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TL;DR:

  • Paul McCartney loves a line in The Beatles’ “I’m So Tired” that’s about Sir Walter Raleigh.
  • He believes the song was completely the work of John Lennon.
  • The tune appeared on The White Album, which was a massive commercial success.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon in black-and-white
Paul McCartney and John Lennon | Cummings Archives / Contributor

Paul McCartney said one line from The Beatles’ “I’m So Tired” has a classic John Lennon line. Notably, the song in question references an important and controversial English historical figure. In addition, Paul compared “I’m So Tired” to another Beatles song on the same topic.

Paul McCartney loves a line from The Beatles’ ‘I’m So Tired’ that’s about a ‘stupid git’

In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of the song “I’m So Tired.” “‘So Tired’ is very much John’s comment to the world, and it has that very special line, ‘And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git,'” he said. “That’s a classic line and it’s so John that there’s no doubt that he wrote it. I think it’s 100% John.”

The mention of Raleigh in “I’m So Tired” is one of his most notable appearances in popular culture, and it’s not flattering. In “I’m So Tired,” John condemns Raleigh for helping popularize smoking. In more modern times, Raleigh has been condemned for his role in the colonization of North America and Ireland.

Paul McCartney compared the song to The Beatles’ ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ from ‘Revolver’

Notably, Paul compared “I’m So Tired” from The White Album to one of the songs from The Beatles’ Revolver. “Being tired was one of his themes, he wrote ‘I’m Only Sleeping,'” he said. “I think we were all pretty tired but he chose to write about it. John came up with a massive TV scenario! A big TV show.”

In the same interview, Paul revealed The White Album could have had another title. “I came up with calling the next album Umbrella, an umbrella over the whole thing,” he said. “I think this was the point at which George got annoyed at me because we mixed the two things. John and I’d do a lot of chatting.”

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How ‘I’m So Tired’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“I’m So Tired” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on The White Album, which was one of the Fab Four’s most popular albums in the United States. That album stayed on the Billboard 200 for 215 weeks, spending nine of those weeks at No. 1.

According to The Official Charts Company, “I’m So Tired” never charted in the United Kingdom either because it was not a single there. On the other hand, The White Album was a hit there. The album topped the U.K. chart for eight weeks. The album spent a total of 37 weeks on the chart. Despite its interesting lyrics, “I’m So Tired” never became a standard like other Beatles album tracks.

“I’m So Tired” was not a hit but Paul feels that it contains one of John’s great lyrics.

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