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Author Topic: Hello Goodbye  (Read 2998 times)

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Mairi

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Hello Goodbye
« on: December 03, 2006, 12:23:14 AM »

It's mainly been said that Hello Goodbye is just a meaningless pop song, full of meaningless contradicting words. However, I was listening to it the other night and came out with a whole different perspective on it.
The way I see it, the song is about a guy who is being dumped by his girlfriend, but he doesn't want to believe it. "I don't know why you say goodbye... I say hello." He's in denial- he still thinks they are a couple and he doesn't understand why she would want to break up with him.
"You say why... I say I don't know" the girl is asking him why he did all the bad things he did, to make her break up with him. He shrugs, "I don't know" and he still thinks they're together.
Basically, he's pleading with her, and thinking to himself.. "If I don't aknowledge it, it can't be true! We're still together."

On the other hand, I could be reading way too much into this. What do you think?
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Hello Goodbye

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2006, 02:35:02 AM »

Well, that's what's nice about this song.  You can interpret it any way you want.  It can easily describe a situation all of us have been in at one time or another.

This is from the I Am The Beatles website (http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1165.html):

Paul's friend, Alistair Taylor who was visiting McCartney, asked Paul one day how he wrote his many songs, and how he came up with his ideas. Paul took him into his dining room to give him a demonstration of his hand-carved harmonium. As an experiment, Paul asked Taylor to shout out the opposite of whatever he sang, such as black and white, yes and no, hello and goodbye, etc. From this, the song was born. Lennon hated the song, and viewed it as an inconsequential song of McCartney's, saying it was "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions." What further infuriated Lennon was that his "I Am The Walrus," was issued as the B-side to McCartney's A-side Hello Goodbye.

Your interpretation has the guy doing bad things and causing a breakup.  From a male perspective, Hello Goodbye can describe a fellow's feelings that all the nice things he's done has gone unrecognized and unappreciated by a selfish girl.
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BlueMeanie

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2006, 02:26:48 PM »

Quote from: 218
It's mainly been said that Hello Goodbye is just a meaningless pop song, full of meaningless contradicting words. However, I was listening to it the other night and came out with a whole different perspective on it.
The way I see it, the song is about a guy who is being dumped by his girlfriend, but he doesn't want to believe it. "I don't know why you say goodbye... I say hello." He's in denial- he still thinks they are a couple and he doesn't understand why she would want to break up with him.
"You say why... I say I don't know" the girl is asking him why he did all the bad things he did, to make her break up with him. He shrugs, "I don't know" and he still thinks they're together.
Basically, he's pleading with her, and thinking to himself.. "If I don't aknowledge it, it can't be true! We're still together."

On the other hand, I could be reading way too much into this. What do you think?

He also says: You say yes, I say no. Sounds like a contradiction. Maybe he wasn't sure if he wanted the relationship or not?

But hey, I'm too old to remember that kind of thing :'(

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Kevin

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2006, 02:49:43 PM »

Firstly, I don't see anything wrong with "meaningless lyrics" in pop songs. It's the whole package that counts. The song shines and is a brilliant piece of radio music. A singles job is to chart and that it certainly did. Pop would loose a lot of its charm if every song was some soul searching opus.
I think Paul was just using words that sounded good (as normal). He plays to his strengths. And George's one-note guitar solo always makes me smile. Great song.
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BlueMeanie

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2006, 02:57:31 PM »

Paul was always the one that could just make up a story. Lennon always said that his (certainly from mid period on, anyway) had to be from personal experience.
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GreenApple

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2006, 05:51:27 PM »

It's just nice wordplay. Paul did well considering it was John's forte. Goes to show they could build on each others styles. It could mean anything you might want. Maybe that's the best way to take it. 'You say yes, I say no', 'I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello'. Perhaps some mind-changing is going on. Sounds like a condensed love song maybe, with two lovers arguing. One of Paul's best Beatles numbers IMO. Gives much gravitas to the MMT album.
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Hello Goodbye

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2006, 01:44:37 AM »

As I mentioned in another thread, Hello Goodbye was the perfect song and video presentation after the very heady Sgt. Pepper summer.  It was fun watching them lip-synch the song in full Pepper regalia and especially the hula girl bit at the end.  It was just what we needed.....a simple song with no "message."



I vividly remember seeing the video on Ed Sullivan's show in the fall of 1967.  Dick Clark also showed the video on American Bandstand.
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raxo

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2007, 01:43:52 PM »

I like this two parts:

Why why why, why, why, why, do you say goodbye, goodbye bye bye bye bye?    Oh no.

You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.

You say yes,        I say no,      
           (I say yes),         (but I mean no)  
 You say stop, I say          go, go, go.           Oh no.
      (I can stay still it's time to go)


Does anybody know if the lyrics in brackets were written by John (he sung them), like he did in Getting Better, for example?
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zipp

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2007, 02:59:16 PM »

Quote from: 297
I say yes,but I may mean no
 I can stay till it's time to go

Does anybody know if these lyrics were written by John (he sung them), like he did in Getting Better, for example?

That's a good question.It certainly looks to me like Lennon added these lyrics.They're the typical Lennnon counterpoint to a McCartney fantasy.

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raxo

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #9 on: January 20, 2007, 03:14:24 PM »

Quote from: 410
That's a good question.It certainly looks to me like Lennon added these lyrics.They're the typical Lennnon counterpoint to a McCartney fantasy.
It looks like John to me too ... well, the fact that he sung in the way he did in Getting Better and that they are like a "response" to the apparently meaningless Paul's words  ::) ... and one more thing: that "I say yes ... but I mean no" reminds of Strawberry Fields Forever (from the very same year ... like Getting Better and Hello Goodbye!!!) ...

... if it was not John's idea or words they had to have been  8) ...
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zipp

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2007, 04:21:03 PM »

Quote from: 297
"I say yes ... but I mean no" reminds of Strawberry Fields Forever (from the very same year ... like Getting Better and Hello Goodbye!!!) ...

I thought that too!
Good work, Rax.
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raxo

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2007, 04:32:07 PM »

Quote from: 410
I thought that too!
Good work, Rax.
Thanks, zipp!  :)
I'd love if someone could confirm our thoghts tho!
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nousha

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #12 on: February 07, 2007, 07:37:10 PM »

I don't think John contributed to the song lyrics.

Quote
JOHN 1980: "That's another McCartney. An attempt to write a single. It wasn't a great piece. The best bit was at the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano. Like 'Ticket To Ride,' where we just threw something in at the end."


PAUL circa-1994: "'Hello Goodbye' was one of my songs. There are Geminian influences here I think-- the twins. It's such a deep theme of the universe, duality-- man woman, black white, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye-- that it was a very easy song to write. It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day."

And everywhere I searched it always came up "written entirely by Paul McCartney".
Sounds logical when we know John hated the song...

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raxo

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2007, 07:58:59 PM »

Quote from: 552
I don't think John contributed to the song lyrics.
And everywhere I searched it always came up "written entirely by Paul McCartney".
Sounds logical when we know John hated the song...
But John hated lots of his own songs too  ;) ... tho I don't believe him when he said things like those! 8)
I liked to believe that there was a John contribution! :-/
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Kaleidoscope_Eyes

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #14 on: February 18, 2007, 09:19:29 AM »

Quote from: 297
I like this two parts:

Why why why, why, why, why, do you say goodbye, goodbye bye bye bye bye?    Oh no.

You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, hello, hello.
I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello.

You say yes,        I say no,      
           (I say yes),         (but I mean no)  
 You say stop, I say          go, go, go.           Oh no.
      (I can stay still it's time to go)


Does anybody know if the lyrics in brackets were written by John (he sung them), like he did in Getting Better, for example?
Funny, I always thought George was singing the words in brackets... oh well all the more reasons to watch the clip again.

In my opinion the song is about a guy and his girl who are opposites of eachother, The relationship started like "opposites attracts, similar repel" but after sometime he realizes that they dont suit eachother yet he still wishes for her. Yes, i am confusing me own self.  :-/
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raxo

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #15 on: February 18, 2007, 06:09:55 PM »

Quote from: 596
[...]Yes, i am confusing me own self.  :-/
Me too!!!LOL!  ;D
Welcome to the forums, Kaleidoscope_Eyes ... hope you'll enjoy them! :)
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Kaleidoscope_Eyes

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Re: Hello Goodbye
« Reply #16 on: February 22, 2007, 07:59:54 AM »

Oh Thanks Raxo!
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