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6.52pm
8 November 2012
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Linde said
There are worse songs though.
I’ve never understood this as an argument in favor of something. I probably wouldn’t listen to those worse songs either.
parlance
4.26am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
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Not my favourite Lennon track by a long way. I agree with him about it being a bit of “hack work” to finish off the album. I’ve never understood the problem with the lyric though. Not exactly PC, but the most objectionable line, and its starting point, was written by Arthur Gunter –
“Now listen to me, baby
Try to understand.
I’d rather see you dead, little girl,
Than to be with another man.”
Baby, Let’s Play House
It’s not exactly a Lennon confessional like so many of his other songs. Now his contribution to “Getting Better “…
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
4.29am
6 December 2012
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mja6758 said
Not my favourite Lennon track by a long way. I agree with him about it being a bit of “hack work” to finish off the album. I’ve never understood the problem with the lyric though. Not exactly PC, but the most objectionable line, and its starting point, was written by Arthur Gunter –“Now listen to me, baby
Try to understand.
I’d rather see you dead, little girl,
Than to be with another man.”Baby, Let’s Play House
It’s not exactly a Lennon confessional like so many of his other songs. Now his contribution to “Getting Better “…
Wait , he actually beat Cynthia?!?!?!?!?
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4.39am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Egroeg Evoli said
mja6758 said
Not my favourite Lennon track by a long way. I agree with him about it being a bit of “hack work” to finish off the album. I’ve never understood the problem with the lyric though. Not exactly PC, but the most objectionable line, and its starting point, was written by Arthur Gunter –“Now listen to me, baby
Try to understand.
I’d rather see you dead, little girl,
Than to be with another man.”Baby, Let’s Play House
It’s not exactly a Lennon confessional like so many of his other songs. Now his contribution to “Getting Better “…
Wait , he actually beat Cynthia?!?!?!?!?
Which is what he admits to in “Getting Better ” –
“I used to be cruel to my woman
I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved
Man, I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can”
That he admitted was confessional. RFYL was always just a lyric lifted from an Elvis song and worked into something new.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
5.53am
1 November 2012
Offline Well, at least John was determined to “change his scene” — so that makes it ok.
(Apart from my dripping sarcasm there, I’m not entirely certain he didn’t slip up later: after all “doing the best that I can” doesn’t mean you’ve actually stopped making the mistakes you rather chipperly rue. Aside from that, though, I thought that was mostly a Paul song — as usual, about a fictional personage. I can’t find a way out of these parentheses; so I think I’ll end here…)
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6.11am
5 November 2011
Offline mja6758 said
Egroeg Evoli said
mja6758 said
Not my favourite Lennon track by a long way. I agree with him about it being a bit of “hack work” to finish off the album. I’ve never understood the problem with the lyric though. Not exactly PC, but the most objectionable line, and its starting point, was written by Arthur Gunter –“Now listen to me, baby
Try to understand.
I’d rather see you dead, little girl,
Than to be with another man.”Baby, Let’s Play House
It’s not exactly a Lennon confessional like so many of his other songs. Now his contribution to “Getting Better “…
Wait , he actually beat Cynthia?!?!?!?!?
Which is what he admits to in “Getting Better ” –
“I used to be cruel to my woman
I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved
Man, I was mean but I’m changing my scene
And I’m doing the best that I can”That he admitted was confessional. RFYL was always just a lyric lifted from an Elvis song and worked into something new.
John didn’t physically beat Cyn, that probably means emotionally. I could be remembering wrong, but in Cynthia’s book I believe she said he only hit her once, and that was when they were still in art school.
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11.51am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline I remember John saying he would hit out at his girlfriends tho mainly when he was a teenager but have no idea where i read that or what source so this comment is practically pointless. Its also been rumoured that John began hitting Yoko before they split in ’73 and that was one of the reasons why she kicked him out.
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12.33pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline A couple of quotes from John, one on each track, that Joe uses in his entries on the songs, taken from David Sheff’s “All We Are Saying”.
On Run For Your Life : “Just a sort of throwaway song of mine that I never thought much of, but it was always a favourite of George’s.
“It has a line from an old Presley song: ‘I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man’ is a line from an old blues song that Presley did once.”
On Getting Better : “It is a diary form of writing. All that ‘I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved’ was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically – any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything’s the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster.”
I think both songs raise an eyebrow, but the one he admits his contribution to was about him raises my eyebrow higher.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
3.49pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline mja6758 said
Not my favourite Lennon track by a long way. I agree with him about it being a bit of “hack work” to finish off the album.
By now, we’ve all read John’s comments on how much he supposedly hated the song. That being said, it wasn’t just to finish off the album. On the contrary, it was the first song they worked on for Rubber Soul.
That fact doesn’t make the song any better or worse, it just disples anyone’s (not necessarily yours, mja6758) theory that they needed to throw this song on at the last minute to complete the album. To be fair, the entire album was hastily put together (staring in mid October 1965) in order to get it out before Christmas. Even though I like the song I often wonder, if John was telling the truth about hating the song so much, if it would have been included at all had they been given more time to come up with new material.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
4.25pm
8 November 2012
Offline Zig said
Even though I like the song I often wonder, if John was telling the truth about hating the song so much, if it would have been included at all had they been given more time to come up with new material.
Well, I don’t think he hated it at the time of recording, even it if was a hack job. Again, I think being introduced to feminism influenced his later embarrassment of the song.
In response to those who mention that it is a borrowed Elvis lyric, I also don’t understand the argument that his borrowing it lessens the impact. The fact he borrowed it tells me he related to it on some level. A misogynistic lyric is a misogynistic lyric no matter what the source.
parlance
3.34pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline Zig said
mja6758 said
Not my favourite Lennon track by a long way. I agree with him about it being a bit of “hack work” to finish off the album.
By now, we’ve all read John’s comments on how much he supposedly hated the song. That being said, it wasn’t just to finish off the album. On the contrary, it was the first song they worked on for Rubber Soul.
That fact doesn’t make the song any better or worse, it just disples anyone’s (not necessarily yours, mja6758) theory that they needed to throw this song on at the last minute to complete the album. To be fair, the entire album was hastily put together (staring in mid October 1965) in order to get it out before Christmas. Even though I like the song I often wonder, if John was telling the truth about hating the song so much, if it would have been included at all had they been given more time to come up with new material.
Hands up, writing something quick, I got part of it wrong. RFYL was the first song recorded for Rubber Soul , I thank you for the correction, and apologise for any unintended confusion.
I do feel you’re right though, that weren’t RS recorded so quickly, and they’d had the time, the song would probably have been discarded.
I think the main point I was making though, much as is wrong with the lyric of RFYL (and overall it’s in my Top 100 Beatles songs, better than average), his contribution to Getting Better can’t be ignored.
"I only said we were bigger than Rod... and now there's all this!" Ron Nasty
To @ Ron Nasty it's @ mja6758
The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
1.45pm
7 February 2014
Offline I think perhaps the reason why John disliked it so much is because maybe he himself considered it a blatant rip off of an old Elvis tune. The Beatles were of course very eager to innovate and experiment and push the boundaries back by this stage and John was wanting to express himself more with his lyrics, so I believe he may have seen Run For Your Life as a step backwards at the time. It does seem out of place to me to have something so retro at the end of such a groundbreaking LP. I think perhaps John felt he was on autopilot on this one and that he wrote this to meet a contractual obligation rather than out of genuine inspiration.
7.12pm
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Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Run For Your Life was the first track recorded for Rubber Soul and wasn’t about for Help ! so it wasn’t written to fill in an extra track. Girl was one, if not the last track written and recorded for RS, and of course to get the magic #14 they pulled Wait out of the vault and finished it off.
I must be in the very small majority but i really like the song, always have. John’s vocal is great as is George’s solo.
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Bongo"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
8.20pm
22 December 2013
Offline meanmistermustard said
I must be in the very small majority but i really like the song, always have. John’s vocal is great as is George’s solo.
No, you have a lot of company, it’s probably the most popular ‘Rubber Soul ‘ track chosen on ‘The Beatles * RockBand’ video game next to ‘Norwegian Wood ‘ whenever I play online, the song’s fantastic, even if John didn’t think too much of it himself…:-)
12.30pm
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1 May 2011
Offline Always cool to see the lesser known (and liked/rated) songs getting featured (as stated countless times I love the track – nasty Beatles 
) .
mprnews shine the spotlight on ‘Run For Your Life‘.
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Zig"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
4.44pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline No secret that I dig this one as well. The music is so damned catchy.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
9.26pm
17 October 2013
Offline Gosh seems tame to today’s ‘bitch slapping’ misogyny music.
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Zig10.22pm
11 November 2010
Offline Here’s a real cool alternate mix of the master take of this song (sans backing vocals and with more echo on the lead vocals).
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4.31am
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1 May 2011
Offline 
Thats the original take 5 but fakedly looped to make it appear to be the full take – on the original source tape its incomplete (see video below). John recorded a new lead vocal before they finished it. In ‘Rockband’ thru isolating certain tracks you can hear the compete guide vocal due to bleedthru.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
6.05am
Reviewers
29 August 2013
Offline Zig said
No secret that I dig this one as well. The music is so damned catchy.
Yes indeed.
Such romantic sentiments as well 🙂
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