Any singer who has presented ‘Hey Jude’ at a live show would vouch for this. The listeners would hum along till the song reached its tail-end, when there would be a remarkable upswing in their participation. Full-throated, the audience as one man would now erupt into a vibrant “nah nah nah nah nah nah nah...” singing the famous outro, along with the singer.
It is certainly a great way to end a Western music concert. A frisson of positive emotion goes through the audience, and everyone feels energised.
Kochi-based solo performer Charles Antony recalls a recent experience from Nagpur, while presenting a concert at an international doctors conference. When he started singing ‘Hey Jude,’ on request, the doctors joined in, and he says the ‘joint performance’ of the outro still rings in his ears.
Neat composition
Besides the inspirational tone and simple, unfussy and neat composition, the unsusual outro has led many fans of The Beatles to place this song high up in their personal Beatles bests. Around four minutes long, the outro stretches the song to over seven minutes. Though only one word ‘nah’ is repeated, seemingly ad infinitum, but of course, with engaging inflexions, it infuses a rare energy into the song and this has been felt by listeners, across decades and generations.
With such following, the song has entered its fiftieth year. Though released at the fag end of August, 1968, in the U.K. and the U.S., it reached its peak, charts-wise, in these parts of the West around this time of the year. In the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, it would stay on the summit for nine weeks.
Charles, who presents English classics, primarily those between the 1940s and 1980s, with his voice and an acoustic guitar, has this to say about the composition of Hey Jude. “It is simple and doesn’t use many chords, and has been beautifully arranged.”
Playing the piano, Paul McCartney launches into the song in a chatty tone, that gets you to stretch forward and listen, expecting a message. And, it does deliver one — certainly, for me. The key takeaway for me from this song are these lines: ‘And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain/ Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.’
The circumstances under which McCartney came up with the lines for this song is oft-repeated Beatleslore. So, just a quick reference to it. The song was meant to comfort John Lennon’s son Julian Lennon, who was deeply pained by his parents’ divorce.
Not just Julian, millions have found comfort in this Beatles classic. In its essence, the song seems to explain how to make the most of a bad situation, without overreaching oneself.
