Beatles: You've Got To Hide Your Love Away Meaning

Song Released: 1965

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away Lyrics

Here I stand head in hand
Turn my face to the wall
If she’s gone I can’t go on
Feelin’ two-foot small

Everywhere people stare
Each and every day
I can see them laugh at me
And I hear them say

Hey you’ve got to hide your love away
Hey...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 18th 2009 !⃝

   Apparently, the Epstein theory about this song is correct.
   Brian Epstein faced a lot of grief facing his family (and even a disciplinary incident during military service) because of his homosexuality. By the time this song was written, Brian had a major crush on John. John apparently had to push back on Epstein's passes, but took pity and gave in to, uh, doing a particular sex act with Epstein (HJ). Epstein, who was proper to a fault, became quite embarrased after the fact, and apologized profusely to John. John then wrote this song, using Brian's perspective. Obviously, "she" was not a she, but a he.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 25th 2006 !⃝

   "here I stand head in hand
   turn my face to the wall
   if she's gone I can't go on
   feeling 2 foot small"
   
   obviously he's in love. He is sad, and moping around. "if she's gone", or if she doesn't love him or is with someone else, he "cant go on" or feels like he can't live his life without her. He feels "2 foot small", meaning he feels unimportant without her love, or compared to whoever she is with.
   
   "everywhere people stare
   each and every single day
   i can see them laugh at me
   and I hear them say
   hey you gotta hide your love away
   hey you gotta hide your love away"
   
   he knows he needs to hide his love, or make it less obvious. people laugh at him because the girl he loves is with someone else, as hinted to in the next verse. He doesn't really care that they laugh, and is ambivalent to it, when in the following chorus he says "gather 'round all you clowns let me hear you say..." she leaves him cold, and he doesn't care what everyone says
   
   "how can I even try
   i can never win
   hearing them seeing them
   in the state I'm in
   how could she say to me
   love will find a way"
   
   he wonders how he can try to hide his love when he is "hearing them" and "seeing them", meaning his love and whoever she is with. He is in a heartbroken "state", and cannot stand to see the 2 of them together. He wonders how she can either say or communicate to him that love will "find a way" when he is heartbroken and left cold and jealous. However, he is too sad and heartbroken for rage or anger, hence "head in hand" "turn my face to the wall".
   
   "gather 'round all you clowns let me hear you say
   hey you gotta hide your love away
   hey you gotta hide your love away"
   
   thank you. I hope this helped.

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   Sara A. Rodgers

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 10th 2011 !⃝

   I read that it was about a short love affair between John Lennon and Brian Epstien, as well--years and years ago. It was in a biography about John--"Lennon", I think.
   
   I think John loved Brian too, even if not in that way--still, our man John WAS a strange ducky, and... I can see him loving him (he did love a few people, you know, like we all did or do... it is possible).
   
   I fear (and I am not alone in this) that Brian killed himself over his (I believe pretty well documented--and, SO easy to understand!) love of John, or shame of what might've happened concerning him, or maybe only the seeings-of-John-with-Cynthia/Girls/Yoko.
   --This *would* explain why (if this and/or other pseudo-biographies are true) Johnny (
   John was special... he was Open and he was Passionate.
   ...And I know darned tootin' that I know lots and lots (and lots) of people who have had at least one (or more) measly same-sex experience!
   
   And So Do YOU monkeys -thwap-!
   
   Honestly--quit marking these well-written, well-thought-out, and actually-EDUCATED (!) opinions as "poor comments"--they aren't 'poor' just because you are a WEE BIT homophobic, m'KAY?
   And, in this case?... it's quite likely true that a homosexual (GAsP nO zOmG WhAI), er, 'situation' transpired.
   
   At least, it's true that this rumor-or-fact WAS written about IN a Lennon biography!!
   
   lol... phew. Sorry, I get to yellen about me JOHN.
   
   Bless your soul John... god, I miss you... (sometimes I say to a friend, "I miss John," as if I knew him! funny. another life... I believe it.:)).
   <3.
   P.S.~ HEY! Maybe I was Brian! -delighted- =D
   and...
   P.P.S.~ Hey... am I really the only one who thinks it's sweet? John giving poor Brian some love? :'(...<3...
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Dec 17th 2020 !⃝

   This song is about a boy who is in love with someone but for some reason could not reveal his love for the girl. I use to have a friend who love this song so much because he said that he is so in love with a rich girl, but he came from a very poor family, so he have to hide his love away. We grew up in this place were rich do not mingle with the poor.
5. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Feb 21st 2020 !⃝

   It's about his mum when she died
6. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 16th 2019 !⃝

   To me, it's about having an affair with someone.
7. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Oct 21st 2018 !⃝

   This song is about his interracial relationship with Yoko Ono
8. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Mar 22nd 2018 !⃝

   The girl in pink is a drag queen. Nothing more to say!
9. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 28th 2016 !⃝

   It is a love song he is in a relationship with another where many people will be affected by this but in love with someone else unselfish not wanting to hurt all the other important people in his life hides it
10. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Sep 24th 2016 !⃝

    If John lennon is bisexual and Brian is gay then clearly its made for lgbt people.
11. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Sep 24th 2016 !⃝

    You homophobic shits need to get over yourselves. Let gay people have a song for once, fuck.
    
    The song is clearly made for brian and was hidden with heterosexual undertones
12. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Aug 31st 2016 !⃝

    It's heterosexual & about a girl he's in love with.
13. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Jul 15th 2016 !⃝

    I personally believe this song is referring to the heartbreak caused by a lover that any given person can go through. The chorus is advising to move on (hide your love away) when hitting rock bottom after being heart broken. A hard thing to do, but necessary in order to heal and to let time take it's course. It's saying to burry the heartbreak, move on, and let it be. Not doing so is sad, tragic, unhealthy, and will eventually gain ridicule and mockery from peers and society in general. The song is basically advise on how to buck up and move on.
14. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    May 25th 2015 !⃝

    Whatever the reason, the girl in the story doesn't want others to know that they are in a relationship together.
15. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Sep 9th 2013 !⃝

    He is in love with a slut everyone knows she's a slut that's why they are laughing and that's why you have to hide her away because she will sleep with others if you don't
16. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Feb 17th 2013 !⃝

    He has to hide his love away because she's ugly? WTF? How old are you
17. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Mar 29th 2012 !⃝

    This is so pathetic... The Beatles... the early Beatles... whose most deep song was Love Me Do... writing a song about Epstein's homosexuality... Come on! There is absolutely nothing hidden in this song but the guy's love for the girl as in every other song in that album, and the one before, and the one before. They're all songs about love. Nothing more, nothing less.
18. anonymous

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    • 5

    click a star to vote

    Nov 29th 2011 !⃝

    No, no, no... Tom Robinson ("Glad To Be Gay") started the speculation about this song being a paean to Brian Epstein. IT IS NOT. There has been no word, deed or hint by anyone in the know that this song is about Brian. Long after "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" finally stopped being part of the rumor mill, people persist in keeping up this tired old chestnut. Give it up.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)