Run for Your Life

 

"one of the Beatles most dispensable items".^[8]

Run for Your Life’ I always hated ... John Lennon Lennon Remembers (1971

Run for Your Life was the first song recorded for Rubber Soul. It would later prove the most controversial song on the album because of what Ian MacDonald calls a 'lazily sexist lyric'. Others have been even stronger in their condemnation of the casual misogyny and violent imagery.

Words

Lennon himself was never fond of the song and was later embarrassed by its words. These draw heavily on the old Elvis song 'Baby, Let's Play House'.

There was a line ‘I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man’-so I wrote it around that, but I didn’t think it was that important”

Recording

Run for Your Life was recorded on October 3 1965 - 'knocked off' (Lennon) in a five hour session. There were four takes for the backing track. Various vocal and instrumental parts were then overdubbed.

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