So while the verses repay a more careful reading, over recent years the tune itself has taken a bit of a hammering. At seven minutes and nine seconds long–a marathon, as singles went–it featured an orchestra of thirty-six classical musicians as well as the Beatles themselves. It was incredibly successful all over the world when it first came out as a single in August 1968, selling five million copies in six months, and staying at number 1 in the USA for nine weeks. It was soon being sung at public gatherings ranging from national events, pop concerts to football matches. Alas, it has become rather a cliché, in the UK anyway, with Paul being mocked for always seeming to sing it at some public event, leading and encouraging the whole audience in going ‘na na na na…’
If you are listening in the flesh–and I have recently heard Paul perform it at the O2 Arena in London–it is hard not to join in and enjoy it with everyone else. But I have to admit that, if it comes on the radio when I’m at home, I usually turn off before the interminable na na nas get started.
Julian did not realize the song was about him till he was about eleven or twelve. Now, whenever he hears it by chance, in a bar or public place, he says it still makes him shiver. He managed to buy a copy of the manuscript–with Paul’s instructions on it–when it was sold at auction in 1996 for $40,000. But several versions of the manuscript have since appeared–some of the verses in the handwriting of Mal Evans.
This manuscript in Paul’s hand has a couple of variations. In the twelfth line he is undecided between making his life or his world a little colder. Two lines on, ‘She had found you now make it better’ became ‘You have found her now go and get her.’ For some reason, the last eight lines are missing. Did he struggle to come up with them, leaving it until they were in the studio? Or were they written on another page?
‘Hey Jude’ single, August 1968, in Paul’s hand. Eight lines from the end, he is undecided about whether his life or his world will be a little colder.
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
Hey Jude, don’t be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better
And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
Hey Jude, don’t let me down
she had found you, now make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin
You’re waiting for someone to perform with
And don’t you know that it’s just you, hey Jude, you’ll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder
Nah nahnah nah nah nah nah nah nah yeah
Hey Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her under your skin
Then you’ll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, oh
Nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah, hey Jude, etc
Revolution
The first version of ‘Revolution’ to be released was on the B side of ‘Hey Jude’. There were two released versions in all. John wrestled with it for a long time, musically and lyrically, aided and abetted by Yoko, his new best friend, and with not a lot of help from Paul, who appears not to have been so keen on it.
The lyrics were attacked by the extreme left who did not agree with John’s view that destruction–i.e. violent action–was not the answer, nor going around carrying photos of Chairman Mao. And if they were wanting money, they would have to wait. After he started speaking out about the Vietnam War and working with Yoko for peace, loads of organizations and action groups began asking him for donations. He did, however, give a lot of money away, and attended several rallies.
The final message of the song, that it was ‘going to be alright’ also infuriated die-hard revolutionaries who felt John had sold out and was just another rich pop star.
John himself seems to have been ambivalent about what he actually thought. He was against the Vietnam War, and against war in general, but he was also against violent action, which upset the revolutionaries, particularly in the USA. On the single version–which is a fairly fast rocker–he asked to be counted out when it came to destruction. On the album version, which is slower, the lyrics of ‘Revolution 1’ are identical except for one additional word: he states his position as both ‘out/in’. (‘Revolution 9’, was a long, mainly instrumental number, with no real lyrics, so does not concern us here.)
The manuscript is half typed and half written in John’s hand. It includes the line that caused a lot of ill feeling in the underground press when the single was released: ‘Don’t you know that you can count me out.’
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it’s evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don’t you know you can count me out
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We don’t love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We’re doing what we can
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
Well, all I can tell you is brother you have to wait
‘Revolution’, the B side of ‘Hey Jude’, August 1968. The handwriting is John’s and the typing could be, as he could type, but not usually as neatly as this. In line six he clearly says ‘count me out‘. In a later recording he became ambivalent, making it ‘count me out-in’.
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright, al…
You say you’ll change the constitution
Well you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it’s the institution
Well you know
You better free your mind instead
But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow
Don’t you know it’s gonna be alright
Alright, alright