Comments on: Julia

By: Steve chang

Steve chang — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 19:51:50 +0000

As the new 50th outtakes showed that 3 takes can be deceiving since there were many rehearsals which were unnumbered. Most of these were wiped once the formal takes started but it was great to hear some of these rehearsals like Julia and Revolution

By: Dark Is The Sky

Dark Is The Sky — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 12:13:00 +0000

This song was written in India, where John was with his first wife Cynthia, while secretly corresponding regularly with Yoko. I think it makes perfect sense that he wrote a love song for a woman who wasn’t his wife and named it after his mother, just as one of his earlier extra-marital affairs morphed into the not-so-direct poetry of Norwegian Wood.

By: TheCat

TheCat — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 08:06:13 +0000

Yes, yes, and YES! I’ve been listening to the different variations of “Julia”, and have found myself crying through each one ?

By: JFrench

JFrench — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 20:20:55 +0000

I sent my oldest son who is a huge Beatle/ Lennon fan a text asking him if he had ever heard S&Gs Homeward Bound cause it reminded me of John and Paul singing the Two of Us, the harmonies were so similar.

By: Ms. Lane

Ms. Lane — Wed, 17 May 2017 16:06:22 +0000

Wow! Yes, indeed.

By: Travis

Travis — Mon, 08 May 2017 23:10:31 +0000

I don’t think it was that simple. Remember, from the beginning, it was John who let Paul join “his band”. This dynamic stayed unquestioned for many years, with obvs things like it being “Long John and The Silver Beetles” to John taking the lead singing the intended first single, “How Do You Do It”, followed by how he pretty much dominated the songwriting through Help!, John was the unquestioned leader of the band. Then Paul really started developing, both in craft, starting with of course “Yesterday” and all the praise that was heaped on him, and in ego. So suddenly, esp after Epstein died, I’m sure John felt threatened, then overwhelmed as Paul started to take over. Meanwhile, the famous acid-trip they shared(was it the only time they ever did), where Paul says he did it because he “wanted to be with his friend” after taking him home from the studio. And Paul imagines John as the king of the universe – not hard to read the psychology there. I think it’s obvious they both kind of intimidated each other – Paul never lost that desire, there from the moment he played “Twenty Flight Rock” to John in the hopes he would let him in the band, to this day(impossible though t may be), was to simply get John’s unequivocal approval. Then things became very competitive, maybe less so in a friendly-way than before. As Paul himself said, they were both in their 20’s with big egos, and neither was sensitive enough or mature enough to just say “hey I love you man” – “you know what, I love you too”, which is all it would have taken. Maybe it would have happened, but after Yoko came into the picture, Paul in particular felt as if he had been replaced in John’s heart by someone else. Still, you can see this great fondness they had for each other was always there by moments like the one mentioned above, or the way John always seemed to make Paul crack up(“Las Paranoias!”). love the story where they were in the middle of a big fight, and John just stopped, lowered his granny glasses and said “hey, it’s only me”. So there was def an understanding and a love throughout – they just were both a little too immature and insecure with how the other would react to be that honest. Unfortunately, with the way the break-up went, and esp bc that competition only grew all the more after the band broke-up.

By: Travis

Travis — Mon, 08 May 2017 19:33:12 +0000

Great breakdown! I never thought of it that way, I think you’re completely right, except that the idea of his “outer mobility” melodies (like “Jealous Guy” or “Across The Universe” or even the bridge of this song) can be as expressive as anything I’ve heard. But yes, I roll my eyes when I hear all these foolish critics simplifying things and saying “Paul was the melody-maker” and “John’s songs tend to have less notes”. John could write melody that’s as “vertical” as anybody who’s written music…listen especially to the early stuff, or the stuff he wrote near the end of his life especially (“Real Love”, “Grow Old With Me”, “Now and Then”, etc). I feel like in the later years of the Beatles, when he was destroying the present and past of music with unfathomable things like “I Am The Walrus” he had become somewhat bored with needing to have to fill all his songs with all these vocal notes – isn’t it much more of a challenge to write a great song like this and not have to rely on such a “traditional” notion as cramming a song with as much “show-off” melodic hopping-and-skipping? I think Beethoven was the same way…think of “Moonlight Sonata” – a lot of repetition in the melody and still perhaps the most haunting piece of music ever written.

By: manteau

manteau — Mon, 16 May 2016 16:41:44 +0000

A really beautiful song, sounds so simple yet so pure, the bridge always makes me feel so warm, it’s true it could have belonged to the “Plastic Ono band” album, like “look at me”, but I think it closes side two of the white album perfectly. John’s bridges tend to touch deeply on my emotions, like in “How”, “I’m losing you”, or “Grow old with me”. Pure genius! there’s a heavenly connection sometimes in John’s work.

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Mon, 16 May 2016 09:13:20 +0000

Lovely song, John Lennon wrote and sung on the back of his Mothers tragic death a decade earlier. Also Yoko is referenced heavily in this song. John Lennons lyrics are beautiful.

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 11:28:43 +0000

It seems to me this was an obvious love song to Yoko. It was written in the time when he was still trying to deceive his wife Cynthia and the only reference so his mother is the name. All the other allusions would be entirely inappropriate to anyone other than a lover.

By: Beatle womania

Beatle womania — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 18:00:44 +0000

I think they made their peace with each other, Paul mentioned it in an interview, can’t remember there are so many articles interviews books etc, but it stuck with me that Paul said he was so glad he and John at least were communicating. John even mentions while recording “how do you sleep” with George, he thought the song was again about himself and not Paul …as long as he and Paul were alright with each other that was all that mattered he goes on to say in his interview. I think he felt a bit guilty.

By: Beatle womania

Beatle womania — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 17:45:56 +0000

You hit the nail on the head….he wanted his mothers blessing with Yoko. John also encouraged Paul to sing with his throat and was cheering him on in the song Oh darling, even shouted , whew!!!!!! When Paul really let go!

By: Johan cavalli

Johan cavalli — Tue, 26 May 2015 17:21:34 +0000

The greatness of John Lennon´s ability to compose is that he has two kinds of melody-mobility. One outer mobility, and one inner mobility. In the outer mobility the melody moves up and down (that´s what George Martin like), or uses several notes. In the inner melody, the melody consists of almost one note, but instead the accompaniment changes. In that case the song will be more expressive, like this wonderful song Julia.

By: Bongo

Bongo — Sun, 17 May 2015 13:02:26 +0000

A timeless song, I never tire of!

By: gachiznit

gachiznit — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 18:18:02 +0000

Hey guys, just wondering…anyone listened to ‘Homeward Bound’ by Simon and Garfunkel? AWFULLY similar guitar melody. Now, this might be conjecture, but the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme came out in 1966, two years before the Beatles traveled to Rishikesh where Donovan taught John the fingerpicking technique that would eventually find itself in ‘Julia’ among other White Album songs. Being a folk singer himself, Donovan more likely than not would have heard S & G material…thoughts?

– Fantastic site, by the way. I doff my hat to you, Joe!

By: TheOneBeatle

TheOneBeatle — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 03:44:27 +0000

I have been reading and reading that John started to cry while recording the take that appeared on Anthology, but I haven’t found a source that verify this? Is it true or not? I have listened to the song, and it could be true as he sounds like he is singing whispering-cracking-like.

By: Avery

Avery — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 04:43:52 +0000

Do you know if there were engineers/producers/type personnel other than Paul present during this recording? I’ve been sitting on that thought for a while.

By: absoultes

absoultes — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 13:16:22 +0000

One of my favorites on Anthology…so haunting, good to hear Paul encouraging John from the control room.

By: Julia Bloomfield

Julia Bloomfield — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 00:39:01 +0000

I am named after this song! It is an inspiration to me and I have tried to live up to it 🙂 it is so beautiful!

By: Funny Paper

Funny Paper — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:08:46 +0000

Or he could have combined the two names and called the song “Yulia” — or “Joko”…