Julia (1:56)

Cover of The Beatles (The White Album)

From The Beatles (The White Album) and 39 other releases

“Julia” is a song by The Beatles. It is the final song on side two (and disc one, in the CD era) of the band’s 1968 album, The Beatles (The White Album). It was written by John Lennon, and features Lennon on vocals and acoustic guitar. It was written during the Beatles’ 1968 visit to India, where they were studying under the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was here Lennon learned the song’s finger-picking guitar style (known as ‘Travis-picking’) from the Scottish musician Donovan. No other Beatle sings or plays on the recording. While Paul McCartney made several “solo” compositions attributed to the group, dating back to his famous song “Yesterday”, this is the only time that Lennon played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatles track.

“Julia” was written for John’s mother Julia Lennon (1914-1958), who was knocked down and killed by a car driven by an off-duty police officer when John was still only 17 years old. It was also written for his future wife Yoko Ono, whose first name, which literally means “child of the sea” in Japanese, is echoed in lyrics such as “Oceanchild, calls me.” An alternative theory suggests that the song was written for Julian Lennon, John’s son.

The first two lines of the song – “Half of what I say is meaningless/ But I say it just to reach you, Julia” – were adapted from the poem “Sand and Foam,” by the Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran. The original line is: “Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.

Tags

Everyone’s tags

More tags
More about this track…

Albums featuring this track (40)

Similar Tracks

  Track   Duration Listeners
  The Beatles - Don't Pass Me By 3:42 327,983
  The Beatles - Piggies 1:59 344,997
  John Lennon - Mother 3:52 124,367
  John Lennon - God 2:41 108,399
  George Harrison - My Sweet Lord 4:34 376,609
  George Harrison - All Things Must Pass 3:45 55,282

Listening Trend

356,196listeners all time
1,647,754scrobbles all time
Recent listeners trend:

Explore more

Listen to, buy or share

Buy

Send Ringtones to Cell

Half of what I say is meaningless
But I say it just to reach you, Julia

MetroLyrics Full lyrics at MetroLyrics

Shoutbox

Leave a comment. Log in to Last.fm or sign up.

Listening Now

Top Listeners