Beatles FAQ

He blew his mind out in a car  He didn't notice that the lights had changed A crowd of people stood and stared. They'd seen his face before Nobody was really sure. If he was from the House of Lords  A Day in the Life (Lennon & McCartney) While John Lennon was composing his section(s) of A Day in The Life, he had a copy of   The Daily Mail of 17th January 1967 open at the piano. This directly inspired the opening line .  I read the news today, oh boy. About a lucky man...   Lennon had a particular interest in the news that day through a personal connection to one of the stories. This concerned the coroner’s report on the death of  an Irish socialite, Tara Browne.  The Beatles had all known the young Guinness heir socially. He was a friend of Paul's brother, Mick and very close to Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. The barbed reference to his wealth and privilege ('luck man') hints at an ambivalent attitude on the writer's part. On December 18 1966  Browne die

The Walrus and the Carpenter  -  illustrator  John Tenniel Sexual suggestion is present in several early Beatles songs ( Please, Please Me, Norwegian Wood, I Wanna be Your Man, From Me to You). They liked to insert rude jokes (the tit, tit,tit  backing vocal on Girl being a blatant example) while leaving room for  plausible deniability. Two lines in  I Am the Walrus,  the first new song written after the death of Brian Epstein   stepped across the unacknowledged line. Crabalocker fishwife,  pornographic priestess Boy, you’ve been a naughty girl, you let your  knickers  down No knickers It was the precise form of words rather than the lewd overtones that caused problems. The Beatles might have got away with  pornographic priestess  as word play but   knickers  was strictly  verboten .  The  BBC had Victorian standards of prudery  when it came to that item of clothing. The 'ban' consisted of playing the alternate A-side, Hello Goodbye, which was shorter and more radio friendly. F