Re: What's "Youve Got To Hide Your Love Away" About, Anyway?

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Wikipedia says:
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Lennon said of the song, "That's me in my Dylan period again. I am like
a chameleon, influenced by whatever is going on. If Elvis can do it, I
can do it. If the Everly Brothers can do it, me and Paul can. Same with
Dylan." The song is an early example of John self-reflecting in his
writing, which had begun with songs such as "I'm a Loser" in the summer
of 1964. Lennon wrote the song at home, wanting another song for the
film Help!. The song "is just basically John doing Dylan", Paul
McCartney confirmed. The song is similar to a folkish strophic form and
uses a Dylanesque acoustic guitar figure in compound duple time,
normally committed to score in 6 8 or 12 8 time, with chiefly acoustic
accompaniment, no backing voices and light percussion from brushed
snare, tambourine and maraca. A flute, however, replaces the harmonica
that Dylan typically used.
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The song's lyrics are ambiguous. Potentially, Lennon could have been
referring to the fact that, as a Beatle, he was expected to keep the
fact he was married a secret. He could also have been writing about his
inability to express his true 'loving' self in public and his feelings
of isolation and paranoia related to fame. Some, such as singer Tom
Robinson, have suggested that the song was written for the Beatles'
manager Brian Epstein, who had to hide his homosexuality from the
public. Lennon himself, however, never publicly discussed his
inspiration for the lyrics. When the song was first written, Lennon used
"two-foot tall" to rhyme with the "wall" in the first verse, but
mistakenly said "two-foot small" when he sang the line to McCartney, and
decided to keep it this way. Pete Shotton, Lennon's former bandmate from
The Quarrymen, was present when the song was being composed, and
suggested adding "Hey" to the start of the line in the refrain.
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