Hey Jude

One of my all time favorites. I believe there's meaning on a number of levels here.

The song begins with Paul directly addressing John's son Julian, offering consolation in the aftermath of his parents' separating: 'remember to let her into your heart' as if to say yer mum's there for you, don't shut her out.

After that it gets less specific to Jules and more abstract, while seeming to address John himself. 'you were made to go out and get her (yoko)'...'fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder' these definitely evoke Lennon.

But then he sings 'you're waiting for someone to perform with' and then it becomes blatant. 'don't you know that it's just you, you'll do', you're gonna be okay, you'll be a success on your own.

But on another level, this second address also goes out to Paul himself, who as John's counterpart in the Beatles faced a similar predicament as the group was breaking up, and perhaps at the time was also thinking about hooking up with Linda.

On another level, the meaning of the words hardly matters, it's the overall sound of the music, the melody, chord progression, instrumentation, the vocal delivery...it's a song of consolation, and encouragement and of joy of music itself and the uplifting power of music. The effect of the song, and particularly the Beatles' recording of it, transcends language, I think.

What I find particular cool is that the song begins with something very specific, he's singing to a little kid, a lone voice a capella starts..'Hey...' followed by plain piano chords, then some tentative tambourine notes, a heartily strummed acoustic guitar, gradually the band and more reassuring voices join in, John singing harmony with Paul, it becomes really festive, then calamity breaks loose with the double orchestra and the na na na na's....so the song begins as a direct, personal sentiment to a kid, with Paul as a sort of avuncular voice, and then gradually progresses toward a sentiment that is massive and universal, and with every beat the music wonderfully echoes this progression.