Gawd I loved this! Now that we can look back, this was a sleeper. It's only now that we realize this is genius among Lennon's best. I saw the movie Help! in theatres when I was 12, and I was so taken and moved by this, but I couldn't articulate why, other than to say how soulful and emotionally honest it is. Two naive curious questions: (1) are there really that many guitars? and (2) is there a no-vocals version of this? FWIW, I love both ways. I like watch the instrumental-only version first because I can focus on the instruments (duh, but I love doing that) but the Beatles' isolated vocals rounds out the whole experience. I guess I can see how this one might have called for the vocals, but I'd still like to loose myself just in that 12-string. Thank you Michael! You are seriously contributing to our culture.
"The song's lyrics are ambiguous. Potentially, Lennon could have been referring to the fact that, as a Beatle, he was expected to keep the fact he was married a secret. He could also have been writing about his inability to express his true 'loving' self in public and his feelings of isolation and paranoia related to fame.[4] Some, such as singer Tom Robinson, have suggested that the song was written for the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein, who had to hide his homosexuality from the public.[5][6]"
