Comments on: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away

By: Ron Nasty

Ron Nasty — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 11:25:11 +0000

You’ve missed Ringo’s tambourine on track 3, and the top of page line-up needs tweaking.

By: FAX

FAX — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 22:22:59 +0000

My third favorite Beatles tune. Short. Sweet. Impactful. Unforgettable.

By: Steve

Steve — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 15:51:45 +0000

Totally agree. The ending part of the anthology version is where you really hear it. Superb

By: MikeP

MikeP — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 02:09:13 +0000

Actually Paul suggested changing the line to “two foot small”.

By: Jordana

Jordana — Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:18:12 +0000

I’m having a Beatles Lecture at college and the Prof. said that this song is about Brian Epstein and homosexual love. Totally agree. And the “two foot small” is just another one of John Lennon’s word play.

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 19:45:18 +0000

Doug,
A question about the beautiful flute section….what key is the flute part played in?
I’m interested in learning that part, as faithful to the original as possible. Many thanks.

By: Ms. Lane

Ms. Lane — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 15:48:14 +0000

I think that likely played into the lyrics.

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 17:02:59 +0000

Does anyone else think he is singing about his mothers death. If you listen to some of the lyrics Here I stand head in hand,
Turn my face to the wall,
If she’s gone I can’t go on
Feeling 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 you’ve got to hide your love away
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?”
Gather round all you clowns
Let me hear you say
Hey you’ve got to hide your love away
Hey you’ve got to hide your love away”

Lennon obviously found it hard expressing his mother death and how it effected him. His aunt mimi seemed to want him to carry on as normal, as if nothing had happened, and McCartney also said that it wasn’t macho to cry at death, so you had to man up in Liverpool during the 50’s. I listen to it and think he sounds sad. Either way it’s an amazing song and the story behind it is very well sang and makes people think. I just think the ….”if she’s gone I can’t go on”….and “I can see them laugh at me….” and “everywhere,people stare…” sounds like something that people think around death. Just a thought …..

By: Doug Cannon

Doug Cannon — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 20:10:45 +0000

Take #5 has a different mix of guitars than used in the final mix. There is a very obvious classical guitar being played by George Harrison along side of the 12 string that John Lennon played (Possibly the same classical guitar that he used on “And I Lover Her” ). This guitar generally strums a similar part to the 12 string while adding a richness to the overall tone. Both guitars augment melody lines in the rhythm track and a third guitar is introduced in the right channel for the D chord “rundown” with the bass guitar to the chorus line.

On another note….the Beatles always used the piano as a reference to tune their instruments….George Martin would most likely not have tolerated freely tuning by ear when a classical instrument or piano was to be used in the recording. This song is literally only 20 cents flat of A440 (100 cents = 1 semitone). The likely scenario is that the song was minutely slowed down in the mastering process as a matter of personal preference. To be fair, the flute can be lengthened (flattened) to accommodate badly tuned instruments but would normally tune to a reference instrument such as an oboe in an orchestra or the piano in the studio.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 14:34:04 +0000

I am interested in this. So how do you play the Dsus4-D-Dsus2 part in the chorus? If that is on a guitar which is tuned down a tone, as you suggest, that would mean making that change to an E shape… or putting a capo on the second fret which would effectively get you back to standard tuning. Or did they detune then speed the tape up so it starts on a concert G as it does on the album?

By: Pablo Castro

Pablo Castro — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 03:48:52 +0000

Paul did exactly this in Yesterday, the common tunning a key lower. But not on this song.

By: spudis

spudis — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 13:14:17 +0000

The article says “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away was recorded in the afternoon of 18 February 1965. The Beatles taped nine takes, only two of which were complete. Anthology 2 featured take five, the other full version recorded.”

I’m wondering if this is true because on the Anthology video, there is a version of this song with only John and his guitar, as a tribute to Brian Epstein after the documentary covers his death. This version has a completely different vocal from either the released track or the Anthology CD release. Anybody know where this comes from?

By: DarrenS

DarrenS — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 23:58:42 +0000

When I first saw help in the early 80’s, this was the one song that jumped out at me. I loved it instantly. Still do. It is so well done, easy to play on guitar and nearly perfect (to me). Might be my favorite of theirs attributed solely to John. Just beautiful.

Not sure about the tuning. When I play it along with the recording, I use G to start and it seems fine.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 14:38:14 +0000

Best-ever? Not really. Off-key in spots and tired/lazy. It does add to the effect and mood, and may have been done on-purpose. But not the “best” by any means.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 14:33:35 +0000

Although you are correct about the bass, the scene in the movie proves nothing. Scenes are set-up for cinematic purposes, not accuracy. One scene in the Bahamas (“Another Girl”? – can’t remember which song) shows all four swapping instruments throughout. Meaningless.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 13:32:13 +0000

And this makes me wonder if the source of this depression was his marital status, “officially” locked to Cynthia and Julian, even though he was hardly faithful, and that exposed to all his friends and entourage. I doubt the loss of Julia play much of a role in the song. It’s one of my favorite Lennon compositions. The cover, by “The Silky” was a huge hit in the New York area, when I was a teen, and still very palatable today.

By: Grace

Grace — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 05:56:25 +0000

All i know is that John is incredibly sexy in this video. I want him so bad. Too late. Such an amazing talent. Yoko u were a lucky gal.

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 10:05:26 +0000

I loved this song when I first heard this on The Love Songs compilation and then later when I got a copy of Help!, the album it originally was off. I love the scene with this song on it in the film Help! Whilst John Lennon was influenced by Bob Dylan, this was still very much his song and a real step forward in his writing. I just love the opening of this song and its whole feel. A song he was justifiably always proud of.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 19:53:00 +0000

Sorry, to clarify. The tuning is a lowered tuning.
The guitars are tuned down half a step to D?-G?-C?-F?-A?-D? / E?-A?-D?-G?-B?-E?.
This makes the song in the key of Gb.
Gives it a much more melancholy sound than the standard tuning.

Lots of artists/bands have used this tuning routinely e.g. Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana.
See Shifted Tunings on this wikipedia page for more examples.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_guitar_tunings#Shifted

Rgds

Steve

By: Rocky

Rocky — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 18:28:16 +0000

No he’s not. Could you be thinking that the guitars are tuned down a step? Which they are not…

The guitars are NOT tuned to e minor.