The secret explicit message hidden in The Beatles song ‘Hey Jude’
While The Beatles appear tame and clean-cut compared with the shocking acts that followed in their wake, underneath their whiter-than-white facade, they did have a devilish trait. The Fab Four were constantly exploring ways to secretly get away with pushing boundaries, and although they weren’t always successful, it wasn’t for lack of trying.
There is no longer the same level of scrutiny surrounding artists choosing to use profanities or adult language in their songs compared to The Beatles’ time. Musicians no longer have to create a sanitised version of themselves in order to ensure their songs get heard on the radio or broadcast on television due to streaming services, which have awarded them with creative freedoms.
However, during the 1960s, The Beatles couldn’t circumvent the system, and gaining radio play was necessary to top the charts. Therefore, they needed to get cunning if they were to use profanities in their music and never opted to swear overtly in their songs. That being said, on ‘Hey Jude’, they managed to sneak in an F-bomb, which most listeners wouldn’t even notice, and it passed by all of the necessary gatekeepers.
On Rubber Soul, The Beatles first started experimenting with fruity language on ‘Girl’. Although it was only the word “tit” rather than a serious expletive, it still raised eyebrows and caused controversy. ‘Girl’ was the final song they recorded for the album, therefore, they collectively decided to have a smattering of fun while in the studio for their own amusement.
At this stage, they were already the biggest band in the world, which allowed them the luxury to mess around and not need to worry about the potential consequences. Paul McCartney once explained of their collective thought process: “It was always amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record: ‘fish and finger pie’, ‘prick teaser’, ‘tit tit tit tit’. The Beach Boys had a song out where they’d done ‘la la la la’ and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase.”
He added: “So we were looking around for another phrase, so it was ‘dit dit dit dit’, which we decided to change in our waggishness to ‘tit tit tit tit’, which is virtually indistinguishable from ‘dit dit dit dit’. And it gave us a laugh.”
On ‘Hey Jude’, The Beatles didn’t deliberately try to cram a swear word into the creation. Instead, it happened naturally, and they chose to keep it in as a subtle joke. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked closely with the band throughout their career, “Paul hit a clunker on the piano and said a naughty word.”
If a listener closely examines the track, there’s an audible “Ah” muttered by a group member around the 2:55 mark of the song after the line, “Let her under your skin”. Immediately afterwards, McCartney quietly says, “fucking hell”, which is only possible to hear if it’s anticipated.
Emerick said The Beatles were aware of their faux-pax but demanded it stay in the song for entertainment purposes. John Lennon, who thought ‘Hey Jude’ was Paul’s best song, reportedly said: “Most people won’t ever spot it … but we’ll know it’s there.” Lennon was correct to assert that nobody would realise the secret swear word hidden in ‘Hey Jude’. Radio stations were none the wiser, and it easily swept under the radar of the masses, much to the amusement of the Fab Four.
The Beatles were often more overt with their hidden messages, such as the drug references they put on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, which included the not-so-subtly titled, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’. However, although the profanity in ‘Hey Jude’ is still hidden in plain sight, it’s surrounded by enough protection to ensure that it was unnoticeable to most listeners, much to The Beatles’ delight.
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