Comments on: Run For Your Life

By: Mr. Kite

Mr. Kite — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 20:56:24 +0000

I would have thought that George Martin could have convinced John that this bit of misogyny was not a particularly good thing to broadcast to the world.

By: DrYattz

DrYattz — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 03:03:12 +0000

Actually, JR, I’m with William. It is grammatically flawed, and actually says that, given a choice between being “with another man” and seeing “her dead,” he’d prefer the latter. For the likely intended meaning, it should be “I’d rather see you dead, little girl, than to SEE YOU with another man.”

By: DrYattz

DrYattz — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 01:24:33 +0000

I’m curious why no one seems to call attention to the apparent homophobia (or grammatical faux pas) of this song’s first line: “I’d rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man.” It actually says that if he had to choose between having a gay sexual encounter (“be with another man”) and witnessing the death of his partner (“see you dead”), he’d prefer the latter. Sounds like some serious homophobia on John’s part (although it was really Arthur Gunter who penned that dreadful lyric originally).

He probably meant to say “I’d rather see you dead little girl than TO SEE you with another man,” but he didn’t.

By: JR

JR — Tue, 01 Jan 2019 18:24:39 +0000

Always enjoyed this at the end of Rubber Soul. A strong finish.

By: KM Worthy

KM Worthy — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 02:25:59 +0000

What about the super-sly replacement of the word “I won’t know where I am” in the first verse with “YOU won’t know where I am” for the final verse? Totally spine-chilling and effective IMO.

By: Teddy Salad

Teddy Salad — Mon, 24 Sep 2018 19:36:45 +0000

…speaking of sanctimony…

By: J.S. Hoover

J.S. Hoover — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 21:59:53 +0000

The John haters up Macca’s backside just drag an example like this out to pile on…THEY TAKE THEMSELVES SO ‘EFFING SERIOUSLY(!) (One-of) the most tangible elements of John’s kinetic instinctiveness and uniqueness as an artist was: HE PUT EVERY RAW EMOTION OF WHAT HE FELT INTO WHAT HE WROTE.
THAT *is* the MOST HONEST way an artist can be. Yeah, there probably was an undertone to Run For Your Life related to John’s (now) well-documented turbulent marriage to Cynthia (combined-with: 1965 being his self-loathing, “Fat Elvis Period”)…HOWEVER: listen closely to stuff all the way back through to, for instance, YOU CAN’T DO THAT and — his SAME kind of snide (BRILLIANTLY ENGLISH) sarcasm is THERE TOO! Another example on RS, though more inocuous, is the line from GIRL: “Will she still believe it when he’s dead?” (after describing the plight of a guy earning all the money…WHILE HIS WIFE ENJOYS LIVING IN THE LAP OF LUXURY YET HENPICKS HIM FOR HIS IMPERFECTIONS). That’s pure “biography” of John taking aim at Cynthia over something they were fighting about at the time (Norwegian Wood, on the other hand, is the “guilt trip” of trying to apologize for it…just like the stuff as early as: When I Get Home; I’m a Loser; Anytime at All; etc. was).
I love the screaming, somewhat-phasey and sloppy guitar sound of Run For Your Life! It’s a rollicking “roadhouse”-type song. I DON’T hear Paul singing anywhere on it. The choruses sound like John and George into the same microphone (George’s thin, throaty voice CLEARLY is the one saying “little girl” at the end of each chorus).

I just love :^( how the sanctimonious do-gooders today (cheating and bullying EVERYONE for THEIR EGOS) get so anal about this song because THEY’RE AFRAID OF NOT BEING “PC”. Most of them play guitar in the basement of their mother’s house and are brain dead from sniffing glue!

By: Harvey

Harvey — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 23:06:00 +0000

A little note Martin must have liked it.under his production he believed in starting an album with a strong song and ending with something hard to follow.its a fact he was quoted in sessions.ie a day I. A life

By: Eddie

Eddie — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 20:04:30 +0000

This song, to me, was the last stand of the old moptop Beatles. Everything after this was the more mature, evolving, experimental Beatles.

By: Neil Saunders

Neil Saunders — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 23:07:30 +0000

Why assume that the first-person singular in the lyric means that this is a direct transmission to the listener of John Lennon’s own stance towards the women in his life? It seems to me that he’s “in character” here, portraying the kind of man that far too many women fall in love with and then have good cause to regret it. Perhaps he himself *was* that kind of man when he was younger (he seems to have thought he was), but he must have been recollecting this here from the viewpoint of greater emotional maturity if not exactly tranquillity.

The fact that his characterisation is delivered with powerful conviction is simply evidence that Lennon was a fine vocalist (as, for example, Frank Sinatra was) rather than someone who, in his private life, wholeheartedly identified with the explicit message of the song. (Sinatra was actually a good deal less tender in real life than he seems to be in song.)

Lennon probably had to dissociate himself from the song later on, lest he should incur Yoko’s feminist displeasure. It is quite likely that she would have made a facile equation between the surface sentiments of the lyric and the deeper attitudes and dispositions of its singer.

By: Andy Beyer-Bowden (Internet Enzyme)

Andy Beyer-Bowden (Internet Enzyme) — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 16:16:11 +0000

I would say that What Goes On is by far the worst. Ringo’s songs always aren’t that great. His best song is With A Little Help From My Friends

By: J Neo Marvin

J Neo Marvin — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 23:57:01 +0000

Sandie Shaw put out a single called “Run” in 1966. The lyrics could easily be interpreted as the same story as “Run For Your Life” from the girl’s point of view:

As the winds blows through the trees,
it sometimes seems to whispers he is calling me
Then when the rain drops falls on the ground it seems it’s him following me
I don’t stop to see if he’s behind me
I just keep on going he must never find me
He thinks I still belong to him
So I must run

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 22:42:08 +0000

We usually associate The Beatles with love songs and positive feelings. But what’s wrong with a little anger? And which Beatle better able to convey that emotion than John. Better to sing about it than actually do it.
And that is George doing that high falsetto? Really? Listen to how high pitched “catch you with another man and that’s the end, little girl” goes. Wow.
The guitar licks are pretty darn good, too.

By: jennifur Sun

jennifur Sun — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 00:17:51 +0000

enjoyed Johns singing, song writting ect but would not for anything in the world have wanted to be married to the man. i think this song hit a little to close to home and maybe that is why he hated it later on.

By: Sam P.

Sam P. — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 20:37:14 +0000

I like that connection.

By: Jim Hutter

Jim Hutter — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 03:13:53 +0000

“Run For Your Life” is on my list of unsung Beatles songs. I agree with the comments praising the vocal harmonies and driving folk-rock (or even rockabilly) arrangement. The dark lyrics, dealing with possessive and potentially homicidal jealousy, seem to foreshadow similar songs that Elvis Costello would write in the late ‘seventies. While the words are disturbing, they have artistic merit. This is a cautionary tale, told in the first person, of they type of monster that insane jealousy can create.

By: John Leper

John Leper — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 22:09:16 +0000

“Run For Your Life” I really dig, maybe it’s the tambourine and guitar solo but it somehow really hits me home.
“Wait” I like for its harmonies and maracas. The tambourine just makes it better. I also like the way George uses a volume pedal on it, much like on Yes It Is or I Need You. I don’t know how anyone could dislike it.
To me, Rubber Soul doesn’t have any bad songs. Maybe You Won’t See Me, but I really like Paul’s vocals and the harmonies. And the bassline.
What Goes On isn’t that great but George has some nice Perkins licks on it so I dig it anyways. The harmonies are great too.

By: John

John — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 10:33:28 +0000

From the opening chord on AHDN to the ending piano cord on ADITL the progression is amazing.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 14:12:34 +0000

Why the hate? It’s a rocking little song, the “end-uh” is brilliant, the guitar-work is to die for. You can’t help but love hearing John Lennon describe himself as “a wicked guy”. “Hide your head in the sand” is textbook signature Beatles absurdism. “Let this be a sermon”: signature Beatles religious-themes-hidden-beneath-the-surface. Judge the Beatles by what they did, not necessarily what they said, and what they DID is, they purposely chose this as the outro to their amazing Rubber Soul album. John Lennon says he hated it? Yeah, and I know a certain girl in the sky who toootally had nothing to do with drugs!

As for the negative content of the lyrics: I’d say this song is less negative than the same album’s “If I Needed Someone”. “Run for your life” doesn’t hide anything, it comes right out with the threatening lyrics, which in some sense makes it harmless. “If I Needed Someone”, by contrast, oozes with hidden passive aggression beneath a positive-looking mask. The latter is by far the more ‘hurtful’ song. “Run for your life” is ‘negative’ in the sense of friends punching each other playfully on the arm.

By: ann

ann — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 09:27:45 +0000

I can live with the lyrics. My bigger concern is that Lennon ripped off a line from a young songwriter who died in his late 40s. And the songwriter Arthur Gunter lived until the late 1970s.