TheBeatlesOnline

John got the idea to this title from headline in a gun magazine, which read "Happiness Is Warm Gun In Your Hand." The song itself was really three unfinnished song ideas put together, and it was a complecated and long process to get it recorded. It worked out in the end though, after 70 takes, thanks to a joint team effort from all four members.

The title carries sexual connotations, of course, the kind that would typically amuse John. The BBC even banned the song for this reason.

The lyrics have some odd references to real people and places, "Mother superior," for exampel, was one of John's nicknames for Yoko Ono.

Apple press officer Derek Tylor says in Steve Turner's book A Hard Day's Write that he contributed with ideas to the song's lyrics.
Lennon had first wanted to describe a girl that was really smart, and Taylor had suggested "She's not a girl who misses much," which had been a phrase of his father.

Then there was this odd character Taylor and his wife had met in a hotel bar, who had told them that he liked wearing moleskin gloves to get an "unusual sensation" when he was out with his girlfriend. This provided the line "She's well acquinted with a velvet hand."

"Like a lizard on a window pane," was a reference to Los Angeles where they often saw little lizards "nipping up the window," Taylor said.

The "man in the crowd" referred to a newspaper story about a man who was arrested by the police for having mirrors on his toe caps to look up womens' skirts at football matches.

"The bit about 'lying with his eyes while his hands were working overtime' came from another thing I'd read where a man wearing a cloak had fake plastic hands, which he would rest on the counter of the shop while underneath the cloak he was busy lifting things and stuffing them in a bag round his waist," Taylor said.

However, some have also speculated if the song is about injecting drugs. The title itself, plus the line "I need a fix 'cause I'm going down," is supposed to support this theory.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

I need a fix cause I'm going down
Down to the bits that I left uptown
I need a fix cause I'm going down
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun
Mother Superior jump the gun

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun mama
When I hold you in my arms
and I feel my finger on you trigger
I know nobody can do no harm
Because Happiness is a warm gun mama
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is
Happiness is a warm, yes it is, gun
Ah, don't you know that
Happiness is a warm gun mama