Beatle Economics: Hard Day’s Night
The blogosphere spends more time dissecting the lyrics of a classic Beatles song than John Lennon did in writing them.
Julian Sanchez has apparently always been “bugged” by this couplet from the title track from the Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night soundtrack:
You know I work all day to get you money to buy you things
And it’s worth it just to hear you say you’re going to give me everything
Julian’s consternation centers around the justice of “everything” being exchanged for a finite amount of things. Presumably, this is aptly addressed by slightly older readers who point out that, in the parlance of 1964 soft rock, “everything” was just one thing — and one for which the availability was more constrained then than it would be before the bubble burst by the end of the decade.
Amusingly, commenter Mark points out, “Just this post alone has resulted in something like 10x as much time spent thinking about this song as Lennon put into it the night he wrote it.” But that’s the story of the blogosphere.
At any rate, here’s a video of the single:
I purchased the recent remix, and have been enjoying it on my – blushing – fabulous stereo system.
I must confess: I haven’t been spending much time trying to decode the meaning of “everything.” But I have had a number of sleepless nights wondering if the Walrus was really Paul.
nyuk, nyuk, nyuk
“…you’re going to give me everything…’
Is this the “parlance of 1964 soft rock”?? Really? You mean people today really don’t know what this is referring to?
“You mean people today really don’t know what this is referring to?”
It’s less obvious now than then, I’d think. Not only are we less subtle about these things but the idea that you’d be in a committed relationship and yet still getting less than everything is decidedly odder.