I don't get why John was ever seen as crazy for thinking Hey Jude might have been about him, at least partially. I mean "You have found her, now go and get her", "You're waiting for someone to perform with" from around the same time as JohnandYoko becomes a thing - it's more crazy for me to assert the song is chiefly about 5 year old Julian Lennon. Not saying he didn't have a distorted perspective on many things, but tbh I'm kinda annoyed at how easily people jump to call John paranoid and delusional.
You are very smart and way ahead of me anon. I don't know why I fell into that 'silly John' line of thinking before. Maybe because he says a lot of out-there things, even in the actual quote where he says he thinks the song could be about him. Here it is in full, by the way:
“I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it… Yoko’s just come into the picture. He’s saying, ‘Hey, Jude – hey, John.’ I know I’m sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you can hear it as a song to me. The words ‘go out and get her’ – subconsciously he was saying, Go ahead, leave me.“On a conscious level, he didn’t want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, ‘Bless you.’ The devil in him didn’t like it at all because he didn’t want to lose his partner.”
So here's what sounds crazy in that quote (imo)
I sound like one of those fans who reads into things. -- yes.
Go ahead. Leave me. -- why would you have to leave him to get together with Yoko?
On a conscious level he didn't want me to go ahead. -- do you know that? What sign did he give you at the time that that was how he was feeling?
The devil in him being the conscious part and the angel being subconscious. -- so basically Paul is consciously evil but unconsciously good?
But the more I pay attention to the lyrics, the more I definitely see what he's saying.
The song starts out with two lines that very well could have been directed at Julian. (Just like Two of Us starts off as something that was probably about Linda but turns into a song for John). "Don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better." Could easily about Julian.
But after that it veers off. "Remember to let her into your heart." "You were made to go out and get her." "Let her under your skin." Can't be about a five year old but could be about Paul himself or any random guy.
Then quickly it gets more specific. "Any time you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders." Sounds very much to John. "The pain" sounds like something John would reference in their talks and Paul's response would definitely be along the lines of "just don't feel it then."
This line, "for well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder," also sounds just like something John might've said to Paul, telling him his coldness was a mistake.
And finally, "you're waiting for someone to perform with. But don't you know that it's just you. Hey, Jude. You'll do. The movement you need is on your shoulder." It's clearly for John. And it's clearly giving him the okay to go off on his own and do his own thing. Which was not what John wanted and which would've hurt.
Anyway, tldr: John was not crazy to think hey Jude was about him and we should probably take his lyrical analysis of Paul's songs a little more seriously.
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