Album: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

Charted: 34

Get the Sheet Music License This Song

Comments: 60

• Mark from Oxford, FloridaRegarding "rich fag Jew," you can only hear it on the original B-side single of All You Need Is Love. It can be heard once at the very end of the fade out. Subsequent pressings of the track eliminated the phrase. That explains why later generations of listeners don't hear it. Interesting that George Martin must have been in on the joke to let it go out like that. And yes, I did hear it - very clearly!
• The Dude from FloridaPS: Now I'm reading Brian was playing an oboe. OK, whatever ... I wasn't at the session.
• The Dude from FloridaI remember purchasing this 45 single in the 1967. Anyway, here is my take on the song. Brian Jones of the Stones was overdubbing a saxophone track. But he was really stoned and couldn't keep up with the song. So they slowed the tape down to like half speed and Brian was able to lay down the track. Then of course they sped the song back up and that's why the sax overdub sounds so unusual. I'm sticking with this story. If you see that interview with Brian at Monterrey Pop, then you get the idea of what condition he was in at the time. Almost non-functional. And he does mention recording with the Beatles.
• Paul from MelbourneDaryl Braithwaite and James Reyne (and Jef Scott and others) formed a group called 'Company of Strangers' and recorded this.
• Tony from San Diego, CaAlways thought the album this came from MMT was their best, better than White and Sgt. P's.
• Steve from Carthage, NcThe brown bag was the money they collected from promoters when they were on tour so they didn't have to pay taxes on it. The promoters paid them under the table. Read The Love You make by Peter Brown, Brian's assistant. When The Beatles were on tour,they probably felt like they were in a zoo.
• Steve from Carthage, NcThe brown paper bag is about the money The Beatles collected under the table when they were on tour. Actually Brian collected the brown bag money from promoters. They paid a lot in taxes. I read this in The Love You Make by Brian's assistant, Peter Brown, He's the Peter Brown in The ballad of John and Yoko.
• Jeff from Orlando, FlBravo to those who know what this song is about. Though Paul and John wrote their parts separately, it was meant as a tribute to their manager, Brian Epstein. John's "Beautiful People" verses were meant as a "tip of the hat" to Brian for finally dropping acid. The questions John raises in the verses, such as, "How often have you been there?" and "What did you see when you were there?" are roughly equivalent to Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" It IS a drug song, but only in the sense that the LSD experience is implied. As for Paul's chorus, Brian WAS a "rich man", and "too" refers to the Beatles themselves. Google "Brian Epstein money brown bag" and you'll discover that there were occasions when Brian carried money in a brown bag. As for John singing "rich fag Jew" near the fade, it was meant as a punctuation to the song, just in case Brian had any doubts the song was about him. If you take the time to read what was going on in their lives at the time and create a timeline, it wil all make sense.
• Tom from Phoenix, AzRe the "rich, fag jew" line: This refers to ONE instance, during the fadeout of the song, after John and Paul have sung it correctly a couple times. It's the instance where it sounds like both of them are laughing while they're singing, and it was clearly meant as a "dig", but a humorous dig, to Brian Epstein, who hadn't died yet when they recorded the song.
  
• K from Nowhere, OnOMG PEOPLE. Not every Beatles song is about drugs! (I'm talking to you, Justin from Laury!) Day Tripper and She Said She Said are about LSD. That's all. Eve Lucy isn't about LSD!
• Cristian from Santiago, Chile95% of the people here don't understand what the Beatles, or John Lennon in particular, were about. Google John Lennon's 1980 Playboy interview and read it. It's available for free. If you want the Cliff Notes version, skip to the last three responses he gives in the interview. His lyrics in this song epitomize what he was about. These lyrics are among the most beautiful that John Lennon has ever written. The "Beautiful People" are people who have become self-aware, and are at peace with their relationship to the world. This song is about those people who have come into harmony with the world, and understand that they can have anything they want, do anything they want, accomplish anything they want, simply by making a positive effort, rather than fighting and resisting the negativity of the world around them. To that extent, a self-aware person is an exceedingly rich person, in a non-materialistic sense, and Paul McCartney's lyrics about being a rich man tie in with John Lennon's portion of the song. But otherwise you could throw McCartney's lyrics out. They don't stand up on their own in the way that John Lennon's do.
  
• Sadie from Atlanta, GaWow. To the people saying it was about John's hate/anger at Brian, thats FALSE. I'm pretty sure John did sing "baby you're a rich fag jew" because that was just his humor. He picked on people's features when he was younger like most guys do. Just watch Hard Day's Night or read his books for insight on his humor. But that doesn't mean he was unconformable with Brian in fact John loved Brian as a friend and and got along extremely well with him. John even went as far to say that it was an intense relationship that was never consummated. I think this song can be taken as sarcastic "yeah how does it feel to fit in?" or just honest of "how does it feel to be in tune with the world? Awesome right?!"
• Reed from New Ulm, MnThe person playing the synth on the intro is noneother than Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones.
• Ken from Louisville, KyAround 1967, the term "beautiful people" was invented to describe rich, young hippie pretenders. In his book "Shout" Philip Norman said that is what Brian Epstein was like in the last few months of his life. He started wearing hippie clothes instead of suits, increased his drug intake and grew his hair. John Lennon supposedly noticed that, and asks him, in this song "How does it feel to be one of the "beautiful people"?
• Zach from Farfarl, CaIf you read about Brian Epstein's first contract he gave them. He didn't sign the contract, meaning he could just leave at any time, he also gave himself a 25% cut, which is more than double the norm. So did he want money? Maybe. But the thing is, this continued on, during the Beatles' career.
• Susan from Toronto, CanadaNicholas Cage said that when he was a kid in the back seat of his Uncle Francis Ford Coppola's car when Coppola was driving, BABY YOU'RE A RICH MAN came on the radio. This was just after Coppola started making a ton of money from the Godfather films, and the song underscored for Cage how intimidating Coppola's new wealth made him, and Nicholas hoped he'd be rich and famous, too, one day.
• Bianca Sanchez from Alburquerque, NmLove the Song. Long Live The Beatles! even if half of them are dead and they broke up.
• Anonymous95% of the people here don't understand what the Beatles, or John Lennon in particular, were about. Google John Lennon's 1980 Playboy interview and read it. It's available for free. If you want the Cliff Notes version, skip to the last three responses he gives in the interview. His lyrics in this song epitomize what he was about. These lyrics are among the most beautiful that John Lennon has ever written. The "Beautiful People" are people who have become self-aware, and are at peace with their relationship to the world. This song is about those people who have come into harmony with the world, and understand that they can have anything they want, do anything they want, accomplish anything they want, simply by making a positive effort, rather than fighting and resisting the negativity of the world around them. To that extent, a self-aware person is an exceedingly rich person, in a non-materialistic sense, and Paul McCartney's lyrics about being a rich man tie in with John Lennon's portion of the song. But otherwise you could throw McCartney's lyrics out. They don't stand up on their own in the way that John Lennon's do.
• Justin from Luray, VaI believe this song is clearly about LSD. "One of the beautiful people" refers to people who take LSD, supported by the fact that "At one of the sites of the Manson Family murders, the killers wrote "How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?"" (Thanks Bill). The Manson Family were frequent LSD users. "Now that you know who you are, what do you want to be?" is a reference to LSD's spiritualistic qualities. "How often have you been there? Often enough to know" --> i.e. the Beatles dropped a lot of acid. All of the insulting references to the manager could have been a side joke, but not the main point of the song. The line, "You keep all your money in a big brown bag inside a zoo" is the only puzzling line, but I believe that could probably also be explained by the acid. Lastly, "now that you've found another key, what are you going to play" refers to a new perspective that LSD gave the Beatles. I know the Beatles were a pop band and they don't mention drugs in interviews too much, but just listen to the album and watch the movie. The answers are more obvious then they appear.
• Joey R from Boston, MaNick, there is bass (clearly) but there is guitar as well. In the verse.
• Jim from Lancaster, CaIn the Book 'The Beatles Forever' by Nicolas Schaffner he believed the song was written for Brian Epstien. His book published in the 1970's was the first in my mind to comment how one line would sound like 'big fat jew'. I believe over time this may have been exaggerated into big fag jew.
• Cristina from Santiago, ChileI meant John :).
• Cristina from Santiago, ChileDidn't john say this was about themselves having turned into "one of the beautiful people", that is people with money?.
• Lucyinthesky from Philadelphia, PaThe Rolling Stones were very good friends with and big fans of The Beatles. And Mick Jagger was at 4 Beatles recording sessions and Keith Richards was at 2 of them with him. Mick Jagger came to just stand on the sidelines and watch and listen to them recording Baby You're A Rich Man in May 1967. His name is also on the tape box because he might have sang at the end verses.
• Joe from Montvale, NjThe bass is actually partly muted in this song. Also there is backward piano that is faded in and out during the song a technique they used quite a bit with backward instruments. The song features Indian sounding keyboards and also the bass is very upfront on this song.
• Nick from Moncton, CanadaThat's not a muted guitar, it's a Bass. a Rickenbacker to be precise. very punchy.
• Patrick from Tallapoosa, GaOne could miss it being played in Yellow Submarine for two reasons: first, the intro is played at the same time the bubble deflates. If you're not paying attention, you'd think it's just the sound of the bubble deflating. Second, the tune sounds almost faint, and only lasts for about five seconds. Not exactly enough time to really recognize it as the intro to "Baby..." unless you're tuned in.
• Zoloft from Milton, WvThis song was a result of Lennon's homophobia. He struggled to come to terms
  with his sexuality and eventually "experimented" in the sack with manager
  Brian Epstein. Afterwards, Lennon felt guilty for engaging in sexual
  activity with another man. This only served to cause Lennon to harbor great
  resentment toward Epstein. He began insinuating that Epstein wasn't doing a
  proper job and was perhaps even stealing from the Beatles. The zoo mentioned
  in the song referred to Epstein's favorite gay nightclub, called The Zoo.
  
• Joseph from Bs. As., ArgentinaI love this tune, especially paul's bass line. He's a very creative man. I dind't knew that Mick Jagger was in this song
• Dirk from Nashville, TnHe doesn't say it.
  What someone heard was that those were the song's "original words". But that's incorrect. They were NOT the original words. It was just John Lennon clowning around on an early take that has no doubt been thrown out in the trash. But someone recalled it in an interview about 30 years ago, and the story has since been stretched out of recognizable form.
• Warrinder from A Town, CanadaI can't hear Lennon say "Rich fag jew," when does he say it exactley?
• Bill from Erie, PaAt one of the sites of the Manson Family murders, the killers wrote "How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?" in blood on the victim's door. Charlie Manson was very influenced by the Beatles, and believed they were the four angels mentioned in Revelations.
• Dirk from Nashville, TnThe important thing, maybe, is that they didn't actually record the "rich fag Jew" line, Lennon was just snorting around with it in the studio. Lennon was warped. We blame it on the drugs now, but he was warped long before he discovered LSD. He was constantly distorting lyrics and saying nonsensical things. The beginning of Get Back on the original Let It Be album: "Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman, but she was a frying pan." ...I mean, what kind of brain was this guy playing with? Should anybody be surprised he was sitting there in the studio poking one of his best friends in the ribs singing "Baby, you're a rich fag Jew"...?
• Steve from Fenton, MoThis was two songs connected together. It's an ok song for me, but doesn't work as well as A Day in the Life, obviously. I think I like the John part and the Paul part by themselves better than I like them together. Still it's better than most other group's B sides.
• Pepper from Virginia Beach, Vahey john, i agree with you but i just got Bob Spitz's new book and in there it says engineers in the session said lennon did takes where he DID utter the rich fag jew rant and also ripped into mccartney and jagger, who was in visiting during the session.
• John from Woburn, Mathe whole "baby your a rich fag jew" thing is not only untrue but makes little sense. Though john loved teasing him about his sexuality brian epstein was there friend and would of died to protect them, therefore meaning the beatles would have had to be very ungrateful to sing that in a song
• Stsjfsd from Denver, CoHalf the song was about Brian Epstine, but it wasn't a slam of any kind. Brian was feeling left out of the group as the Beatles were not touring anymore and they really didn't need him like in the past. The song was more or less saying that you are just as successful as the rest of us and still needed.
• Keith from Warren, MiThere's a very obvious muted guitar in it.
• Sylvia from London, EnglandI love this song. Very cool!
• Dave from Pittsburg, Pa- aidan, seatle, WY>
  I want to know who doesn't think the beatles are popular and who ever gave the impression that people dont like them they still have albums go gold even through their the same songs. where do people get the ideas that the worlds against them.
• Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScI don't know either luna. Beats me.
• Luna from London, EnglandIt doesn't sound at all like "rich fag jew". I don't know why some of you think that.
• Lee from Clearwater, FlDamn, Ben, You hate it. I cant imagine mustering up such severe feelings over a song. Calm down, smoke a joint.
• Nathan from Defiance, OhI must be the only person on earth never to have seen a Beatles movie!
• Art from Nyc, NyFirst of all, it's not about getting high. The brown paper bag lyric is a reference to the way Brian Epstein would prefer to receive payment for live appearances. Also, fag not only meant cigarette, but was also slang for a gay person even in Liverpool. Besides calling Brian "queer" it is well documented that John Lennon at least referred to him as a "fag" and Lennon also refers to Mick Jagger's live show movements as "fag dancing" and I don't think he meant "cigarette dancing".
• Ben from Cheverly, MdI hate it.
• Jay from New York, NyOn the "Rich fag Jew" comments: Would a Brit use the word "fag" to mean a gay person? In British slang, a fag is a cigarette, as evidenced by the Kinks' "Well Respected Man" (He likes his fags the best). I wonder if fag meaning gay is purely American slang and the misunderstanding of the lyric is an Americaninsm that would be lost on a British person.
• Chiaki from Nagoya, JapanAh, yes, Yellow Submarine. I noticed this song in there; I don't know how one could miss it.
  
  Random: Blue Meanies T-shirts rock. :)
• Takashi from Tokyo, JapanAnd One thing is fore sure: It DOES sound like "Baby you're a rich fag Jew", alright!
• Takashi from Tokyo, JapanI got the YELLOW SUB movie and People have been complaining that the part where this song plays is cut out of the DVD but it's NOT!!! It plays when they rescue the Sgt. Pepper band from the bubble the blue meanies trapped them in. I loved the movie.
• Martijn from Helmond, NetherlandsI think the line about 'a natural E' (not: 'A matural E') refers to beginning bands because songs in E are the easiest to learn on the guitar. In the Anthology video Paul talks about the day when he and George and John travelled all the way across Liverpool to meet a guy who knew the chord B7, 'the lost chord', because B7 is the so called dominant chord in the key of E, which resolves to E at the end of a phrase. So apparently in those days they were still learning to play in E.
• Steven from San Gabriel, CaI certainly won't defend The Monkees being as good as the Beatles, but I must correct a couple of people here. Michael and Peter were musicians and did in fact play instruments and wrote songs prior to being picked for the Monkees. Mickey and Davey were both actors. Once they had to perform live Mickey did in fact learn to play drums. Mickey also went on to write songs on his own, including "Randy Scouse Git" which is pretty damn creative! The finest of all the Monkees albums in my oppinion was Headquarters over which they had complete creative control. Every part on Headquarters was performed by the Monkees, or if they could not play a specific instrument, the desired part was dictated to the musician for hire.
• Pete from Sheerness, CaEpstein certainly wouldn't have robbed the boys, but sadly his business acumen was not great and he sold rights worth millions for a fraction of their value when the Beatles cracked America -
  And isn't 'All You Need Is Cash' a Rutles song?
• Sal from Ny, Nyrandy from texas, i hope you're kidding about the monkee's. not only did they not write they own music, but there voices were'nt even that great. and the only guy that had the slightess musical talent was the lead singer, i forget hisname. that's an insult!
• AnonymousNone of the Beatles cared about money, least of all george. And their manager, Brian Epstien, would never "rob them blind". He was good friends of the beatles and their families, and would never do anything like that to them. He was taking payment obviously, but the beatles deceded how much to pay him, he didn't. Their publisher, george martin, also would never rob them, he was, and is, souch a nice friend and was paul's best friend, if it wasn't lennon. Alfred, you are completly insane and have no clue what you are talking about. Please keep your mindless babbaling to yourself in the future. Second thing. Randy, you should NEVER compare a band like "the monkees" with the Beatles. And the word KEY obviously refers to the musical mterm of key, sience the previous line says, "turned to a natural E". Robert, you are just insane. how can you even compare this with a drug song. If you listen to their drug songs, there is at least somr hint of drugs in ther lyrics. I can see how "strawberry Fields" or "I Am The Walrus" can be mistaken for drug songs; but this isn't even close.
• Shirley from Ocean, NjRandy: you can't even compare the monkees to the Beatles. The Monkees were a novelty band and a studio creation who didn't even write songs or play instruments.
• Alfred from Washington, DcWhen the sixties ended, George Harrison admitted that the Beatles had always thought about money (especially when they learned how their manager and publisher were robbing them blind, at least by today's standards) and that "All You Need is Cash" would have better described the rules of the game. The lyrics to "Baby You're a Rich Man" suggest some self-reflection on the part of Lennon-McCartney as to the Beatles privledged status as young, rich, musical, self-satisfied, and members of the "beautiful people" set.
• Patrick from Conyers, GaThis is used in the movie "Yellow Submarine" in the scene where the Lads rescue the original Sgt. Pepper and his band from the blue glass bubble the Blue Meanies encased them in. The band is heard playing the intro to the song as the bubble deflates.
• Robert from Conyers, GaI think the song is about getting high. In those days pot was sometimes sold in brown paper bags. The rest is self explanitory...if you know what I mean.
• Randy from Beaumont, TxI've always thought that this was a jab at the bands that started up as a result of the Beatles' success. The "mopheads" (yes, I am an original Beatlemanic) worked hard at it and some of these bands, although some did give us pretty good music (like the Monkee's maybe).. they were mostly a product of record companies and producers who wanted the quick buck. Therefore the lyric "... Now that you've found another KEY, what are you going to play?...."

Gary Brooker of Procol HarumSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer and pianist for Procol Harum, Gary talks about finding the musical ideas to match the words.

Yoko OnoSongwriter Interviews

At 80 years old, Yoko has 10 #1 Dance hits. She discusses some of her songs and explains what inspired John Lennon's return to music in 1980.

Marvin GayeFact or Fiction

Did Marvin try out with the Detroit Lions? Did he fake crazy to get out of military service? And what about the cross-dressing?

Hawksley WorkmanSongwriter Interviews

One of Canada's most popular and eclectic performers, Hawksley tells stories about his oldest songs, his plentiful side projects, and the ways that he keeps his songwriting fresh.

Cy Curnin of The FixxSongwriter Interviews

The man who brought us "Red Skies" and "Saved By Zero" is now an organic farmer in France.

Lip-Synch RebelsSong Writing

What happens when Kurt Cobain, Iron Maiden and Johnny Lydon are told to lip-synch? Some hilarious "performances."