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The Fool On The Hill
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Paul McCartney:
Vocals, piano, acoustic guitar, recorder, bass guitar
John Lennon: Harmonica, jaw's harp
George Harrison: Acoustic guitar, harmonica
Ringo Starr: Drums, maracas, finger cymbals
Cristopher Taylor: Flutes
Richard Taylor: Flutes
Jack Ellory: Flutes
Recorded
September 25, 26, 27 and October 20.
Available on:
Magical
Mystery Tour
Anthology 2
The Beatles 1967-1970(The Blue Album)
Paul
McCartney wrote The Fool On The Hill during the Sgt.
Pepper sessions in March 1967, but the song wasn't recorded
until September. The original recording featured a piano
introduction played by Paul, but this was edited out of
the final mix.
The Rolling
Stones used flutes on their hit single Ruby Tuesday from
1966, but it's dubious if this had any direct influence
on McCartney's choice to use flutes on this track. The flute
section was in fact composed by McCartney himself on the
piano, and transcribed to notes by George Martin.
So, who
exactly is this fool on the hill?
One theory
is that The Fool On The Hill is partly based on the card
The Fool in the Egyptian Tarot deck. The Fool is a parodocixal
symbol, numbered 0 or 22 (depending on the edition of the
pack), which stands or "redeeming ignorance".
It's however
unlikely that this was the only inspiration behind the song.
Alistair
Taylor has said Paul got the idea to The Fool On The Hill
from a real life experience.
Taylor
wrote in his book Yesterday that he went for a walk with
Paul and his dog Martha on Primerose Hill, when a man suddenly
appeared as from nowhere.
"We
turned around to go and suddenly there he was standing behind
us," Taylor wrote.
"He
was a middle-aged man, very respectably dressed in a belted
raincoat. Nothing in that, you may think, but he'd come
up behind us over the bare top of the hill in total silence."
According
to Taylor, the three men exchanged greetings before the
man vanished just as miraculously as he had appeared.
"He'd
just disappeared from the top of the hill as if he'd been
carried off into the air! No-one could have run into the
thin cover of the nearest trees in the time we had turned
away from him, and no-one could have run over the crest
of the hill."
"Paul
and I felt the same weird sensation that something weird
had happened. We sat down rather shakily on the seat and
Paul said: "What the hell do you make of that? That's
weird. He was here wasn't he? We did speak to him?"
Paul McCartney
played The Fool On The Hill frequently during his 1989-90
world tour. A live version recorded at Wembley, England
- dedicated to "three mates of mine; George, Ringo
and John" - is available on the live album Tripping
The Live Fantastic.
The Fool On The Hill
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Day after day alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin
is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
But the
fool on the hill
sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Well on
the way, his head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices
is talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him
Or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice
But the
fool on the hill
sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Oh, round,
round, round, round, round
And nobody seems to like him
they can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings
But the
fool on the hill
sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Oh, round,
round, round, round, round
And he never listen to them
He knows that they're the fools
But they don't like him
The fool
on the hill
sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Oh, round,
round, round, round, round
oh
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