When I was five years old my dad introduced me to a little know band called The Beatles. I instantly fell in love them. In fact for a decent part of my childhood, it was the only music I listened to. I owned all the albums and whenever I was in the car driving to school, or to one of my basketball games, my dad and I would have the Beatles playing loud and proud.
The Beatles are a unique band. They are perhaps the most popular music group in the history of the world. They were - and still are - so famous that just about anyone in touch with world culture, even to the slightest degree, is familiar with them. As John Lennon once famously exaggerated, “The Beatles are more popular then Jesus.”
As a result of their popularity, much of the world has been hearing The Beatles’ for most of their lives. And I suspect that most people believe they know a lot of Beatles’ songs, but do they really? Have they ever listened to the lyrics and tried to hear their meaning? Have they questioned the mood that the melody is trying to convey? Sometimes when things are so ubiquitous, they are taken for granted.
Growing up there was one Beatle song that always stuck with me. It was the last song on the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album, “A Day In The Life.” I instantly felt a connection to the song but had trouble determining why. In a strange way, I was caught in syndrome that The Beatles had created with their popularity. I was listening to the song, but as a child I didn't have the brainpower to decipher the meaning.
Now, as a young adult, I still feel like I have a strong connection to A Day In The Life - and I’m beginning to see why. The song takes two of the most somber aspects of life, struggle and hardship, and presents them in completely different points of view that can be interpreted in many ways. The song recognizes the rough edges of life and sees no choice but to find the humor in them. The song also hints at a remarkable thought - that although it is easy to get lost in the day-to-day activities of life there is always something bigger and more meaningful out there.
I find myself connected to both these themes. First, I am confronted by struggle and hardship all the time. It is my belief that most people are. Who hasn’t faced some form of struggle in their life?
John Lennon captures the first idea of struggle in the opening lines of the song, “I read the news today, oh boy/ About a lucky man who made the grave/ 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 light had/ Changed.” Lennon captures the image of a disturbingly gruesome car crash, an event resulting in a tragic death. Most people in the world would be saddened or frightened by a deadly car crash. And to some degree Lennon is too. However he “just had to laugh.” Lennon finds this comedic in some way. What is unclear is in what way does he see this as funny? Is it gallows humor? Is Lennon simply feeling the same way most do after hearing this news, sad and depressed, but making the choice to present his feelings in a unique manner. Or is it just a desperate attempt to use comic despair in order to reconcile the randomness, or injustice the world presents. Or perhaps he does find it genuinely funny that he just “had to laugh.”
The truth is Beatle lyrics are complex. When listening to a Beatle song you can have an initial reaction to what the lyrics mean. But then, when you think it over again and again, you find there are many more levels to explore. Think about what we just analyzed, a deadly car crash. At first blush it is just an obviously horrendous situation. Yet Lennon’s reaction to this tragedy is so surprising it forces us to question where he’s coming from. The song is suggesting that we can laugh at tragedies – but it’s up to us to figure what that really means.
No matter how it is deciphered, laughing at hardship in life is not always easy. Everyone goes through struggle in some fashion: physically, mentally, or emotionally. Yes a deadly car crash is an extreme example, however the song truly opens the door to a new way of thinking. Why does everything have to be taken so seriously? In fact I’ve often thought of how everything that happens in life is simply nothing more than a joke. I mean where do we draw the line between what is to be laughed at and what is to be taken seriously?
I am no exception to struggle. For the past couple of years, starting with the summer after my senior year of high school, my health has been horrendous. I got strep throat practically once a month. It got to the point where I had to live on antibiotics for the second half of my freshman year in college. I ended up getting my tonsils out the following summer and still have nerve discomforts to this day. But what I have noticed is that my own objective thinking can sway my body’s feeling. When I get angry and frustrated with my health, it only gets worse. And when I am relaxed and can look at it from a certain perspective, perhaps with a smile, it gets better.
Later on in Lennon’s verse he says, “I saw a film today, oh boy/ The English army had just won the war/ A crowd of people turned away/ But I just had to look/ Having read the book/ I'd love to turn you on.” These words express similar ideas to laughing at something thought on by society as a negative. The “crowd of people” he refers to seems to be people in a movie theater watching the film with Lennon. But Lennon doesn’t conform to the norm here either. He again expresses the ideals of going against the expected reaction.
This is another example of a different way of thinking about struggle in life. In the song, everyone else can’t bear to watch the film about the war. Yet Lennon is intrigued and curious. He “read the book.” Lennon again adds complexity to his words as he leaves us to question why he “had to look.” Is Lennon saying that he welcomes war and death? Is he a voyeur of pain? If so, does that make him a bad person? Then again, why is viewing death in a different light, such as laughing at a car crash, or literally viewing death on a screen, a negative? Perhaps Lennon is just intrigued by life and death and everything in-between. There is nothing to suggest that he means harm.
Again, the Beatles lyrics are multifaceted. Maybe the message is that life has everything to offer. It can be viewed in any light. Perhaps it is the way in which we interpret it that makes all the difference. The last line “I love to turn you on” seems to suggest that Lennon is inviting us into this complex reality – where viewing hardship through humor can lead us into many intriguing potentials.
Most people don’t know this but when The Beatles recorded their hit “A Day In The Life” they made the orchestra dress up in tuxedos, and then put on party hats and fake noses. For me this is the perfect juxtaposition of taking life seriously while at the same time being able to laugh at it. Perhaps this is the best example for the song’s first theme – take in all forms of life and don't be limited. It is a powerful lesson.
The second theme, which I appreciate so much in A Day In The Life, hits home on a even deeper level. Midway through the song, a 41 piece orchestra starts a 30 second build up by playing the lowest note and gradually playing to the highest. The notes get louder and more dramatic as the seconds go by, almost as if to serve as a transition between the two different ideas the song is trying to present to us. The notes suddenly stop and we are ready for our next lesson.
That lesson is that there is more to life than meets the eye. The title presents such a simple idea, “A Day In The Life.” And in fact the song actually does describe “a day in the life” as McCartney says, “Woke up, fell out of bed/ Dragged a comb across my head/ Found my way downstairs and drank a cup/ And looking up I noticed I was late/ Found my coat and grabbed my hat/ Made the bus in seconds flat.” This simple language paints a picture that is so ordinary and mundane. McCartney is simply detailing a man who is going through the daily activities of life. And then, all of the sudden he says, “And I went into a dream,” and the melody hits. Boom! Suddenly the song becomes something more. Suddenly it’s not just everyday life. Suddenly the song is hinting at the mystical possibilities that life has to offer. The orchestrated notes talk to an imaginary world. This is a big reason why this song was so powerful. It was able to use more than just its lyrics to portray the message it is trying to get across. The orchestra separates us from the mundane “day in the life” activities and brings us into this “alternate universe.” Sometimes as humans we need reminders that this “alternate universe” exists. A universe where dreams can become reality and we are not stuck in learned helplessness. Instead we can see the possibilities that the future holds.
In fact Paul McCartney actually tells us what this part of the song refers to. In describing “A Day In The Life,” McCartney said that this transition into a “dream” refers to his youth when he used to drift off into these imaginary worlds.
Everyone has a path they believe their life will follow. For most that is getting an education, having a job and a family, and then retiring. I notice as the school weeks go by, and the years begin to pile up, the daily routines of life become more and more predictable. And yes, I have a routine I must go through right now, but I also know that there is something greater out there for me – something that goes beyond the mundane. Let me put it this way; we are all going through the daily motions that our lives require for a reason. We are all trying to reach our goals. We are all trying to find that “something” out there. One must go through the routine in order transcend the routine.
But even thinking about the bigger picture can be overwhelming. For example, as my college career drifts quickly by, I often wonder what’s ahead. Ever since I was a kid I would dream of my life as an adult and it would make me anxious. It will bring up thoughts of struggle. But then I attempt to catch myself. I will question why I am getting worried about the hardships I may face in the future. Shouldn’t I just approach my life like one of those orchestra members who arrived to play on The Beatles song “A Day In The Life?” I’ll show up in my tuxedo but I’ll be prepared at any moment to put on my party hat and fake nose and “just have to laugh.”
Ultimately “A Day In The Life” by The Beatles gives us an outline for how to live our lives – and perhaps the best way to do so. The song does a tremendous job of giving us purpose and enjoyment. These things can become difficult to find and easily lost in the shuffle of life. This song is truly one of Lennon and McCartney’s most vivid pieces of work. It is as if they are dedicating a song to help our lives be easier, and help us live happier.
When I listened to the Sgt. Peppers album with my dad in the car I loved the song “A Day In The Life.” However, as a child I could not begin to understand, or even begin to formulate the thoughts that the legendary song provokes within me now. As I sit here writing this piece I am learning more and more about myself, about humanity, and just about life in general. There are a lot of cruel occurrences in the world. And life isn’t easy; most have to go through a lot to get where they want to go. So to have a song touch on the irony that it is to suffer, while still being able to break down both a day in the life of an ordinary man, and the mystical ability to both have a dream and chase it is something I find truly magical. Something perhaps, only The Beatles could do.
It as if the song’s hidden messages serve as metaphor for the lessons The Beatles were offering the world. You can live on the surface, with struggle and hardship constantly serving as a burden, and you can take your life for granted and fail to see the bigger picture. Or you can begin to decipher your life, just as you can decipher a Beatle song. You can put things in perspective, look deeper, and thus open you’re mind to larger opportunities.
Perhaps by the time The Beatles created the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Album they realized the predicament they were in. Maybe they knew their popularity would overshadow their invaluable life lessons and they created hidden messages within their songs in order to reward those who took the time to look for them. Because you can say just about whatever you want about The Beatles, but one thing you cant say is that they were just “any old band.”