All this week we’ve been looking at songs about different types of men. We end this trip with a song by the Beatles about a “Nowhere Man.” Released as a single in the U.S. in February of 1966, this one went to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Cash Box Top 100.
While credited to Lennon-McCartney, as all their Beatles-era songs were, “Nowhere Man” was written by John Lennon. It was one of the first Beatles songs not about love and romance, instead being somewhat existential in its lyrics. As John Lennon later recalled:
“I’d spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then ‘Nowhere Man’ came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down.”
The lads recorded “Nowhere Man” on October 21 and 22, 1965, with John singing lead and Paul and George chiming in for that tasty three-part harmony. John and Paul played the lead guitar solo in unison on matching sonic blue Fender Stratocasters.
The Beatles included “Nowhere Man” on the UK version of their Rubber Soul album, released in December of 1965. Here in the U.S., the song was placed on their Yesterday and Today album, which came out in June of 1966. While it was released as a single in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and a few other countries, it did not get a single release in England.
And here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, the Beatles performing “Nowhere Man” live in Germany in 1966. They were a pretty good live group.
