Beatles: A Day In The Life Meaning

Song Released: 1967

A Day In The Life Lyrics

I read the news today oh, boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of...

1. anonymous

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   May 24th 2007 !⃝

   This song was written by both John and Paul, and was in fact two separate songs that they meshed together. The first half was about a newspaper article John noticed, and the section "blew his mind out in a car. He didn't notice that the lights had changed" was about John, who almost got in a car accident because he was driving while tripping and literally didn't notice that the lights had changed. My source is the book, "The Love you Make" an inside story of the Beatles written by Peter Brown, the real "fifth Beatle" and member of their entourage.
2. anonymous

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   May 24th 2007 !⃝

   The beginning is John's work, him reading the newspaper and seeing al the awfull things then the second verse is actually supposed to be 'a day in the life' of the guy who dies or 'blew his mind out in car' so we see it first from Joh's point of view then we see it from the dead guys point of view up until he dies.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. Beatlemaniac

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   Mar 16th 2007 !⃝

   Hey I think the newspaper theory is right but if beatle doc gets this add me as a friend, cause I kinda want to talk about some more Beatles stuff.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. Dontpassmeby

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   Mar 9th 2007 !⃝

   Hasn't anyone of you ever heard the Paul is dead hoax?!?
   
   If not, I weep for you.
   
   Ex:
   In the line about the crowd of people, they couldn't tell who he was. That is because in the rumor, nobody knows Paul was Paul, because he had suffered terrible facial injuries!
5. anonymous

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   Jan 24th 2007 !⃝

   we studied the beatles in music and what I got from it was that the lyrics come from reading a newspaper and writing about the ones that caught his eye. most of the stories are not normal things like lots of holes in blackburn and stuff.
   
   the music to accompany it however, it was near the end of their career and they had already acheived status as one of the most successful bands ever so were just playing around with it. like when at the very end when they have a clip of them singing chopped up messed around with and strung back together, or when they just leave the chord playing till it completely fades then play a dog whistle. The music is them havein fun with the soundstage.
   
   as for the bit "id love to turn you on" that again is because they realised it didn't matter what they did anymore so it was kind of like a joke because most people probably wouldnt even realise it made no sense with the rest of the song till after a while.
   
   thats what I got from it anyways

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Dec 31st 2006 !⃝

   Being a friend of Paul, the first verse is in reference to Tara Browne.
   
   "A lucky man who made the grade" - Tara Browne
   
   "I just had to laugh" - Reference to the media's unethical use of celebrity to gain ratings.
   
   "He blew his mind out in a car" - Reference to Tara driving under the influence of drugs.
   
   "He didn't notice that the lights had changed" - Refers to Tara running a light and fatally crashing his car.
   
   "The crowd of people stood and stared...etc" - The sad truth that the public was more consumed with the fact that it was someone famous rather then the tragic loss of a fellow human.
7. anonymous

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   Dec 1st 2006 !⃝

   I always figured the last verse was a play on words. A hole is empty space; it cannot fill anything, but the meaning changes if "how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall" is a double entendre meaning "assholes." It rings with a sarcasm that's pretty standard for the Beatles.
8. anonymous

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   Oct 18th 2006 !⃝

   This song is all about daily life and the pressures that are associated with it.
9. anonymous

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   Aug 8th 2006 !⃝

   In regards to the comment about yellow submarine. Ringo helped write it. I thought I'd point that out...And a day in the life is mainly John and I'd bet my life on it. This song is about everything really, human nature, drugs, war, people, etc. It's an amazing song enough said.
10. anonymous

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    Jul 17th 2006 !⃝

    Ok, first off, this song isn't about anything, not drugs, not war, or anything else. If there's one thing I hate, its when people think to much of a simple song. Its like that photo of bob dylan, it was a picture of him reading a book or something, anyway people were so interested in this one photo, they kept asking questions about it, like, "what was going on in your mind when you were doing this?" it was just a picture of him reading a book, nothing special about it. But people went nuts over trying to imagine what he was thinking. Well, I hope I have made a point. Cya.
11. anonymous

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    Jun 12th 2006 !⃝

    "He blew his mind out in a car; he didn't notice that the light had changed"; this definitely refers the the accident that killed the Guinness heir, as described in a previous message. I just came back from London, and through research was able to confirm that, and have a picture of the lights where the accident happened in Chelsea, London, the exact neighbourhood the Beatles lived in at the time.
12. anonymous

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    Jun 7th 2006 !⃝

    The song is about war, life, death, drugs, pretty much everything that has been said. When John read the news articles, I imagine he interpreted the articles to mean for war and life in general. The drug references were meant to show how drugs, especially acid gives you the feeling of "vibes", you get the impression of people being imperfect creatures, with war and fighting. The blew his mind out in a car could also mean someone committed suicide, as well as drugs. The 4000 holes is probably an interpretation of graves of soldiers in a battle, shallow ones since they are rather small. Everything said has a double meaning, sometimes triple or quadruple(you know what I mean). So I think that all of the interpretations are correct.
13. anonymous

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    May 16th 2006 !⃝

    This song is about drugs. Flat out about psychedelics ("Turn you on", "went into a dream", "blew his mind out"). The cresendo is meant to mirror the onset of an acid trip. The resoundind C chord on the piano at the end is played by all four Beatles and represents the astonishing realization when peaking on psychedelics.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. anonymous

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    May 4th 2006 !⃝

    Well, Yellow Submarine was written by John and Paul, yet it was Ringo who sung it.
15. anonymous

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    Apr 13th 2006 !⃝

    unlabeld: Are you SURE this is Paul's work? I'm fairly certain the majority is John's. I may be wrong, but as a rule, whoever sung it, wrote it.

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