The Beatles filled their songs with Easter eggs, from drug allusions to sexual innuendos to "the walrus was Paul." But if you didn't quite get all of the references, don't sweat it, because Paul McCartney actually likes it when you get his lyrics wrong.
On the latest episode of McCartney: A Life in Lyrics on iHeartPodcasts, the songwriter spoke about the iconic 1967 hit "Hey Jude." That song that features many wilfully obscure lyrics — including changing the original title of "Hey Jules" (a reference to John Lennon's son Julian), as well as ambiguous lines that seem to switch between depression and romantic longing.
"I like my songs to be everyman or everywoman, because I know people are going to listen to them, and I like the fact that they put their own interpretations on them," McCartney said. "I'm always glad when the lyrics get a bit screwed up — they mishear them. Because it's yours now. I've let it go, so now you should make of it what you will."
McCartney is very flexible about his lyrics: when he spoke about "Yesterday" on the same podcast, he praised artists like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and Marvin Gaye for changing his lyrics when covering him.
