Beatles: Julia Meaning

Song Released: 1968

Julia Lyrics

Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you, Julia

Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia
Julia, seashell eyes, windy smile, calls me
So I sing a song of love, Julia

Her hair of floating...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   jryfrmjrsy

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   Aug 31st 2008 !⃝

   Originally, my interpretation of Julia was that the song was written for Julian Lennon. A thought shared by my mother, a teenage Beatles fan when they began, when I first discovered the Beatles myself. After having a discussion with a friend of mine about the song Julia, I realized that it was Hey Jude that was written for Julian, and not as much for Julian but to Julian. This was the name Paul used for the song because Jude was easier to sing than Jules, as the original song title was, Hey Jules.
   After some research, like http://www.lennon.net/reflections/julia_baird4.shtml, Wiki, and others, and trying to interpret the song myself this is what I have learned.
   
   John did, according to his sister, realize his love for his son and how much he missed Julian when he was away from home and stated this in letters to his sister. Julia was written in 1968, when Julian was five and John was in India. John had met Yoko in 1966 and married her in 1969. So it is easy to believe the song is about either Julian or Yoko or John’s mother, who’s name is Julia.
   So here is my interpretation:
   The song Julia was inspired by the poem Sand and Foam, by Kahlil Gibran, and is John Lennon’s way of telling his mom, Julia, his love for Yoko.
   And here is how I came to this…
   In 1966, Donovan came out with an album called Mellow Yellow on which a song named Mellow Yellow featured Paul McCartney as backup.
   In 1968, John learned how to play the finger-picking style, called Travis-picking, from Donovan in India where Julia was written.
   Another song on Mellow Yellow is called Sand and Foam, which Julia sounds like musically, in my opinion.
   Sand and Foam is also the name of a poem written by Kahlil Gibran.
   This is my breakdown:
   From Julia:
   Half of what I say is meaningless
   But I say it just to reach you, Julia
   The line from the poem reads:
   “Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.”
   John could be saying this part to his mom who had passed.
   From Julia:
   Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me
   So I sing a song of love, Julia
   Julia, seashell eyes, windy smile, calls me
   So I sing a song of love, Julia
   Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering
   In the sun
   My interpretation:
   John is singing about Yoko, translated to mean ocean child in kanji in Japanese, to his mom and telling his mom of what she looks like and he is in love with her.
   From Julia:
   Julia, Julia, morning moon, touch me
   So I sing a song of love, Julia
   When I cannot sing my heart
   I can only speak my mind, Julia
   Julia, sleeping sand, silent cloud, touch me
   This, I believe, is more examples of how the poem inspired John which includes another Lennon version of this line from the poem:
   When life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.
   He then concludes with:
   So I sing a song of love, Julia
   Hum hum hum hum... calls me
   So I sing a song of love for Julia, Julia, Julia
   This is where he is saying why he sings this song of love for his mom, because he is in love and he is letting her know.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   Beatlemaniac

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   Aug 24th 2008 !⃝

   Eh ehhem, you are one of those guys who was a hippie, right? (above). You went to Woodstock, all the Vietnam protest and the rest of that bullshit. I'm sorry to say, but you are looking for something that isn't there. John wrote it about Julia, his mom, and clarified it in all the interviews about it. So stop being dumb.
3. anonymous

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   Mar 5th 2013 !⃝

   I think it's basically about him singing to his dead mother about his new love, Yoko.
4. Helena16

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   Apr 6th 2009 !⃝

   I agree with Jryfrnjrsy, your explanation makes alot of sense.
   Insight, I think you need to get over yourself and let people make their own minds up about what they think it means. I understand having a love for The Beatles, I am a big fan myself... but studying them for forty years? What is that going to achieve? There is a difference between having an unhealthy obsession, like you apparently do, and being a loyal fan.
5. anonymous

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   Apr 6th 2009 !⃝

   I think this is John's way of asking Julian permission to be with Yoko. She was the ocean child. Also, John's main interactions with Julian was through the media. So, 'half the things I say are meaningless'.
6. anonymous

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   Nov 18th 2008 !⃝

   The song is about the two most important women in John's life: his mother, Julia, and Yoko, which is translated to "ocean child"
7. Insight

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   Sep 3rd 2008 !⃝

   To BeatleManiac,
   I've been studying the Beatles for forty years. How much research have you done on their music, lives and activities during the 60's? If their lyrics are just about simplistic love songs, why do millions of people try to analyze and understand what they were up to? There's a whole lot about them you do not understand. They always denied everything to the press because what they tried to do was very risky given their immense influence. Yes, I was somewhat of a hippie and it was the hippie subculture that the Beatles were communicating with.
   Use the WEB, find out what was going on back then and you will learn that the Beatles tried to create a new society based on love and community instead of war and meaningless empty materialism.
   
   "To judge without investigation is the height of ignorance"
   Albert Einstein
8. Insight

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   Sep 2nd 2008 !⃝

   You're very wrong. John denied many things like Lucy in the Sky had nothing to do with LSD. I was never a full fledged hippie, but I can tell one thing, you don't understand the Beatles, even a little bit. The sad part is if you did, you would see the spiritual meaning in many of their songs and what they are really tell us.
9. Insight

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   Jul 9th 2008 !⃝

   Half of what I say is meaningless
   But I say it just to reach you (you and me)
   
   That's what this song is about. He's telling you that half of the words in his songs are "meaningless" put there to divert attention from the real message which was quite dangerous to express from a group as influential as the Beatles. A way of getting you to listen carefully and hear the real message. The real message was "drop out" come to "LA".
   "BE AT los ange LES" Check the back of the Abbey Road album,
   notice the offset of the Beatles letters. They're telling us all (hippies) to "come together at LA. "There's a fog upon LA and my friends have lost their way" "Please don't be long"
   "Come together right now" "All you need is love" "we can change the world". Get it, it's not about the Beatles or Yoko or a Walrus or anybody named Julia. It's about starting a new society of love and peace, the Magical Mystery Tour, Strawberry fields, imagine. "If they only knew we could change the world".
   Sadly, it never happened because most people didn't know, they saw only the nonsensical lyrics and missed the Beatles call for "Dear Prudence" to stop grasping at what you own and "come out to play" in the "good day sunshine" and "give me hope, give me hope, give me peace on earth"
10. Beatlemaniac

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    Apr 17th 2007 !⃝

    Ya, I thought so. After I sent in my first interp., I thought I sounded pretty stupid, since sean was like two, if he was even born yet. So thanks for the real right answer
    
    Also,thanks for the ocen child part.
11. anonymous

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    Mar 22nd 2007 !⃝

    This song is for Julia Lennon, John's mother, who died in a car accident when John was in his late teens (around 17 I think). He had grown up with his aunt Mimi instead of his mother, but that had gotten very close in her last years.
    
    The ocean child lyric is a reference to Yoko Ono; the kanji for Yoko means ocean child.
12. anonymous

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    Mar 16th 2007 !⃝

    I think This song is about John's Son Julian. He was divorced from Julian's mother Cynthia, and then remarried. I read from another user in the interpretations for a day in the life that he had Sean and kinda blew off Julian. So when he says that " half of what I say is meaningless", he could be talking about how Julian doesn't want anything to do with him. He says "oceanchild", but I don't know what he means. His mother was also named Julia, but I think he is talking about Julian. My dad's family were really huge Beatles fans when they were still playing together, and listened to them a lot. I was talking with him one day, and he said that in a magazine arcticle that interviewed John, he said that John named it Julia because with the strong prejudice of America, he would look homosexual. I'm not sure if this is true, because he wrote this song a while ago. That is my interpretation, and please reply if you have more info!

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