The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ Doesn’t Reach a Conclusion

John Lennon explained the origin of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” Notably, the song doesn’t really resolve itself. Despite this, a famous movie created a narrative for the character of Jude.

John Lennon loved The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’ but he felt Paul McCartney wasn’t a great lyricist

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John said he had nothing to do with the writing of “Hey Jude.” John said the song was one of Paul McCartney’s “masterpieces.”

“He said it was written about Julian, my child,” John said. “He knew I was splitting with [his first wife] Cyn and leaving Julian. He was driving over to say ‘Hi’ to Julian. He’d been like an uncle to him. 

“You know, Paul was always good with kids,” he added. “And so he came up with ‘Hey Jude.’ But I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it … Yoko’s just come into the picture. He’s saying, ‘Hey, Jude — hey, John.'” John felt the song was Paul giving him permission to leave the band.

John was asked what he thought of Paul as a lyricist. “I don’t think he’s made an effort to, but I don’t think he’s incapable,” he said. “I don’t think he’s as good as me, but he’s certainly not incapable. ‘Hey Jude’ is a damn good set of lyrics and I made no contribution to that. A couple of lines he’s come up with show indications he’s a good lyricist, but he just never took it anywhere.”

How The Beatles’ hit differs from a lot of other self-empowerment anthems

“Hey Jude” is a great song, but John is correct that it doesn’t resolve itself. The tune is basically a self-empowerment anthem. Many self-empowerment anthems like Katy Perry’s “Firework” and Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” are directed at no one in particular, but Paul directed his song at a fictional character named Jude.

“Hey Jude” encourages Jude to go after a lady. Does their relationship work out? Does he win her over in the first place? Did Jude even bother to talk to her? We don’t know. The tune never resolves itself. It just turns into an endless series of “na na nas” before fading out. For all we know, Jude remained sad and alone even though he received a lot of encouragement.

A movie has a plot inspired by ‘Hey Jude’ that gives Jude’s story closure

The 2007 Fab Four jukebox musical Across the Universe has a main character named Jude. He falls in love with an activist named Lucy, a clear reference to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” After some interpersonal struggles, the couple end up together at the end of the movie.

Across the Universe finally gave closure to Jude’s story. It only took nearly 40 years and millions of Hollywood dollars! However, if you don’t consider Across the Universe canonical, Jude’s fate remains mysterious.

“Hey Jude” is a classic hit even if we don’t know what happened to Jude.