Beatles – The Ballad of John and Yoko

Hey Jude album

This song was on the first album I ever bought by the Beatles. It was a greatest hits package called Hey Jude Again when I was eight. This song I liked right away as I was learning about the band. Ask a Beatle fan what their opinion of Yoko is…and you will get different answers but I would safely say more negative. Don’t count me as a fan. She gets blamed for breaking the Beatles up. I think Allen Klein deserves more of the blame but not all…

It’s John, George, and Ringo who followed Klein and later paid millions for it but not as dearly as The Stones. Klein ended up with rights to all of their 1960s catalog. Paul’s lawsuit against the Beatles and Klein stopped Klein from doing more damage. I do think the Beatles broke up at a perfect time. Closing a career with Abbey Road…is about as good as it gets.

This song…was written obviously by Lennon but it wasn’t a true Beatles recording. Only John and Paul played on the recording. Despite the business BS going on…the music still worked between the two. John played all of the guitars and lead vocals and Paul played drums, bass, and backing vocals. George was out of town and Ringo was filming a movie. The song is a true story about John and Yoko getting married.

It was banned by many stations in America and the UK because of the line “Christ, you know it ain’t easy.” The song was supposedly written, recorded, and mixed on the same day…April 14, 1969. John didn’t like spending a long time in a studio and would do this later on with Instant Karma. He liked minimum production in those days.

John and Yoko were married on March 20, 1969, in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory on Spain’s south coast.

The song peaked at #1 in the UK, #8 on the Billboard 100, #7 in Canada, and #2 in New Zealand in 1969. At the time, it was a non-album single with the George Harrison song Old Brown Shoe as the B side. It would later be on Hey Jude Again.

A small side note…as an eight-year-old, I did learn about Holland, France, Paris, Gibraltar, and Spain. I told my mom that I would like her to drive me to France please…hey give me a break…I was 8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVnSh-93tlk

The Ballad of John and Yoko

Standing in the dock at Southampton
Trying to get to Holland or France.
The man in the mac said you’ve got to go back,
You know they didn’t even give us a chance.

Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Finally made the plane into Paris,
Honeymooning down by the Seine.

Peter Brown called to say,
You can make it OK,
You can get married in Gibraltar near Spain.

Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.

Drove from Paris to the Amsterdam Hilton,
Talking in our beds for a week.
The newspapers said, say what’re you doing in bed,
I said we’re only trying to get us some peace.

Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Saving up your money for a rainy day,
Giving all your clothes to charity.

Last night the wife said,
Oh boy, when you’re dead you
Don’t take nothing with you but your soul think!
Made a lightning trip to Vienna,
Eating chocolate cake in a bag.

The newspapers said,
She’s gone to his head,
They look just like two Gurus in a drag.
Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.

The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me.
Caught the early plane back to London,
Fifty acorns tied in a sack.
The men from the press said we wish you success,
It’s good to have the both of you back.

Christ! You know it ain’t easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going,
They’re going to crucify me

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

33 thoughts on “Beatles – The Ballad of John and Yoko”

  1. You were quite the 8 year old! I do like this song, despite my ‘feelings’ about Yoko. I had never watched either clip before. A little family trivia, my daughter was married in Gibraltar and they took a beach photo with her husband holding up the wedding certificate, they thought I’d get a kick out of that, which I did of course! No family at the ceremony just the two of them.

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    1. I had a cousin telling me how great Paperback Writer was…thats all it took after listening to Meet The Beatles.
      That is really cool about your daughter…that would have been a cool way to marry.

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  4. I love this song. Fun fact- there was a song by Johnny Burnette called “Lonesome Tears in my Eyes.” The Beatles played it at the BBC. Give it a listen and you’ll see that Lennon copped the ending lick from that.

    This is almost one of those “You had to live through it” songs to know what was going on. John and Yokos bed-ins and “eating chocolate cake in a bag” were big Beatle news. You can find video of them in bed with visitors. I had to explain this song to my son with context.

    As to Yoko breaking up the band, unfair total bullshit. John wanted out in 1965. He fell in love (“I’m in love for the first time”) and he realized there was more to life than being a Beatle. The Beatles were a Sixties phenomenon. Their music will last forever but in retrospect I’m glad they broke up when they did. Collectively they were out of gas. As Lennon said, “Didn’t we give everything on earth for ten years?” More like thirteen.

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    1. Yea I hear that lick now…Im listening to the Burnette song…that ending IS that lick.

      They grew up and apart. I’m also glad it happened when it did… because they didn’t have a chance to be “disco” Beatles or any other style that came along. I do think Klein quickened it though. Within a year or so they would have anyway I’m sure.

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      1. Absolutely. They weren’t kids anymore. McCartney completely fell apart after the band broke up. I read a book called ‘Man on the Run’ about it. He was just depressed and had to be dragged out of bed.

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      2. They were Paul’s idenity… yea Linda helped him a lot during that time.
        There is a book out now that you probably heard of…it is The McCartney Legacy. It’s like Mark Lewisohn’s book…it’s massive but good. It only covers from 69-73 and is only Volume 1.

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      4. I sure hope it’s next year. Jim when I got Tune In…I thought well it’s massive but it will probably just repeat what I already no..well no…I learned more from that book than I did from most of the ones I read. I’m glad he got the Cavern fans stories.

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  5. So did she drive you to France, LOL!
    A good one, doesn’t sound like The Beatles (despite John being on it) but more like one of his own, but a pretty good tune and good lyrics, really became interesting to me a few years back when I realized what the story was about.
    As for the breakup, all’s well that ends well I think. Klein played a role in it, so too did Yoko I’m sure, but then George was entirely frustrated, and with good reason and John seemed to be just tired of the band so really it probably is totally unfair to try and blame any one person.

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    1. I’m also glad they didn’t reunite…no disco or reggae Beatles. They ended perfectly and no chance to make a bad album.
      Klein is the one that really hurt them and The Stones for that matter…he copped millions from each.

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  6. I’ve always thought of this as sort of the flip side of “Creeque Alley” by the Mamas and the Papas – autobiographical, but one about the trials and tribulations starting out and then rising, the other about the different trials when you’re on top and become a target.

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  7. In my raw opinion, Ono was a ball of toxicity. John was the only one who couldn’t see it because he was addicted. I must be wrong on something, though, because Sean lost his dad so young and indeed, Yoko is who raised him–yet he is a decent man. For sure, I’ve always felt saddest of all for Cynthia and Julian and that’s who comes to mind when anyone mentions Yoko. They paid too dearly.

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    1. I never liked Yoko because she was so damn cold. No warmth at all. She treated Julian terrible just terrible. Made him buy all of his dad’s things. Cynthia really got the shaft in all of that.
      Do I think she caused the breakup…no…she didn’t help but I do think she stopped Lennon and McCartney from getting back together…
      There are many personal assistants they had that say the same thing…if he would have lived they would have been divorcing…soon after Double Fantasy. Whether that is right or not…who knows?

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      1. Then there’s the lost weekend with Nilsonn and him in a mutual spiral of self destruction Killed Harry as an artist and sure didn’t help John. I listened to ‘Pussycats’ the other day and it veers between a few literal highs and a fair few self absorbed childish woes and lows. God knows what would have happened if those two had invited Kieth Richards to the pity party.

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      2. Keith there…would have turned it into a death party. Now the other Keith was there…Moon so that was a crew to be reckoned with

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      3. I have heard some of Pussycats… How about that version of Rock Around The Clock? Man it’s fast…three drummers Ringo, Moon, and Keltner I believe….plus a few bumps of….uh…. 1970s vitamins!

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  10. Loved this. Still do. I still remember this coming out all fresh and new before Get Back had even left the charts – and I much preferred this jaunty story song. John & Yoko were headline news, Give Peace A Chance was weeks away, and they were trying to make a positive difference to a terrible wartorn world. Yeah, that didn’t work, obviously, human nature being what it is, but I felt optimistic then rather than cynical and pessimistic now after reality wears one down.

    So, to me, this is the last upbeat Beatles single, and (bar old album tracks getting issued or mashed up), and I’m still 11-years old. Put me down as a Yoko fan, though – Walking On Thin Ice is awesome, Hell In Paradise great, and she contributed towards Imagine and Happy Xmas War Is Over. I’m also a fan of Linda McCartney too for lesser reasons – Suzy & The Red Stripes, backing harmonies, and doing the reggae bit on Live And Let Die. Plus a veggie range of food that helped me give up meat, yay!

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    1. i also liked this better than Get Back…it has a bounce to it that I love. I sure WISH I would have been born when you were! I didn’t get to experience it real time…I wish I could have.

      I’m learning more about Linda right now…I’m reading “The McCartney Legacy” which is huge and this is the first I’ve really read about Wings and how they started. I like how they got into the veggie way of life.

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      1. its funny how fashions in music affect old recordings – was a time when Get Back was considered a cornerstone of peak Beatles back catalogue, not these days! Top rated is far and away Here Comes The Sun, never a single! George would have loved that. Outdoing Hey Jude, Let It Be, My Sweet Lord and everything else, wow!

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      2. I know…that surprised me as well! I know he would be happy about that. They could have had so many more “hits”….heck…”In My Life” wasn’t released as a single either! So many great songs that were album cuts.

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