Julian Lennon can’t stand Hey Jude even though he inspired it (Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
The Beatles are undeniable icons of British pop, but if you have heard the same lyrics since you were five, it starts to get old – as John Lennon’s son revealed.
Everyone has heard The Beatles’ smash hit song Hey Jude at some point in their life, but Lennon’s eldest child, Julian Lennon, would rather avoid it.
Hey Jude is widely regarded as one of the band’s greatest hits after smashing the charts in late August 1968 and immediately rocketing to number one in numerous countries.
Written by Lennon and Paul McCartney, the song began life as ‘Hey Jules’, intended to comfort a then five-year-old Julian as his parents split up, before transforming into the hit.
The Too Late for Goodbyes singer explained that people often sing Hey Jude to him as the lyrics are, on the surface, uplifting and encouraging, oblivious to the pain behind it.
‘Paul wrote it to console Mum, and also to console me,’ Julian, 60, revealed in a new interview. ‘It’s a beautiful sentiment, no question about that, and I’m very thankful – but I’ve also been driven up the wall by it.’
It was written to help him cope with his parent’s divorce (Picture: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)
John Lennon divorced Julian’s mum Cynthia Powell in 1968 (Picture: AP)
The late Lennon and Julian’s mother Cynthia Powell divorced in 1968, following the Beatles icon’s affair with Yoko Ono and a turbulent relationship.
He had proposed when Powell, who died in 2015, told him she was pregnant, although the Beatles manager asked them to keep the wedding a secret to avoid alienating fans.
In her memoir, she alleged that the singer had been violent to her resulting in a break-up – she added that after she took him back he continued to be verbally cutting but never struck her again.
The final straw was when Powell infamously came home to discover Yoko wrapped in her own robe, drinking tea with her husband.
Paul McCartney began singing ‘Hey Jules’ to him (Picture: Julian Lennon/Twitter)
Julian was born at the height of Beatlemania (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo)
The mum of one left their home, with Lennon filing divorce papers accusing her of adultery but eventually settling their split out of court where she received £100,000, a small annual payment, and custody of Julian.
Julian continued to Esquire: ‘I love the fact that he wrote a song about me and for Mum, but depending on what side of the bed one woke up on, and where you’re hearing it, it can be a good or a slightly frustrating thing. But in my heart of hearts, there’s not a bad word I could say about it.’
The song takes him back to that dark place and his strained relationship with his father, who went on to have another son, Sean, with Yoko.
‘Every time you quote that, it reminds me of my mother being separated from my father, the love that was lost, the fact that I rarely saw my father again ever,’ Julian confessed.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from 1967 and the following year’s Good Night are both said to be inspired by Julian.
Julian refutes the idea he spent a lot of time with Lennon as a child, he claims that after the divorce he and his mum had to make it on their own even with the child support payments.
He reconnected with his father in the 70s, who had bought him a guitar and encouraged him to pursue music, but said he only saw him a handful of times after reconciling.
Lennon was tragically shot in New York on 8 December 1980 by Mark David Chapman after signing an autograph for his murderer.
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‘I’ve been driven up the wall by it.’
