Beatles: Lady Madonna Meaning

Song Released: 1968

Lady Madonna Lyrics

See how they run

Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet
Who finds the money when you pay the rent
Did you think that money was heaven sent

Friday night arrives without a suitcase
Sunday morning...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Feb 20th 2009 !⃝

   The inspiration for the song is based upon a women who had many kids to look after.Its not about prostitution! It is about a busy mum juggling to look after the house, I know the women who inspired the song!

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jan 12th 2010 !⃝

   It's the Catholic Church. She has all these children, legitimate or otherwise. No one knows how much money the organization controls (who finds the money?), and it is corrupt. Mysterious things going on every day--"Creeping like a nun." The newspapers are not under the church's control "papers didn't come." The baby at the breast is the innocent, trusting church member that has no idea all these things are going on, but is getting his or her needs met. That's my story and I I'm sticking to it. We know Lennon and McCartney had no love for the church (We're more popular than Jesus Christ"). Maybe this song explains some of that animus.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Dec 2nd 2007 !⃝

   I think this song is about a prostitute.
   "Friday Night arrived without a suitcase. Sunday morning creeping like a nun."
   Its a message about madonna s dates. The one for friday arrives on friday then sunday comes and her sunday date arrives.
   Lady Madonna is sort of a mocking of emaculate conseption. Emaculate conseption because her children are illegitament. They have no Fathers.
   "Lady Madonna chldren at your feet wonder how you manage to make ends meet"
   Which means know one knows where she finds the money.
   "Monday's child"
   is the child of the person she slept with on monday.
   "Lady Madonna Lying on the bed listen to the music playng in your head"
   I think she is zoning out while sh is sleping with someone. Trying to pretend its not happening.
4. anonymous

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   Mar 21st 2018 !⃝

   According to a National Geographic story Paul McCartney stated he was inspired by a photograph of a Vietnamese refugee mother with child in a januari 1968 issue of the magazine to write this son.
5. anonymous

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   Dec 11th 2017 !⃝

   Paul McCartney said that this song is a tribute to women everywhere. song facts
   ~ Unruffled
6. anonymous

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   Dec 10th 2017 !⃝

   I think it's about a mother struggling financially who is portraying a martyr image to the world, raising kids on her own but privately sneaking around with even more men who use her. One who arrives without a suitcase is a loser and bludging off her despite her dire straights. I think calling her Madonna is the conflict of religious beliefs versus needing her own womanly needs met, having men come and go and not taking contraception because of these religious beliefs.
7. anonymous

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   Mar 10th 2017 !⃝

   Possibly about prostitution, but certainly an observation of naivety induced by faith......and the outcome of having children.
   
   ' Did you think that money was Heaven sent '
   
   McCartney says it was a tribute to women, but he and Lennon were famous for their wit and cynicism, they just could not of spoken up about it in February 1968 when it was released, and can't come clean now.
   
   I wanna hold your hand was a reference for words that could not be sung publicly, as freely stated by Lennon & McCartney, so they had form for hidden meanings.
   
   These guys were from Liverpool, and cut their teeth playing all night gigs in Hamburg for some time, prostitutes..... Busy ports....connection? Bound to be in their everyday vocabulary.
   
   Likely written in 1967 so we have to consider the social landscape of the time, they pushed boundaries when they could, but not always possible with a record company and media promoting decency against the scourge of Rock n Roll.... breathing down their necks.
   
   Interesting how the lyrics read in todays society where single motherhood is promoted at every turn, despite the factual likelihood of damage to the children, and breaking up of families.
   
   If ever their was an allegorical anthem this is it, but the weekend visitors don't provide the money anymore, the state and disenfranchised fathers do that.
8. kooljohn176

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   Feb 1st 2016 !⃝

   A song that ''fuses the vision'' of Mother Mary's inspirational religious role that gives faith and comfort for her children young and old all around the world as ''Lady Madonna'' coming down to be ''fused'' within the time frame of long ago where the service of some women was very much appreciated and were looked upon as ''goddesses of fertility and sexuality'' on the Earth and sometimes for one of the soul purposes was to bring out the manly presence out of the young men, not to be afraid to be intimate and run from it. Also to comfort and educate the young ladies to teach their mates to be at ease with one another. All for honoring her with prayers and offerings in the form of money and gifts to receive her divine intervention as a heavenly education. It is sad that in today's age ''Lady Madonna'' was turned into a ''riot'' used as a pawn for power and a money cow that also gives milk to her babies, yearning and looking for some respect with the thought of her past good deeds she has done in shareing herself with all of her children that still has the faith in her inner light that will always shine.
9. anonymous

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   Jan 28th 2016 !⃝

   Lady Madonna addresses the struggles of low income single women and points to Christianity's harmfully sexist and hypocritical madonna/whore complex and antiquated views on contraceptives as a cause of their problems. The song tells the story of a woman who turns to prostitution to care for her children. The lyrics parody the "Monday's Child" poem to describe her regular customers.
10. coleridge

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    Oct 21st 2014 !⃝

    I think that the line 'creeping like a nun' refers to wordsworth's sonnet 'it is a beauteous evening. calm and free' and the line 'quiet as a nun, breathless with adoration'. (the poem is about wordsworth's illegitimate daughter by Annette valon, another single mother struggling to 'make ends meet'.)
    the song is certainly NOT abut prostitution. macartney and lennon were both grammar-school boys and at their time poetry learning was obligatory.
11. anonymous

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    Jul 19th 2013 !⃝

    Lady Madonna is a Foster Mother or the Woman in charge of an Orphanage. The Days and Times ("Friday Night", "Sunday Morning") refer to the points at which the children came into her care. The "baby at [her] breast" is likely her own child and doesn't understand why she cares for the other children who are not her own. Her "lying on the bed" is her attempting to find time alone despite the "music in her head", which is likely the sound of the children running.
12. anonymous

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    Jun 19th 2012 !⃝

    "Baby at your breast" how is that prostitution?! The song is about a single mother struggling to support her children. McCartney compares this character to the Mother Mary (the Madonna) because of her struggles.
13. anonymous

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    Feb 18th 2012 !⃝

    littlebird. i dont agree, i mean they wrote about drugs, serial killers and everything, whats that to stop them writing a song about prostitution?
14. Littlebird

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    Aug 29th 2011 !⃝

    I doubt the Beatles would write about a prostitute, it would be too obvious and trite. Paul McCartney was Roman Catholic. At the time of this song and to this day, the RC church doesn't allow women to use birth control of any kind. So, RC women who follow this church law have children that they can't really afford or even want. The church says, "Have the kids but don't expect us to help you take care of them"..."Did you think that money was heaven sent?" The dichotomy the church presents to RC woman, and that McCartney makes reference to, is that the RC woman must remain pure like Lady Madonna but also still have a bunch of kids. Paul uses a lot of RC references in this particular song to lead the listener along.
15. anonymous

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    Aug 25th 2011 !⃝

    Totally about prostitution;) if this song was made to honor someone's dead mother why would there be laughter in the background before the first chorus? Wake up people...
    It's a fun song mocking a prostitute by calling her Lady Madonna... Gotta dig dry British wit.
16. anonymous

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    Jun 8th 2011 !⃝

    It's about his mother!
17. anonymous

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    Mar 4th 2011 !⃝

    I think that this is an interpretation of how the U.S. government had the entire population lined up like little ducks in a row at their feet, and they never questioned if they were being led astray. However, by the 1960s, people were running rampant because they knew that their government was wrong in Vietnam, and no matter what Congress tried to do, they could't 'control' people the way they used to.
18. DennisCMyers

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    Nov 15th 2009 !⃝

    I note this earlier post: "Lady Madonna is sort of a mocking of emaculate conseption. Emaculate conseption because her children are illegitament."
    
    Sorry, that doesn't work. Mary's immaculate conception has nothing to do with fathers or with the virgin birth. It refers to Mary's own birth, to her being born without original sin.

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