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Happiness Is a Warm Gun Lyrics
She's not a girl who misses much
Do do do do do do, oh yeah
She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane.
The man in the crowd with the multi-colored mirrors on his hobnail boots.
Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime.
A soap impression of his wife which he ate and donated to the National Trust.
I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Down to the abyss that I left uptown
I need a fix 'cause I'm going down
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Happiness is a warm gun (bang bang shoot shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, mama (bang bang shoot shoot)
When I hold you in my arms (oh, yeah)
And I feel my finger on your trigger (oh, yeah)
I know nobody can do me no harm (oh, yeah)
Because, (happiness) is a warm gun, mama (bang bang shoot shoot)
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is (bang bang shoot shoot)
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun
Happiness (bang bang shoot shoot)
Well don't you know that happiness (happiness) is a warm gun, (is a warm gun, yeah).
This is the MOST CLEVER pop song ever and you're all wrong on its meaning. The song is about a woman who learns her man is cheating on her and decides to shoot him (Happiness is getting revenge on your cheating husband by shooting him). The song begins: "She’s not a girl who misses much. Do do do do do do do do She’s well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand Like a lizard on a window pane." She's observant and when someone tries to conceal something she notices (You would wear velvet gloves to prevent stains and therefore prevent someone from detecting you). The next lines follow: Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy Working overtime A soap impression of his wife which he ate And donated to the National Trust. Lying with your eyes indicates infidelity while his eyes desperately try to conceal the truth, the soap impression means that he didn't have high regard for his wifes intelligence, he figured he could commit sexual infidelity and she'd never notice because she trusts him too much. Mother Superior jump the gun simply means Mother Superior (a nickname for the lady) pulled the trigger and shot him. Then comes the brilliant twist, happiness is getting back at the unfaithful man.
lol you people are crazy. i dont know where you get these interpretations from. do some reading and you'll realize most of you are wrong. first of all, its john lennon's vocals through the whole song. paul and george only provide backup and its john screaming not paul. second of all the title of the song came from a magazine cover john lennon saw the first part of the song ("she's well acquainted...") is something john wrote from what he saw on an acid trip the second part ("i need a fix...") is a reference to his heroin addiction and the rest of the song is...
lol you people are crazy. i dont know where you get these interpretations from. do some reading and you'll realize most of you are wrong. first of all, its john lennon's vocals through the whole song. paul and george only provide backup and its john screaming not paul. second of all the title of the song came from a magazine cover john lennon saw the first part of the song ("she's well acquainted...") is something john wrote from what he saw on an acid trip the second part ("i need a fix...") is a reference to his heroin addiction and the rest of the song is too debatable to interpret because it could be a continuation of his drug addiction or its a reference to his sex life with yoko ono.
just learn to read and study and research guys before you start making up shit.
dayday469 your crazy. You do realize songs can have more than one interpretation, right? That's what makes music music, it hold different sentimental value for everyone.
dayday469 your crazy. You do realize songs can have more than one interpretation, right? That's what makes music music, it hold different sentimental value for everyone.
Besides, DirtyDan has much more logical and clear thinking than you. "The first part is cuz John Lennon is an acid addict, and the second part refers back to it." That could be true, but i still hold that its either about a wife being cheated on and getting back at her husband [makes the most sense at the moment] or suicide. And now that I think about it, there's really no way it can be suicide....
Besides, DirtyDan has much more logical and clear thinking than you. "The first part is cuz John Lennon is an acid addict, and the second part refers back to it." That could be true, but i still hold that its either about a wife being cheated on and getting back at her husband [makes the most sense at the moment] or suicide. And now that I think about it, there's really no way it can be suicide.
Why do you have to be such a dick about their opinion? That "shit" dirty dan "made up" is really good, and he provides a solid basis for each part. You just state the obvious with no real analysis except John Lennon is a druggie. Besides, even if you were right, I'm pretty sure John Lennon would not sit there shaking his head and saying "nope nope nope, uh-uh, your totally wrong" if you told him this. He might be all like, "thats not what i was getting at, but i totally see where your coming from" or something, but not a fucking dick like you are.
"Mother Superior Jump the Gun" is a multi-layered reference literally about a nun having intercourse prior to her death (and not just any nun, the leader of the convent), when she will (according to Catholicism) ultimately be (re)-united with her groom, Jesus. (Nuns wear a wedding ring on their right hand indicating they are "married to Jesus"); however, this is very likely a shot at organized religion by John.In addition, it also talks of her ultimate fate, which is suicide because of her earthly seduction by someone who doesn't love here.
"Mother Superior Jump the Gun" is a multi-layered reference literally about a nun having intercourse prior to her death (and not just any nun, the leader of the convent), when she will (according to Catholicism) ultimately be (re)-united with her groom, Jesus. (Nuns wear a wedding ring on their right hand indicating they are "married to Jesus"); however, this is very likely a shot at organized religion by John.In addition, it also talks of her ultimate fate, which is suicide because of her earthly seduction by someone who doesn't love here.
She's not a...
She's not a girl who misses much: again, when taken in this context, she doesn't miss much, but not in the observational sense; in the experiential sense; not the normal things a nun should miss such as carnal knowledge and human love, although it also, based on the line: "Lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime.," is irony insofar as she could not tell that he was not truly in love with her and he seduced her and threw her away for sexual gratification only, at first with his eyes and and and with his soft caress.
"A soap impression of his wife" - soap implies cleanliness, so he lied to her about his wife or marriage or cleaned the picture up in someway (perhaps telling her she is dead., or he cleaned it up in some way as to make it more palatable,) "which he ate" --why do we eat soap or have our mouths washed out with soap? For lying of course. "And donated to the national trust." - he used this piece of information to win her over or to manipulate her, national in this sense meaning more universal or far-reaching.
"I need a fix cause I'm going down, down to the bits that I left uptown"- this is literally a heroin reference to coming down, but here it means a sexual fix: he is going back to the broken woman he left "uptown"-- this word is important and is one of the key reasons that this is not a drug reference: If he meant heroin, he would have said "downtown", a euphemism for heroin (just as 'uptown' is a cocaine euphemism) but he is talking about the bits or shell of the woman he had this relationship, uptown implying class or somewhere of importance.
"Happiness is a warm gun, bang bang, shoot shoot," the nun ultimately commits suicide because she violates her vows and betrays Jesus, after she commits murder: she kills him. [There is a slight reference to Dante here insofar as she is already damned to Judecca, the 9th Circle, 4th Round of Hell (Canto XXIV) in Dante's Inferno (Part III of "The Divine Comedy." The 9th Circle is reserved for Betrayers, but special betrayer's and the 4th Round in particular is for those who have betrayed God; it is reserved for the Biblical giants lie Judas & Satan as well as the assassins of Caesar, Claudius and Brutus (because Dante thought they betrayed Italy and the World by killing the Divinely Appointed unifier of Italy.)] Since she will already be damned for betraying Jesus, she will receive no additional punishment by killing her betrayer (whom she betrays by taking his life), and killing herself.
"When I feel my finger on your trigger, I know nobody can do me no harm" This is irony as she believes no human can do her any more harm or even God because of her damnation. The warm reference in "warm gun", in addition to denoting that she fired the weapon, also is an ironic Dante reference because in the 9th Circle, you are frozen in ice and not burned by fire, up to a level commensurate with your crimes.
MobiusDick
Also, "She's well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane" - this is a masturbation reference not an LSD reference. Her desires for love and carnal pleasure have often lead to masturbation. "The man in the crowd with the multi-colored mirrors on his hob-nail boots" Hob-nail boots imply that he was working class, used for traction so the he doesn't fall off and reveal his true self to her; the mirrors have several meanings: one, the obvious one, is that he is a pervert, peaking under dresses using mirrors on his boots,...
Also, "She's well acquainted with the touch of a velvet hand like a lizard on a window pane" - this is a masturbation reference not an LSD reference. Her desires for love and carnal pleasure have often lead to masturbation. "The man in the crowd with the multi-colored mirrors on his hob-nail boots" Hob-nail boots imply that he was working class, used for traction so the he doesn't fall off and reveal his true self to her; the mirrors have several meanings: one, the obvious one, is that he is a pervert, peaking under dresses using mirrors on his boots, but below that level is that of her vision of herself as she looks down, constantly reflecting back at her the betrayal she is about to commit. He is also covering his working class boots with the reflection or the fantasy of what he wants her to believe, but she is a willing participant, ready to believe him.
****Note that all interpretations of this song are valid except one and that is John Lennon's own. If you study the literary criticism of the 2oth Century beginning with Ezra Pound, John Crowe Ransom, James Joyce and TS Elliott, you realize we are in the century of Relativity; whatever meaning a song has to you is a valid interpretation [It is the meaning a song has (to you)]. The reason the author is excepted from interpretation is because of another artifact of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics (i.e,,modern physics) references, and that is related to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. In physics, this means that we cannot exactly know both momentum (velocity, { that is {times mass}) and location X at the same time. [ΔX × ∆P ≮ hâ„2Ï€ ]. When we know one exactly, we must sacrifice our knowledge of the other such that the product of the uncertainty of the two measurements is greater than Plank's Constant divided by 2Ï€ ; or, in terms of Energy and Time [ ΔE × ∆T ≮ hâ„2Ï€].
When using this in terms of literary criticism, the person creating the work has too much psychological baggage to interpret his or her own work. In other words, you cannot step outside of yourself and see what you look like to other people. A good example of this occuring to me personally where I began to really understand the significance, was when I was reading over some poetry from a college poetry magazine I had been involved with in the early 1990's, The pages were typed so I could not recognize the handwriting. I read two peoms that I was blown away by and I was trying to determine which of the people involved in the magazine had written the poems. I suddenly realized they were my own work; immediately, I no longer was able to see anything special about the poems, and I began picking them apart line by line. I have always been very critical of my own writing and I cannot look at it from an unbiased veiw. No matter how many people tell me how much they like it or how impressed theey are, it is hard for me to get beyond the phase of self-doubt. MD**
MobiusDick
I like dirty dan's interpretation. Very different than I ever thought.
I like dirty dan's interpretation. Very different than I ever thought.
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
MobiusDick, you are a badass. Thank you for setting everything straight. Though I don't necessarily take your interpretation of this song as my own, I can totally see where you're coming from. Furthermore, I respect your clearly deep knowledge of literary theory and it only lends credibility to your opinions on this board. But I have to admit, I hate the idea that an artist's interpretation of his own work is the only one that is non-valid, or at least, the least valid (though you are correct that it is one of the tenets of the age of Relativity). I'm...
MobiusDick, you are a badass. Thank you for setting everything straight. Though I don't necessarily take your interpretation of this song as my own, I can totally see where you're coming from. Furthermore, I respect your clearly deep knowledge of literary theory and it only lends credibility to your opinions on this board. But I have to admit, I hate the idea that an artist's interpretation of his own work is the only one that is non-valid, or at least, the least valid (though you are correct that it is one of the tenets of the age of Relativity). I'm a fiction writer and I know what my own interpretation of my work is, but I don't eliminate the possibility that anyone else's opinion is as worthwhile as my own. We all bring our own baggage to a work, including the artist.
I love this song but now I'm extremely confused. Is it about heroin, nuns, or extremely graphic sex references? (Which makes me really not want to sing along whith it anymore). But i do think agree with MobiusDick in that the mpst valid meaning of a song's lyrics is the one that you think of personally.
I love this song but now I'm extremely confused. Is it about heroin, nuns, or extremely graphic sex references? (Which makes me really not want to sing along whith it anymore). But i do think agree with MobiusDick in that the mpst valid meaning of a song's lyrics is the one that you think of personally.
@DirtyDan I thought this was obvious... what a bunch of strange interpretations to a very straight forward song. Although she may have been on drugs when she sought revenge.
@DirtyDan I thought this was obvious... what a bunch of strange interpretations to a very straight forward song. Although she may have been on drugs when she sought revenge.
A few things I wonder about though, why is her nickname "Mother Superior" and why did he eat a "soap" figure of his wife? And who is this "Man in the crowd with the multicolored glasses and the hobnail boots"? Reference to LSD? This may be the drug she was on when she took her revenge.
A few things I wonder about though, why is her nickname "Mother Superior" and why did he eat a "soap" figure of his wife? And who is this "Man in the crowd with the multicolored glasses and the hobnail boots"? Reference to LSD? This may be the drug she was on when she took her revenge.
Also I think the reference to, 'when I hold...
Also I think the reference to, 'when I hold you in my arms" may be her new lover who knows about the justice she implemented on her previous husband and is happy to hear he has a woman who is protective and capable.
Either way you look at it, it is a known fact that "happiness IS a warm gun oh yeah" sorry Pierce Morgan, you are an utter moron :)
@DirtyDan It’s a favorite of mine. Umm, the idea of the ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ thing is from an advert in an American paper. It said, Happiness is a warm gun, sort of thing, and it was ‘Get ready for the long hot summer with a rifle,’ you know, ‘Come and buy them now!’ It was an advert in a gun magazine. And it was so sick, you know, the idea of ‘Come and buy your killing weapons,’ and ‘Come and get it.’ But it’s just such a great line, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ that John sort of...
@DirtyDan It’s a favorite of mine. Umm, the idea of the ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ thing is from an advert in an American paper. It said, Happiness is a warm gun, sort of thing, and it was ‘Get ready for the long hot summer with a rifle,’ you know, ‘Come and buy them now!’ It was an advert in a gun magazine. And it was so sick, you know, the idea of ‘Come and buy your killing weapons,’ and ‘Come and get it.’ But it’s just such a great line, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ that John sort of took that and used that as a chorus. And the rest of the words… I think they’re great words, you know. It’s a poem. And he finishes off, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun, yes it is.’\r\n\r\nPaul McCartney – from interview with Radio Luxembourg, 1968
I believe this song is about heroin addiction. "she’s not a girl who misses much." describes the attitude of a heroin user who is relatively content with her new lifestyle. "She's well acquainted with the touch of the velvet hand" is saying she is familiar with the high heroin produces, comparing the calming feel of the drug with being rubbed by a velvet hand. "like a lizard on a window pane" If you think about what is taking place when a lizard is on a window pane it is not hard to connect it again with opiates. Just think of an animal blocked from the natural world by a window, the outside world is visible but the animal (or heroin user) is disconnected to it. "the man in the crowd with the multicolored mirrors on his hobnail boots." describes a person who could possibly go undetected amongst a crowd but upon closer inspect would obviously be considered odd, someone who is different, a heroin addict. "lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime" says that this addict is trying to conceal his drug habits while he is busy pursuing them. "a soap impression of his wife which ate and donate to the National Trust" refers to the corruption of his once clean lover who he consumed (turned her into an addict) and changed into something disgusting (turn her into trash and flushed her down the toilet: donating to the National trust) "I need a fix cause I'm going down, down to the bits I left uptown. I need a fix cause I'm going down" is saying: I need to use heroin because I'm coming down, and going through withdrawals, the lack of drugs is ripping him apart, and the uptown reference could be referring to a particular spot in which drugs are purchased, saying, I need some more heroin because I'm hurting from withdrawals, so I need to go uptown, the place I always go to get heroin. The next set of lyrics uses “gun” to represent a needle. "Mother superior's jump the gun" is talking about a woman preparing a shot of heroin.
"happiness is a warm gun" A needle+Heroin(which is usually heated prior to use) = happiness. The next line could be about a heroin addict singing to the needle "when I hold you in my arms" can be interpreted as when I've got the needle in my arm, "and I feel my finger on your trigger" and I feel my finger on the plunger (the part of the needle you need to push to inject the heroin) "I know nobody can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun" the drug user knows that he's about to get high and therefore won't care about anybody or anything else. “Bang, Bang shoot, shoot” are slang terms for shooting heroin.
And of course this is just my opinion, so, obviously it’s 100% accurate and everyone else is totally wrong….
i got the chills when i read this meaning. i always knew it was about heroin because of my frequent involvement with the "drug scene". after using opiates (sometimes intravenously) i sampled the land of milk and honey. i then realized that's all there is to it. happiness IS a warm gun. if i'm sure about anything in the world its that. no matter who you are, or what shit you're in, heroin will put a smile on your face. as a result of my experiences, i have dubbed opiates the Drug of...
i got the chills when i read this meaning. i always knew it was about heroin because of my frequent involvement with the "drug scene". after using opiates (sometimes intravenously) i sampled the land of milk and honey. i then realized that's all there is to it. happiness IS a warm gun. if i'm sure about anything in the world its that. no matter who you are, or what shit you're in, heroin will put a smile on your face. as a result of my experiences, i have dubbed opiates the Drug of Discipline. they are great fun and short term effects are slim to none (when properly dosed). its addiction that will come up and slap you in the face. every day it gets easier to say no, but that feeling will still be there in the deepest reaches of your mind forever.
@kopaarwes09 Love it. My best friend always believed the same thing.
@kopaarwes09 Love it. My best friend always believed the same thing.
@kopaarwes09 Love it. My best friend always believed the same thing.
@kopaarwes09 Love it. My best friend always believed the same thing.
@kopaarwes09 You’re totally on target… of course it’s an easy target with the imagery of his precious Works— syringe etc, and besides brain surgery or landing a plane— no even those aren’t as completely wrapped up as “hold you in my arms…no harm” So much for the overrated smack, you’ heard why she (or he) is called “Mother Superior”? She doesn’t have a Habit Want a really fun obscure Beatles lyric? The Beatles’ Love albums’ version of Being For the Benefi of Mr Kite is cut short after And tonight Mr Kite is topping the bill…All the ensuing utterances...
@kopaarwes09 You’re totally on target… of course it’s an easy target with the imagery of his precious Works— syringe etc, and besides brain surgery or landing a plane— no even those aren’t as completely wrapped up as “hold you in my arms…no harm” So much for the overrated smack, you’ heard why she (or he) is called “Mother Superior”? She doesn’t have a Habit Want a really fun obscure Beatles lyric? The Beatles’ Love albums’ version of Being For the Benefi of Mr Kite is cut short after And tonight Mr Kite is topping the bill…All the ensuing utterances relate to the poster that inspired John to write the song. Check it out, it’s well covered online. — NICE REVIEW OF …,Warn Gun !!
According to Lennon, the title came from the cover of a gun magazine that producer George Martin showed him: "I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something."[1] The reference, whether or not intermediately from the magazine, was one of many 1960s riffs on Charles M. Schulz's culturally popular saying, Happiness is a Warm Puppy, which began in the Peanuts comic strip and became a widely sold book.
ironic at the thought of his death...
ironic at the thought of his death...
Definite sexual innuendo.
the whole song is a metaphor for drug use. "when i hold you in my arms and feel my finger on your trigger" is a reference to shooting heroin.
My mother suggested to me this interpretation when I was in my teens. I figured it must be wrong :-)
My mother suggested to me this interpretation when I was in my teens. I figured it must be wrong :-)
But of course, all Beatle songs after 1965 are about drugs. :-)
But of course, all Beatle songs after 1965 are about drugs. :-)
Absolutely....... and the Mother Superior jumped the gun reference has to do with England cracking down on Herion use
Absolutely....... and the Mother Superior jumped the gun reference has to do with England cracking down on Herion use
@spinningmisfit You are so right.
@spinningmisfit You are so right.
Hey, is it always just about sex and drugs? Come on, give the Beatles more credit. Their songs became ever more philosophical. I know their stuff can be interpreted in many different ways - part of what makes them great - but I think this song has a philosophical slant. It's a parody of typical love songs (i.e. "when i hold you in my arms") and it refers to the pleasure some people take in violence ("happiness is a warm gun"). The message here is about human nature and the disturbing way that we embrace violence rather than peace.
But I admit he "I need a fix 'cause I'm going down" line sounds like drugs, haha.
First, John's the one who screams. Second, the title was the title of an article on a gun magazine John saw. Look for a great book called "Beatlesongs" by William J. Dolwdling. It has EVERYTHING!
It's funny because everyone seem to have a very elaborate interpretation of these lyrics, whether it involves drugs, sex, guns/war or all three of them. Mine is actually much simpler, although maybe not as good. Listening to this song, especially with the line "Happiness is a warm gun", I felt it was about how you always seem to hurt someone when you're happy. Humans suffer so others can be happy and when it's their turn to be happy, they often make someone else suffer. The girl who doesn't miss much is waiting to be happy, the reference to masturbation could indicate she's a teenager who wants to fall in love. The man in the crowd is probably happy but it's obvious his wife suffers. The mother superior (if it is a nun and not Yoko or a dealer) is going crazy because she has spent her life working on behalf of others, so they could be happy, and she has missed much. The narrator (John?) is unhappy because he's going down (as opposed to being high) and needs a fix (a shot of heroin), for him too happiness involves suffering, actually his own.
The title of this song comes word for word from an advertisement John Lennon saw in a local paper. It's a little ironic that he wrote this song given the circumstances of his death. By the way, can anyone tell me what the line "A soap impression of his wife which he ate And donated to the National Trust. " means?
Its actually a sole confession of his wife which he ate and donated to the national trust. The national trust is a building where a lot of homeless people live and surround, so when you donate to the national trust you totally take a dump.
Its actually a sole confession of his wife which he ate and donated to the national trust. The national trust is a building where a lot of homeless people live and surround, so when you donate to the national trust you totally take a dump.
@MosquitoToMoscow – Beware what the internet says about song lyrics – they are often wrong. @Ferthuko is correct. According to the actual liner notes on The White Album, the lyric is "A soap impression of his wife..." – not "sole confession."
@MosquitoToMoscow – Beware what the internet says about song lyrics – they are often wrong. @Ferthuko is correct. According to the actual liner notes on The White Album, the lyric is "A soap impression of his wife..." – not "sole confession."
@Ferthuko I can. The soap impression would be an artistic reference and contrast as soap is clean and white but the 2nd half is what happens to it after he eats her, Back in the day the national trust is where all the homeless people lived and thats also where they used to defecate. Thus making a deposit to the national trust is like our reference dropping the kids off at the pool.
@Ferthuko I can. The soap impression would be an artistic reference and contrast as soap is clean and white but the 2nd half is what happens to it after he eats her, Back in the day the national trust is where all the homeless people lived and thats also where they used to defecate. Thus making a deposit to the national trust is like our reference dropping the kids off at the pool.
@Ferthuko it means he took his wife's sincere and pure vow, ate it up, and shat it out.
@Ferthuko it means he took his wife's sincere and pure vow, ate it up, and shat it out.
I thought it was Lennons voice... what are they talkin' about?