I've Got a Feeling

The Beatles “I’ve Got A Feeling” Sex? “Everybody had a wet dream”…dances triumphantly on the line of sex, because we can’t control our dreams, and if our dreams force us to dream about sex, it’s not our fault we’re being morally depraved! Sorry I’m in a Stephen Colbert mood… Drugs? No, unless “everybody saw the sunshine” is some vaguely coded reference to dropping acid, which I doubt. I think that means they saw “the light”- found God or happiness or whatever gives them hope. Rock and Roll? No, this isn’t a rock song. This has got soul, thanks in large part to Billy Preston on keys, and is sung by Paul with soul-tastic outbursts. It’s got its blues rock riffs, but it is slow and reflecting, whereas rock and roll is more “in-the-moment”. It’s hard to classify this- it’s kind of like Canned Heat meets Ray Charles at a press conference to sum up the hippie movement as if it were a respectable sex partner. What It Tells Me: To look at my experiences here on earth as if it’s part of a relationship. I’ve got to have a hard time balancing out my easy ones or else I’m not going to appreciate life as much. And fate is a partner that will never get old, because something new and exciting is always in store; it’s the passion of love that never dies that is life- you fight like mortal enemies but at the end of the day you're in bed together and you always find something to enjoy. Whereas much songs about life can fall into clichés, this one uses the old metaphor of life as a give and take relationship and turns it into a gospel that defines a state of mind- the free love, peace and human rights state of mind that was the sixties. What It Reminds Me Of: “On The Road Again” by Canned Heat; “Hard Times” by Ray Charles; Woodstock; hippies; nostalgia that leads to hope The opening chord progression is fuzzy bliss with an epic tone, followed shortly by the words “I’ve got a feeling”, letting us know this is going to be a song of intuition and not rational thought, a sacred experience with no room for second-guessing. By the end of the first couple lines there is joyous shouting- “oh yeah!” – that sounds orgasmic and embodies the spirit of rock and roll, that Devil’s music. The drums, electric guitar and shouting that kick off the chorus – “I’ve got a feeling!” – are soon followed by sensual keyboard that clarifies the fact this is a love song; a spiritual one no doubt with its almost abrupt stopping of the melody for a joyous hallelujah. The stuff about hating to miss the train and “if you leave me, I won’t be late again” are ambiguous- the former line might be about the train about the next counter-culture revolution, and the latter may be about how the sixties counterculture was so intensely in-the-moment that the narrator was often late for things he should've attended. That may be because of the immense drugs and pit stops of sex with groupies, I don’t know, or maybe he was just so caught up in his own music that he missed out on important events. This speculation is bolstered by the next line where the narrator sings about “wandering around” for so many years, aimlessly, until he realized he was looking for a girl who “looks like you”. Another ambiguous line, but it also suggests wasted time, and the girl could be the counter-culture that was right there the whole time but may have been ignored in a haze of sex, drugs and rock and roll. This might be John’s line, since he was soon to become political-minded and focus on human rights. Human rights were a huge part of the hippie movement, but the politics of the hippies were, some say, overshadowed by free love, drugs, and a type of soul-searching that was completely selfish, though it was important for the people at the time to partake in such experimentation to grasp a better understanding of their own nature. One of my favorite parts of the song is Lennon recapping the year, and I think the year might mean the hippy era in general. I’ve found two ways of expressing the definition of the idiom “pull your socks up” – one is the more polite “if you're not satisfied with someone and want them to do better, you tell them to pull their socks up”; and the other an “obscene call to readiness- drop your balls and pull up your socks”. This line and “everybody put their foot down” could refer to the civil rights movement while the wet dream and sunshine could be free love and soul searching through drugs, meditation or other means. And “everybody let their hair down” – if that’s not about the hippy trademark of growing out your hair, than I don’t know anymore, man. The merging of this verse with the first one makes the song sound complete – props to whoever thought of that one. The song ends with a kind of marching beat that may signify marching into the future. The whole notion that this song is not just about society but also about a love interest – like Yoko or something – would make me lose respect for the song because though it may feel like things are really coming together for, say, John, and both the feeling of hope he got from the hippy movement and his love for a woman get mixed together may have been a culminating inspiration for the song, but I don’t think the two belong together in the song’s meaning. It may be wishful thinking, but I don’t think Lennon and McCartney would argue with me. Favorite lines: “Everybody had a hard year / everybody had a good time” “Everybody had a wet dream / everybody saw the sunshine” “Everybody let their hair down” “Everybody pulled their socks up / everybody put their foot down”

weezerific:cutlery - so it is about Linda, huh? I dont know if i trust smackbomb.com...how could the lyrics make any sense if there were towards a girl - "if you leave me, I won't be late again"? Unless he's saying "better late than never"...fuck maybe that is what he's saying.

delon85 - I think that's the Naked version you're listening to