You've Got to Hide Your Love Away

The lyric puts its case as a question ("How can I even try?"), and it touches the motifs of relationship and self deprecation. It is confessional, a habit that peaked in 1968. The title carries the word get and also has the word love in it, and the writing takes after Bob Dylan. Fun fact, the line "Let me hear you say" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'Words of Love'.

Written in G major and taken at about 96 BPM, 'You've Got to Hide Your Love Away' is a folk rock and ballad piece. Also, listen to a capo high on the neck (capo on Lennon's acoustic) and a kit played with brushes. One for the curious, the chords run F → G → C → F → C → G, the same shape 'Baby's in Black' plays as D7 → E7 → A → D → A → E. This song is the earliest of their records to feature flute.

Cut in nine takes at EMI Studio 2, with session player John Scott later overdubbing alto and tenor flutes onto the outro. The Hofner 500/1 was McCartney's bass, a habit that peaked in 1964. The kit in the room included the Ludwig Super Classic, Starr's own kit since 1964. The band reached for double tracked vocal on this one, as on 139 of their records. It shares its session day with one others, the 76th and 77th of their career.

This one is Lennon's, written and sung. Tenor flute, 12-string acoustic, flute and alto flute were brought in for it, three of them new to a Beatles record.

This track reached the public on August 6, 1965, with Help!, and was never a single. Beyond the record itself, it is widely covered (the Silkie, Eddie Vedder, Oasis). In America it arrived seven days later, on Help! (US), a Capitol record, with Only 7 Beatles tracks (versus 14 on the UK album), with 5 Ken Thorne orchestral score tracks filling side two. The song is in one of their films as well as on the record. This is their 76th record, and the 7th of the 33 they released in that year.