Beatles: The Fool on the Hill Meaning

Song Released: 1967

The Fool on the Hill Lyrics

Day after day, alone on a hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer.
But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eys...

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   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Feb 9th 2014 !⃝

   This song is a statement about nonconformity, prejudice, and true intelligence. The "fool" on the hill is wise, and unfairly judged by shallow minded conformists who are so indulged in hating, that they're unaware of the rhythms of observable life and truth all around them. The judgers hate the man on the hill because they don't understand him. They're confused due to their ignorance. The so called "fool" knows what they're doing, and chooses not to reply or correct their ignorant tendency to hate what they don't understand. Why should he argue with actual fools, when instead he can spend his time observing natural beauty.

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   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   May 14th 2013 !⃝

   Paul McCartney wrote this. It's about a man who is considered a fool by others, but whose foolish demeanor is actually an indication of wisdom. An event which prompted this song happened when Paul was walking his dog Martha, on Primrose Hill one morning. As he watched the sun rise, he noticed that Martha was missing. Paul turned around to look for his dog, and there a man stood, who appeared on the hill without making a sound. The gentleman was dressed respectably, in a belted raincoat. Paul knew this man had not been there seconds earlier as he had looked in that direction for Martha. Paul and the stranger exchanged a greeting, and this man then spoke of what a beautiful view it was from the top of this hill that overlooked London. Within a few seconds, Paul looked around again, and the man was gone. He had vanished as he had appeared. A friend of McCartney's, Alistair Taylor, was present with Paul during this strange incident, and wrote of this event in his book, Yesterday.
   Both Paul and Alistair could not imagine what happened to this man. He had seemed to vanish in thin air. The nearest trees for cover were too far to reach by walking or running in a few seconds, and the crest of the hill was too far as well to reach in that short time. What made the experience even more mysterious, was that just before this man first appeared, Paul and Alistair were speaking to each other of the beauty they observed of the view towards London and the existence of God. Once back home, they spent the morning discussing what had happened, trying to make some sense of it. They both agreed that this was something others were infer occurred as a result of an "acid trip," but they both swore they had not taken or used any drugs. When Paul filmed the sequence for this song in the film, it shows him on a hilltop overlooking the town of Nice.

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   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jan 24th 2017 !⃝

   Flat Earth
4. anonymous

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   May 29th 2023 !⃝

   I think this song is about nothing more than a statue, because it is always on the hill, smiling, has "a thousand voices"(possibly meaning it could sound any way because its voice is unknown), and the people are fools for thinking it is a person, or for viewing it with contempt and wasting their energy on an inanimate object.
5. anonymous

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   Jan 27th 2023 !⃝

   LBJ, the fool on the hill. (Capitol Hill). But the connection ends there. With The Us involvement in the Vietnam conflict…and LBJ’s sending troops there.
6. anonymous

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   May 15th 2021 !⃝

   I believe the song describe how one special person can see beyond the greed and hate. This special person doesn't fit in the in what others would call " the way of the world " In reality that special person can see the future destruction.
7. anonymous

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   Apr 7th 2021 !⃝

   King Lear appears to be the background of the song. Who is the real king and who is the real fool? Light/dark, laughter/tears. What is the nature of love?

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

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   Aug 27th 2020 !⃝

   Is it possible that Paul McCartney wrote that song because he had a vision/prediction (much like Nostradamus) about a future American President that would rule a Nation from 2016 to...?
9. anonymous

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   Feb 23rd 2020 !⃝

   I thought everyone knew that the song is about the statue of Christ in Rio standing on the hill with outstretched arms. The carnival music in the song supports this.
10. anonymous

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    Nov 27th 2019 !⃝

    The fool is modern science, scientism see's the sun going down ( factual observation ), but the "fool see's the world spinning around " his foolish thought exist only in his head. The Beatles are saying the earth is stationary.
11. anonymous

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    Oct 20th 2019 !⃝

    The song brings forth that to fool on the Hill has appreciation for aesthetic Beauty why we only have appreciation for function we have lost the world of imagination living it'll world Without Beauty it's like living in hell verse for shows the reverse we are the fools
    
12. anonymous

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    Sep 1st 2019 !⃝

    I believe this song is about The Fool (0) tarot card. Listen to the song and notice the symbology in this card... Just saying... LOL
13. anonymous

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    Jun 23rd 2019 !⃝

    To me, having a brother with mental issues, it speaks to me of a pathological person who is isolated from the rest of the world, partly his own choice, partly because normal folks can sense that he's trouble and purposely avoid him--they "can tell what he wants to do", which will mean destructive mayhem or even death. This song spooks me out, reminding me of my brother. There's reasons why "nobody seems to like him".
14. anonymous

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    Apr 12th 2019 !⃝

    Possibly a song about lennon, he was anti system, considered a fool for that very reason, and feared by those in control of his growing influence on the young. "They don't like him because they know what he wants to do" they=those in control.He knew those in control were phsycopaths taking those that are asleep for a ride(carnival music in song) on the spinning ball earth lie.... His message was peace, whereas the current system promotes fear and war. ....Hence he was removed.
15. anonymous

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    Mar 11th 2018 !⃝

    At one time many years ago I read that it was about Jesus Christ hanging on the cross. I have never seen that in print again.
16. anonymous

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    Nov 28th 2017 !⃝

    It doesn't matter what anyone else's interpretation of this song is. The only one who knows the meaning of the song is the one who wrote it ffs.

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

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    Nov 9th 2016 !⃝

    For me the fool on the hill is about taking a more holistic view. Using the eyes in his head (his mind) to see beyond the simple isolated fact of the 'sun going down' to see the complete picture, in this case a rotating earth.
18. anonymous

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    Oct 19th 2016 !⃝

    To my understanding it's a song about ''subconsciously assimilating'' the separation distance of the person who's meditating on the hill to obtain Nirvana[Christ-consciousness] to that of the Super Rich Elite type class that lives on the hill, where either or nobody wants to know him, and considers him ''the fool on the hill''. Where he's foolishly considered the outcast to the majority, either a fool on a hill meditating on God for the wealth of wisdom or a Super Rich Elite living on the hill with his wealth that he accumulated, thinking that he's a self made god, while watching the sun going down on the rest of us[the assumed and known fools]. All in a song to see and compare the two forms of ''the fool on the hill'' to simply see and imagine them there on the hill that was climbed up, but for different reasons that sometimes do come together for the good of the people that are down in the valleys below.

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