Notes on "
A Day in the Life,"
Lennon/McCartney, 1967:
1. The first two stanzas refer apparently to a young jet-setter member of the aristocracy. The "Paul is dead" conspiracy theorists believed that this refered to Paul's car crash; actually, this song is what gave rise to the belief that it was a car crash. In the video for "Free As a Bird," there is a visual reference to this.
2. The film that John Lennon mentions seeing is How I Won the War, a film he appeared in, which starred Michael Crawford; it is a satire on World War II.
3. The middle section of the song, beginning "Woke up, fell out of bed," was actually accused of being about drug use, for the line about "Found my way upstairs and had a smoke/sombody spoke and I went into a dream."
4. The final peice about the holes in Blackford--apparently, they were potholes that Lennon had been reading about in the paper. the Albert Hall, btw, is the Royal Albert Hall, the same one that Frank Zappa made a huge commotion in.
5. The song ends with a fade out of piano, a whistle only dogs can hear (some believe this to be a reference to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds), and backwards speaking. The backwards speaking, someone once told me, was a couple of the Beatles saying, "We'll fuck you like Superman!"
5. Personal query--during the mid-to-late 60s, Lennon had gotten into James Joyce; listening to Sgt. Pepper is in some ways (and only particular songs) somehow reminicent of Ulysses; don't ask me why, but for me it is.