John Lennon had a close relationship with The Beatle’s gay manager, Brain Epstein, but did he write about it?
When John Lennon wrote You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away in 1965, he didn’t realise its future significance to the LGBTIQ+ community – or did he?
Released on The Beatles’ 1965 album Help and featured in the film of the same name, the folkish Bob Dylan-inspired song features Lennon on vocals with instruments such as guitar (including Spanish), maracas, tambourine and a quaint tenor and alto flute. Somewhat more complex are the lyrics, referring to a hidden love.
Over the years, many have speculated that Lennon was referring to the Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who lived a closeted gay life, except to those in his inner circle, including the Beatles. With lyrics including, “Everywhere people stare, each and every day, I can see them laugh at me and I hear them say – Hey, you’ve got to hide your love away”, it’s easy to see the comparisons to Epstein’s secret life.
The Sixties was an era of meaningful and often ambiguous symbolic song lyrics, and The Beatles were not without exception. McCartney’s Blackbird was about American civil rights and George Harrison wrote about corporate financial greed in songs like Taxman and Piggies.
The Beatles’ single You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
As the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein was responsible for building the band into the musical phenomenon they remain today. Having served in the British army, he was caught out cruising and forced to see a psychiatrist. Discharged, he was again arrested for cruising public toilets but managed to escape jail time. Paul McCartney – a long-time advocate for the LGBTIQ+ community – once explained that The Beatles knew Epstein was gay and didn’t care. When one of Lennon’s art school colleagues made a homophobic crack about the Beatle’s manager, a letter was swiftly sent from McCartney advising the colleague to keep his distance from the band.
The Beatles, along with other artists from the era, were early supporters of gay rights. In 1972, Lennon wrote a poem for the Gay Liberation Handbook. In recent years, Ringo Starr cancelled shows in North Carolina over an anti-LGBT law, and in the wake of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting, McCartney has continually displayed the rainbow flag at his concerts.
Then there was Lennon and Epstein’s infamous four-day holiday to Barcelona, which set tongues wagging back in Liverpool and beyond. Speculation was rife that the two had become lovers, however, in a 1980 Playboy interview, Lennon stated, “It was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated … but we did have a pretty intense relationship”. He also explained, “We used to sit in a cafe in Torremolinos looking at all the boys and I’d say, ‘Do you like that one, do you like this one?’ I was rather enjoying the experience, thinking like a writer all the time.”
The Beatles’ Film HELP
There has also been speculation the song’s lyrics reflect Lennon having to hide his marriage to then-wife Cynthia. At the time of Beatlemania, the singer was the only one married, and to keep the interest of the adoring, screaming fans, it was suggested he portray the ‘available bachelor’. But that hardly fits the lyrics of people who ‘stare’ and ‘laugh’.
In 1967, Epstein was found dead from a drug overdose, ruled by the coroner as accidental. When the Beatles Anthology documentary was released in 1995, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away was played over the segment featuring Epstein – obviously approved by the band’s surviving members. Although Brian Epstein’s life ended tragically, he’ll always be remembered as the man who launched The Beatles – and as a gay man, had their support. It’s a pity he had to hide his love away.
The Beatles: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon
