Today's song is "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". John, enchanted by Bob Dylan and already having written several songs that honor his style, mimicked Dylan's acoustic sound. Wikipedia says "the song is in a folkish strophic form" and that Lennon used "a Dylanesque acoustic guitar figure in compound time, chiefly acoustic accompaniment, no backing voices and light percussion from brushed snare, tambourine and maraca." (You can check out the links if you're curious--it's all way too technical for non-musical me, especially when we get into things like "strophic form" and "compound time".) This is the first Beatles song (since "Love Me Do") to feature a non-Beatle; John Scott recorded tenor and alto flute parts for the track.
I really love this song. Like, love love love it. Ironically, I am decidedly not a Dylan fan--there's just something about John's unique take on Dylan that I really enjoy. Apparently the words "two foot small" in the lyrics were originally a mistake; John was supposed to sing "two foot tall" but eventually decided his blooper sounded better (and I agree). Wikipedia goes more in depth as to why John wanted it left in:
Musician/singer Tom Robinson connected the song's lyrics to Brian Epstein, the group's manager, who was a closeted homosexual (homosexuality was a criminal offense in Britain.) When Lennon made a mistake during the recording, singing "two foot small" instead of "two foot tall", he is reported to have said: "Let's leave that in, actually. All those pseuds will really love it." at the time).
I looked up "pseuds"--apparently it signifies "a false, artificial, or pretentious person". Honestly, I can't make the connection between Brian Epstein being gay and Lennon wanting all the fake people out there to fawn over his lyrical mistake. Does anyone know? Rybaczewski, on his page for this song, doesn't seem to think there's a connection either--so maybe whoever wrote the wiki article was mistaken.
Anyway, that's all for today! Hope you enjoyed the song. :) See you tomorrow!
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Heard It Tally: 11
Songs Completed: 76
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