The Fool on the Hill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The article is about The Beatles' song, "The Fool on the Hill". For the novel by Matt Ruff, see Fool on the Hill (novel).
| "The Fool on the Hill" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Magical Mystery Tour | ||
| Released | November 27, 1967 (US) (LP) December 8, 1967 (UK) (EP) November 19, 1976 (UK) (LP) |
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| Recorded | September 25, 1967 | |
| Genre | Psychedelic Rock | |
| Length | 3:00 | |
| Label | Parlophone, Capitol, EMI | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Magical Mystery Tour track listing | ||
| "Magical Mystery Tour" (1) |
"The Fool on the Hill" (2) |
"Flying" (3) |
"The Fool on the Hill" is a song by The Beatles. It was written and sung by Paul McCartney and recorded in 1967. It was on the album Magical Mystery Tour and also in the film of the same name, in a scene with Paul McCartney running around on hills in Nice, France.
[edit] Lyrics
The song is about a man who is considered a fool by others, but whose foolish demeanor is actually an indication of wisdom.
The event which prompted this song happened when Paul McCartney was walking his dog, Martha, on Primrose Hill one morning. As he watched the sun rise, he noticed that Martha was missing. McCartney turned around to look for his dog, and saw a man standing near him, who had suddenly appeared on the hill. The gentleman was dressed respectably, in a belted raincoat.
McCartney knew that this man had not been there seconds earlier as he had looked in that direction for Martha. He and the stranger exchanged a greeting, and this man then spoke of what a beautiful view it was from the top of the hill (that overlooked London). After a few seconds, McCartney looked around again, and the man was gone. He had vanished as he had appeared. A friend of McCartney's, Alistair Taylor, who was present with McCartney during this strange incident, later wrote of this event in his book, Yesterday.[1]
Both McCartney and Taylor could not imagine what happened to this man. He had seemed to vanish in thin air. The nearest trees for cover were too far to reach by walking or running in a few seconds, and the crest of the hill was too far to reach in that short time. What made the experience even more mysterious was that just before this man first appeared, McCartney and Taylor were speaking to each other of the beauty of the view towards London and the existence of God.
Back home, they spent the morning discussing what had happened, trying to make some sense of it. They both agreed that this was something others would infer occurred as a result of an acid trip, but they both swore they had not taken or used any drugs. When McCartney filmed the sequence for this song in the film, it shows him on a hilltop overlooking the town of Nice.
This began as a solo composition with McCartney at the piano. Flutes were added last. McCartney played this for John Lennon while they were writing "With A Little Help From My Friends." Lennon made him write down the words so he wouldn't forget. This was used in the Beatles movie Magical Mystery Tour.
The song was not a chart hit for the Beatles, but a (1968) cover version by Sergio Mendes went to number 6 in the US and topped Billboard's Easy Listening singles chart for six weeks. A year later, the song was included as the initial track on the Queen's Anne Lace album. In 1976, Helen Reddy covered the song for the transitory musical documentary All This and World War II.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Taylor, Alistair, “Yesterday”, Book Barn Ltd, ISBN 0283996218
