'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away,' The Beatles: I Freakin' Love This Song

'You've Got the Hide Your Love Away,' The Beatles
From 1965's 'Help'

It's no secret that this song is Dylanesque. So being that I'm a Bob Dylan fan, this tune, complete with tambourine, gravelly vocals and "Hey!" transitions, speaks to me. John Lennon himself admitted he was heavily influenced by Dylan during the time he wrote the song, telling Rolling Stone in 1971 that "just by hearing his work," "instead of projecting myself into a situation I would just try to express what I felt about myself."

Feelings and self-reflection are two of my favorite things! Being a woman probably helps. But back to the matter at hand. Covered by everyone from Eddie Vedder and Elvis Costello to Lennon's own son Sean, I suspect these folks, like me, might just connect with the desperation in the song -- the anxiety, shame and paranoia that accompany abandonment, whether it be from a lover, your own brain or your perceived view of society. In any case, it's no fun, but so irresistibly relatable.

My favorite line in this perfectly pithy folk anthem is when Lennon asks, "How could she say to me/"'Love will find a way'?" Does your heart not just break? I know that hopeless moment when words are meanly cheap and crushingly ineffective. So I salute the late John Lennon and am grateful for this concisely captured look into the human condition. In the end, I wish it upon no enemy but forever keep it close at hand (and heart).

Read 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away' Lyrics


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