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Any song lyrics upset you?
16 December 2010
12.52am
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Celebrated_Mr_K
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kingjjj8 said:

Not a beatles song… But! John Lennon 's God sort of upsets me.. Not the whole thing. Just the “God is a concept”a-hard-days-night-ringo-11  part. It makes me mad.


I'm an atheist and I don't get upset at the thousands of songs claiming the existence of gods, so why do you get upset at one of the handful of songs with a different point of view? 

16 December 2010
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CranberrySauce
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No lyrics have upset me personally. My little sister is a different story.

I sang parts of “I Am The Walrus ” and “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” to her, and she was shocked to learn the Beatles had written those songs. Now she thinks I'm a bad person for listening to a song about murder, especially when I play/sing it… but at least now I have something that repels her when I'm doing homework.

Because the wind is high, it blows my mind.
16 December 2010
4.01am
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Celebrated_Mr_K
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CranberrySauce said:

No lyrics have upset me personally. My little sister is a different story.

I sang parts of “I Am The Walrus ” and “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” to her, and she was shocked to learn the Beatles had written those songs. Now she thinks I'm a bad person for listening to a song about murder, especially when I play/sing it… but at least now I have something that repels her when I'm doing homework.


Ask her if reading a murder mystery novel or watching a murder mystery movie or TV show also makes you bad.

16 December 2010
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The Walrus
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kingjjj8 said:

Not a beatles song… But! John Lennon 's God sort of upsets me.. Not the whole thing. Just the “God is a concept”a-hard-days-night-ringo-11  part. It makes me mad.


He said “God is a concept”. Not “God is just a concept.” It's undeniable that God is a concept.

 

“By which we measure our pain”- people who have harder lives tend to be more religious. 

I told her I didn’t 

16 December 2010
1.58pm
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Celebrated_Mr_K said:

I think John believed he was in love with Cynthia when he married her.  But he was completely miserable after a couple of years of marriage.

He was nothing if not honest, so if he sings “I'm in love for the first time”, you can assume it's the truth. I also believe him when he sings, “She's the kind of girl who puts you down when friends are there, you feel a fool,” so I don't think Cyn is without fault in the collapse of the marriage.

Life isn't fair and John wasn't good to Cyn, but he grew into a better man.


You realise that Girl, like Run For Your Life and to an extent Norwegian Wood , is not autobiographical?

I told her I didn’t 

17 December 2010
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Celebrated_Mr_K
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The Walrus said:

Celebrated_Mr_K said:

I think John believed he was in love with Cynthia when he married her.  But he was completely miserable after a couple of years of marriage.

He was nothing if not honest, so if he sings “I'm in love for the first time”, you can assume it's the truth. I also believe him when he sings, “She's the kind of girl who puts you down when friends are there, you feel a fool,” so I don't think Cyn is without fault in the collapse of the marriage.

Life isn't fair and John wasn't good to Cyn, but he grew into a better man.


You realise that Girl, like Run For Your Life and to an extent Norwegian Wood , is not autobiographical?
 


Define “autobiographical.”

John, by the time he wrote all three of the songs you mention, was really becoming the world's most introspective songwriter.  I think “Girl” was a statement of painful love.  “Norwegian Wood ” has multiple meanings, depending on who you listen to, but the people that knew Lennon well said they had no doubt it was about an affair he'd had (he had lots, by the way).  As for “Run For Your Life ,” I don't think he meant it as a dire threat of violence, but he frequently admitted to being an obsessively jealous man…just as he says in “Jealous Guy .”

Like Bob Dylan, Lennon often gave people conflicting stories as to what his songs meant.  Take “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds .”  I have no doubt that it was indeed inspired by little Julian's drawing of a girl at school.  But John was not stupid.  He knew full well the psychedelic imagery of the song would be connected to the LSD anagram of the title.  And he went with it.

George could be coy, too.  I was always amused at his explanation of “Savoy Truffle ” as a take on Eric Clapton's sweet tooth.  Riiiight, Georgie.  That may have been the starting point, but the song is an obvious dig at Paul's peppier, sweeter songs…”You know that what you eat you are, But what is sweet now turns so sour.  We all know ob la di bla da, but can you show me where you are?”

17 December 2010
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GniknuS
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Interesting thoughts, I think Girl was just about that sort of fantasy girl that every guy has in his mind and that John found with Yoko. And I think that almost every song Lennon wrote from about '65 on was autobiographical to at least an extent, I don't think John was as fond of inventing characters as Paul was so he wrote mostly about himself, just not all of the titles are so direct as I'm a Loser.

Also I think that John really loved Cynthia, I think he still loved her even after they separated. She just didn't excite John the way that Yoko did, or she didn't offer the same opportunities for exploration in art that Yoko provided. But we all know how dismissive John was of his previous work when he would reminisce about songs in interviews, so I'm sure he felt the same way about Cyn after he and Yoko got together, and he, unfortunately, probably felt the same way about Julian after he had Sean. They were a part of his “previous life” or whatever, and he did a lot wrong in that life that he was ashamed of. I've always seen Jealous Guy as a genuine apology to Cyn and Julian, or at least as genuine of an apology that John could really produce. 

I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine

17 December 2010
4.32pm
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Celebrated_Mr_K said:

The Walrus said:

Celebrated_Mr_K said:

I think John believed he was in love with Cynthia when he married her.  But he was completely miserable after a couple of years of marriage.

He was nothing if not honest, so if he sings “I'm in love for the first time”, you can assume it's the truth. I also believe him when he sings, “She's the kind of girl who puts you down when friends are there, you feel a fool,” so I don't think Cyn is without fault in the collapse of the marriage.

Life isn't fair and John wasn't good to Cyn, but he grew into a better man.


You realise that Girl, like Run For Your Life and to an extent Norwegian Wood , is not autobiographical?

 


 “Norwegian Wood ” has multiple meanings, depending on who you listen to, but the people that knew Lennon well said they had no doubt it was about an affair he'd had (he had lots, by the way).  


I know, which is why I said “to an extent”, because he didn't actually burn down her log cabin.

One of John's favourite poets was an Englishman called Robert Browning. As well as being in a very committed relationship with his wife, who had some sort of accident and was crippled (inspiring much of Double Fantasy ), Browning wrote poems in which the characters spoke of evil things they were going to do, or had done. Whilst they didn't say “this is evil”, it becomes obvious that they are- they condemn themselves out of their own mouths. Run For Your Life could almost be a Browning poem, if it was longer and didn't have the chorus. John, like Browning, is talking through a persona in that song. He doesn't really have the intention of murdering Cynthia if he suspects her of having an affair, which we can tell from the survival of her and Magic Alex.

I told her I didn’t 

17 December 2010
9.46pm
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MeanMrsMustard
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Well, the whole Magic Alex thing wasn't Cynthia running off and having a fling with Alex. It was John hiring Alex to try to get Cyn drunk and have sex with him. (At least, I think Alex was paid.)

If I seem to act unkind, it's only me, it's not my mind that is confusing things.

17 December 2010
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MeanMrs.Mustard said:

Well, the whole Magic Alex thing wasn't Cynthia running off and having a fling with Alex. It was John hiring Alex to try to get Cyn drunk and have sex with him. (At least, I think Alex was paid.)

He Wasn't Paid by John


As if it matters how a man falls down.'

'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.

17 December 2010
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MeanMrsMustard
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I'm pretty sure there was money involved. However, the bottom line is that John wanted Alex to try and start an “affair” with Cynthia so he could try to pin the whole Yoko thing on her.

If I seem to act unkind, it's only me, it's not my mind that is confusing things.

17 December 2010
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Maybe

As if it matters how a man falls down.'

'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.

17 December 2010
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StarWisher
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I heard this, too. He wanted to have a solid reason to leave Cynthia and ask for a divorce, and have it granted on the grounds of that.

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love." — Dr. Seuss

 

 

18 December 2010
3.44am
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skye
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MeanMrs.Mustard said:

I'm pretty sure there was money involved. However, the bottom line is that John wanted Alex to try and start an “affair” with Cynthia so he could try to pin the whole Yoko thing on her.


I'm not sure John actually cut him a check, but we can agree that it was in Alex's best interests to keep him happy.

Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo! So little time! So much to know!

3 January 2011
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MrBig said:

Chollie said:

MrBig said:

Hello Goodbye is just a very very stupid song. It doesn't mean anything, whatsoever. I like the bass in that song, though.


Stupid in the ear of the beholder! A song of opposites, one would think!
 


If your name is Chollie, perhaps your first name is Melon a-hard-days-night-george-8


GAHAHA.

Well played, mister man. a-hard-days-night-john-1

18 May 2011
11.47am
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McLennonSon
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I'm Down.a-hard-days-night-paul-7

My Music Blog.
One and one don't make two
One and one make one.

19 May 2011
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StrawberryLakiesha
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Eleanor Rigby and Fool on the Hill!!!!!!!a-hard-days-night-george-8

ONE MINUTE YOU'RE DEFENDING THE WHOLE GALAXY, AND SUDDENLY, YOU FIND YOURSELF SUCKING DOWN DARJEELING WITH MARIE ANTOINETTE AND HER LITTLE SISTER.!

19 May 2011
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None of the songs offend me in any way – I'm used to much meaner stuff a-hard-days-night-george-10

But In My Life seems to get more upsetting the older I get because I can relate to the lyrics.

Then there are some songs which will forever be tied to memories of my dad – Fool On The Hill, because I know it was one of his favorites, and Yesterday . We talked an old organ lady into playing Yesterday at his funeral, and she massacred it so hard I almost had to laugh, it was so funny. So some of these songs do upset me in a way.

Doesn't mean that I don't like to listen to them though, quite the opposite.

30 April 2014
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MrMoonlight
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Dizzy Miss Lizzy , the entire song – I refuse to listen to this one because a girl called Lizzie has completely destroyed me and there’s nothing I can do.

I Want To Hold Your Hand – I like this one, but I have a hard time listening to it for the same reason.

The Long And Winding Road – Same reason.

“You walked hand-in-hand with another man” from No Reply – can you see the pattern?

30 April 2014
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IveJustSeenAFaceo
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Good thing the girl that did almost the same thing to me has a very uncommon name. Not gonna hear too many songs with Celia in them. (by the way, that’s the first time I’ve mentioned that to anyone. Ever)

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