Quora: Why do people criticize Paul McCartney for writing the lyric “the movement you need is on your shoulder”?

(via Quora) Answered by Alex Johnston, Guitar & bass, BA Hons in music theory, tech and musicology

I’ll tell you why I do. And it’s a symptom of something which, for me, blemishes a good deal of the Beatles’ later work.

In general, I am very fond of ‘Hey Jude’ and consider it one of the best songs that McCartney ever wrote. I think that the cunning rhyme scheme really works, and the pleasingly laconic but warm-hearted lyric is one of the best the band ever had. And don’t even get me started on the music. It’s a lovely song.

However, when McCartney first played the song to Lennon, he hadn’t yet finished it.

The song has two bridge/middle eight sections, whatever you want to call them, which serve as a kind of alternative verse. The first one goes like this:

And anytime you feel the pain
Hey Jude, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it’s a fool
Who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder…

Read more: https://www.quora.com/Why-do-people-criticize-Paul-McCartney-for-writing-the-lyric-the-movement-you-need-is-on-your-shoulder

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