What does All You Need is Love mean?

Beatles: All You Need is Love Meaning

Album cover for All You Need is Love album cover

Song Released: 1967


All You Need is Love Lyrics

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make...

  1. anonymous
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    Apr 17th 2010 !⃝

    Everything you can do anyone else can do, so love while you can, because that's all your really need.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  2. anonymous
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    Apr 5th 2010 !⃝

    ive never really looked too deeply into this song cos i dont think it needs to be read into too much. They're simply trying to say that we can't do anything that can't be done, but we can love. as the song song says 'its easy'. I personally believe in a God for whom nothing is impossible and so we can do things that can't be done and save people that we don't think can be saved

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  3. m320753
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    Dec 23rd 2009 !⃝

    this beautiful song is more of an anthem calling for all people to accept a concept that will be an ending of violence and discrimination. it also is a calling of countries to join together and contribute to the bringing together all people on earth along with all nations. the lyrics are on a high sense of peace or love version of what the world needs. the old adage love your neighbor as thyself or the golden rule. i think this song was a forecast of the present time we are living in

  4. anonymous
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    Dec 22nd 2009 !⃝

    Maybe I'm too literal of a person but when they say that there isn't anything you can do that cant be done it just says to my that what I am able to do is limited to the realm of possibility... which is sort of a dumb thing to state because duh I can only do what I can do... so... whatever maybe I'm just not a poet but my logic does not extrapolate it to I can do anything.

  5. Imogina
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    Dec 15th 2009 !⃝

    I think it's not as simple as saying "there's nothing you can do that can't be done" = "you can do anything". Grammatically, they don't mean the same thing anyway. More literally - it just means you can't do things that can't be done. Eg it's not possible to walk to the Moon, so you can't walk to the Moon.

    The point is, then, I think - he's saying "you can't do the impossible" - all you can do is things that can be done. But that's ok - the important thing is love - that's all you need. So I think it's meant to be about accepting yourself and loving yourself and everyone else. That loving people is the most important thing - he's saying don't worry about the rest.

    This makes more sense when you move beyond the early part of the lyrics and notice: "Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time - It's easy: and "Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy."

    So he's ending the song saying just try to be you, just let yourself be where you are meant to be, and the main important thing is love.

    [edited for spelling mistake!]

  6. anonymous
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    Nov 14th 2009 !⃝

    Whenever I think of these lyrics I do not interpret them to imply "You can do anything"
    I hear them mostly as they literally say "There is nothing you can do that can't be done." Simply put, if something can't be done, you can't do it. It may sound grim but I think this is meant to mean you can't do anything "spectacular." Everything that you do immediately becomes "doable."
    For example, think of if someone said "that song can't be sung." Now you proceed to sing the song. That song no longer "can't be sung" as you have just proved. Seemingly you did the impossible but really it was their perspective that was off.

    The hope in all of this is that with love this all becomes alright. We may never be individually spectacular, but love will give us meaning.

  7. anonymous
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    Nov 9th 2009 !⃝

    I see this song as this. Without love, you cannot do anything. See- "There's nothing you can do that can't be done..." "It's easy.... All you need is love, love, love... " So if you don't have love in your life, it will be empty. It's simply referring to- Denied the opportunity to love, humans will not reach their full potential.

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  8. eelr
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    Oct 9th 2009 !⃝

    This is a total nonsense lyric. Your head is guaranteed to explode long before you can come close to determining its meaning since it has none. If anyone else had written it, it would long ago have been dismissed as silly.

  9. lazur
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    Sep 11th 2009 !⃝

    "Nothing you CAN do that CAN'T be done",(etc).It seems to imply so much, but how'd the guys -find- this deep phrase?: They simply reversed the positive & the negative, (which equals the same meaning, but with an unfamiliar phrase that opens the listener's mind to new possibilities). What??? Well, how does -this- affect you?: "There's nothing you CAN'T do, (that CAN be done)."... It's pretty much what good parents teach their kids: Inspirational to a certain extent, but predictable. WELL, there really ISN'T anything you can't do..YOU CAN EVEN PUT "CAN" WHERE EVERYONE USED TO PUT "CAN'T"!,(and vice versa). Once again: Genius!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. lazur
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    Sep 9th 2009 !⃝

    I enjoy the contradiction of a band of multi-millionaires telling me all I need is love. The Beatles understood that, but they they had such high credibility that it can also be taken as a sincere statement.

  11. anonymous
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    Jun 28th 2009 !⃝

    It's about how Guillerho Rogers of Beech Grove, Indiana will die on December 20, 2011 and rise from the grave at 12:01 on December 21, 2012 to save us from the great Lord Zeenu, the Alien Lord that scientologists worship that the Maya identified in the sky as living on the star/planet Omicron Persi 8 before predicting that every human being will eventually die! It is also just another anti-bush song. Vote McCain in 2010!

  12. Waterdrake
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    May 10th 2009 !⃝

    If you ask me, certain songs, this one and Let It Be especially, shouldn't be interpreted. Its the nature of the song not to be interpreted. "All you need is love". Look at some of the interpretations of songs on other pages, those people wage mini wars! On the page for "Let It Be", they are arguing over it. Seriously people, just do as the title tells you.

  13. jtg08
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    Oct 12th 2008 !⃝

    Yes I agree, All you need is love. That is what the song is about flat out. There is no drug references or even hints of drug references or any thing. Beautiful song.

  14. thomasbland
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    Oct 9th 2008 !⃝

    Maybe that no matter what a person does in life, no matter what a person seeks to accomplish, and no matter what a person does to make himself feel whole, he never will unless he has experienced love; hence the "All you need is love"
    Just a suggestion, I could be wrong

  15. anonymous
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    Aug 18th 2008 !⃝

    Listen to the lyrics people! refer to the quote made numerous times by John "The Beatles message was, love", He's saying that every achievement is empty and all you need is love.




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