Beatles: Hello Goodbye Meaning

Song Released: 1967

Covered By: Glee Cast

Hello Goodbye Lyrics

You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go, go, go
Oh, no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello
Hello, hello
I don't know why you say goodbye
I say hello

I say high, you say...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Oct 15th 2010 !⃝

   My name is Amanda. I interpret this song in a few ways. i think you are all right. But I think it could be i'm a positive person, (hello) you're a negative person,(goodbye) and I don't know why you're negative when i'm so positive. Or it could be two people who are best friends are partners who are complete opposites but the happy music makes me think that even though they're opposites, they work together. They have their ups and downs but in the end, hello, goodbye. It suggests a few things to me as you can see.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Mar 11th 2009 !⃝

   I have heard that this song was to depict the relationship between John and Paul. Meaning that their personalities were so different one always said hello and the other always said goodbye.
3. anonymous

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   Oct 5th 2014 !⃝

   Hello (Goodbye in a minute)
   Here is just another part of the His-(s) tory played out in Rock'N Roll and all that followed.
   I agree with the girl above that it's again like the Beatles "We can work it out" begging almost for both sides to see there's a way and no room for stuborn pride. Yes, as she said above, negaitve. A negative pattern where the one or the other fall into the roll of the Devil's Advocate. It's the story, and can found all over Rock Music:
   "You can say black when you know that it's white, wrong when you that it's right, it's always the same it's just a shame and that's all" Phil Collins
   "You say black I say white, you say wrong I say right, oh give me break man, I dont't believe in Peter Pan.... All I want to do is Bicycle" Queen
   (..just to mention a few..
   Anyway it's a beautiful song, and no one wrote it better than The Fabs. But some of these interpretations are hillarious. Songwriters, and I have reson to believe this, do not always write about themselves and their wifes. Actually they try to get to other levels purposely, and they never give away what was in their head when they wrote it, because the magic of music is that a song can mean a thousand different things to a thousand different people. So to pin it down on Yoko or John is just a laugh...
   They had enough of each other everyday, I don't think that right after they finally get a break each other and then they start in on writing songs about each other. Rock is spiritual! They had Prophets 2 thousand years ago, as well as Saviours and Angels, etc. If you believe that, than believe that they are here today as well. Far as I can see the only modern day prophesy is in the music...
4. anonymous

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   Jul 1st 2014 !⃝

   They could be talking about a ouija board. A ouija board has hello and goodbye on it, it has yes and no on it in fact those are the only words on it. They could be singing about an experience with demonic forces-the beatles were always doing strange things.
5. anonymous

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   Mar 3rd 2014 !⃝

   If you look at Hello Goodbye from a time prospective (so the 1960s) you have two extremely different generations of the the parents of the the counter culture hippies. So could this be a song that is saying why are you trying to stop trying to make things equal or right in the world. Or it could be saying you can say goodbye but that won't stop us from doing what we believe is right and just because the times are changing so you can leave us or join us in the fight it is your choice.
6. anonymous

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   Aug 23rd 2012 !⃝

   To me, this song is about Paul and John, and how they are somewhat opposite. Paul is very optimistic, despite the bad things that happen ("I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello..."), and John had a tough life (his mom died when he was 17, just after he started to get to know her - he lived with his aunt)and was more pessimistic. They were really good friends, and this song is Paul's reflection on how they interacted with each other.
7. anonymous

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   Mar 9th 2012 !⃝

   Two people who are opposites, yet they love each other. Or like another interpreter said , positive negative.
8. anonymous

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   Oct 11th 2011 !⃝

   John and Paul must have sensed a breakup was imminent by '68. Perhaps as pointless as the lyrics seemed to be, John and his wit would've drawn a smirk to realize the song can be a foreshadowing of how the world will react when the Beatles break up for good. What the world would see as the end of something great, John (and Paul) would see as the beginning of a life as an individual. "I don't know why you say Goodbye....I say hello.".
9. MONGOOSE

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   Jun 10th 2009 !⃝

   This song has nothing to do with the band at all.
   
   It's about John and Yoko, John sung a lot of songs about Him and Yoko and Yoko didn't like it one bit, like a lot of some songs John did, theirs a lot of them, like "Hello Goodbye" and if you can read between the lines you will know what I'm talking about.
   You think when John sung "when we go to bed we could get it right and get it straight and say good night".
   That he was talking about Paul.......Don't think so.
   John and Yoko were apart a lot more than people knew, it looked like in pictures that they were together all the time. No way, Yoko went to China in one years time maybe 4 to 6 months out of the year and kept flying back and forth. They were apart at one time up to 5 months and they had a lot of arguments behind close doors, then Yoko put on her "Happy" Face, if you want to call that a happy face Yoko never smiled in most of all the pictures when they were in public, John for some ungodly reason was so in love with Yoko and know one really knows why he had a happy face most all the time, maybe no one.
   Their is someone out there that knew John inside and out better than John knew himself and even thinks a lot like John...wired huh?.
   Hello Goodbye,
   THE MONGOOSE
10. anonymous

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    Feb 6th 2009 !⃝

    This song was released with the first music video, with Hawaiian hula dancers. I think that if there was a tug between John and Paul about the serious of the music, Paul won with this song. Despite the empty lyrics, Paul sounds plaintive on "I don't know why you say good-bye," which only proves that Paul can take just about anything and make it seem filled with emotion.
11. anonymous

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    Dec 11th 2008 !⃝

    Maybe they are saying goodbye to the real Paul because of his so called "death" and hello to the new member?
12. devc770

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    Oct 20th 2008 !⃝

    For the record, it was John who was not fond of this song. When Paul presented it to him, John thought the fact that the song was meaningless and based solely on contradiction was a step in the wrong direction for the band. At a time when John was pushing the band into higher artistic endeavors, it seemed like a silly feel good song was a dumb move. Ironic that its become such a classic, isn't it.
13. anonymous

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    Apr 23rd 2008 !⃝

    Ok, Paul never died. That myth was proven wrong 30 years ago. Trust me. I had been addicted to proving he was alive until I learned that. now I'm satisfied. Paul is a happy 64 year old. want proof? ok!
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur-R0JwY6e4
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huNOsFQa_Ns
14. anonymous

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    Dec 27th 2007 !⃝

    I think this song has something to do with saying goodbye to Paul McCartney and hello to William Campbell. Just a guess though.
15. cam_ozzy

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    Sep 10th 2007 !⃝

    Hello Goodbye is a song about a girl who Paul is in love with, but she is hie totally opposite. (Hello/Goodbye,Stop/Go, etc...)
16. anonymous

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    Sep 9th 2007 !⃝

    Hello Goodbye is about Paul and a girl. And they are total opposites. But for some reason he is still in love with her.
17. brielle

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    Apr 14th 2007 !⃝

    I know that the above is true.. but some people can take this song and think it's about a rape. "you say stop and I say go go go" ha... obvious here she is saying stop and he's just like no, lets go!! *rape*

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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