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Beatles - In My Life Song Meanings

This song is about John Lennon's life (obviously). However there was some conjecture some years later that John had stolen a poem written by a beat poet and set it to music.

Submitted by: LennonLives
Added: 2006-01-05 22:01:36     Rating:

This Song was written by John with some help from Paul to finsh some parts of it. I think it was credited 70 - 30 lennon/mccartney.

Anways, the song is basically John looking back at all the things in his life that he can remember that have changed. He wrote this lyrics while on a bus trip, This was when Lennon really started to focus on the lyrics. On the bus ride he passes the actual things that were changed the bus station ect.....

The part about dead and living focuses on people who died in his life Stuart Sutcliffe, His Mother Julia.......

The piano that is played in the middle as a lead was actually sped up to the speed on the record.

Submitted by: HelterSkelter
Added: 2006-05-06 22:54:35     Rating:

John wrote all of the lyrics. He has been quoted as saying something like he remembers writting the lyrics to the song and originally they were boring, bland lyrics about places he'd seen. He said he was trying to think of clever lyrics for quite sometime when he gave up, and then all of the sudden the lyrics to "In my Life" came to him (everything about stu sutcliffe and such). As per the dispute a few people have mentioned, it wasnt for the lyrics (which John wrote and werent ripped off from any one) it was for the music in the song it self. Although a very beatlesque thing to do was leave holes through out the song and fill them in later. Apparently the beatles stepped out and George Martin (producer of most Beatles records, and sometimes aptly dubbed "the fifth Beatle") thought it'd be nice to throw a harpsicord solo in there. He played it at half speed and down an octave (he couldnt play the actual solo that fast) and sped it up. "It's a way of tricking someone into thinking you can do something really well" martin says. Enjoy!

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-07-15 13:46:12     Rating:

This song is beauty defined.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2007-09-17 08:03:36     Rating:

I think the previous interpretations are correct (including that the song is "beauty defined") but I also think the song is primarily a love song to a particular person.

He has had many experiences and loved many people and things but none of those previous affections are as intense and real as the love he feels for this person.

"And these memories lose their meaning/ When I think of love as something new."

This love he feels for the person to whom he is singing is so profound that it feels like a completely new emotion. Everything else pales in comparison to this "new" love.

Submitted by: MountaineerForLife
Added: 2007-09-20 18:39:47     Rating:

I never heard this song in a real historical context - as in John looking at specific places, people, and events throughout his life. I've always thought of this song as the ultimate statement of love for someone - it is, in my opinion, the most well-written love song ever. Here's why...

He recalls all the places and people that he's known and loved throughout his life and says that they still mean something to him, but not as much as the person to whom the song is directed. He seems to be willing to leave behind all those things that he's felt so much for because the love that he now feels for this girl is much stronger. And even though he is leaving all of that behind, he still manages to say that these people and places will always have a place in his heart, even if they have since changed.

This song seems to indicate a large transition in his life - he's leaving so much behind in favor of a new love, and that's a powerful statement.

Like I said, I don't obsess over the actual history of the song - like how and where it was written - I just like to look at it as a stand-alone body of work and interpret it by itself (us English majors would call it New Criticism). To me, it is the ultimate statement of love for someone as well as continued affection for one's past loves.

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