Nowhere Man (song)


"Nowhere Man" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released in December 1965 on their album Rubber Soul, except in the United States and Canada, where it was first issued as a single A-side in February 1966 before appearing on the album Yesterday and Today. The song was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In the US, the single peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 on the chart compiled by Record World magazine, as it did the RPM 100 chart in Canada. The song was also released as a single in some countries where it had been included on Rubber Soul, including Australia, where it topped the singles chart.
Recorded on 21 and 22 October 1965, "Nowhere Man" is one of the first Beatles songs to be entirely unrelated to romance or love, and marks a notable example of Lennon's philosophically oriented songwriting. Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison sing the song in three-part harmony. The lead guitar solo was performed in unison by Harrison and Lennon. The pair played identical "sonic blue"-coloured Fender Stratocasters on the track. The song appears in the film Yellow Submarine, where the Beatles sing it about the character Jeremy Hillary Boob after meeting him in the "nowhere land".

Background

Lennon wrote the song about himself after racking his brain in desperation for five hours trying to come up with another song for Rubber Soul. Lennon told Playboy magazine:
McCartney said of the song:

Musical structure

The song begins with the chord of E on "He's a real" and then involves a 5–4–3–2–1 pitch descent between the B chord on "nowhere man" and A chord on "sitting in"; a twist comes where Am replaces A in the final line and the simultaneous G note melody creates a dissonant AmM7. The refrain, which appears three times, seesaws on a G minor/A major sequence before falling back on an F minor and leading back to the verse on a B7.

Cover versions

A ukulele version of "Nowhere Man" by Tiny Tim was Harrison's contribution to the Beatles' 1968 Christmas record. Distributed to members of the Beatles' fan club, the record differed from the band's previous Christmas records by including separate contributions from the four bandmates, reflecting the disharmony within the group at the time. Beatles historian John Winn describes Tim's version as the "highlight of the disc" and a "timeless" interpretation.
The song has attracted many other cover versions, including recordings in the synth-pop style by Gershon Kingsley, glam metal by Dokken and easy listening by Yanni. In his book on the legacy of Rubber Soul, John Kruth expresses disappointment in the Carpenters' version, which was recorded in 1968 and released in 2001, following singer Karen Carpenter's death, with a "ludicrous" overdubbed string arrangement. He highlights a "down-home take" by Randy Travis for the 1995 Beatles tribute album for its "sweet cascading pedal steel riff", and Replacements vocalist Paul Westerberg's acoustic rendering in the 2001 film I Am Sam for transforming the song into a "regretful lullaby". He also recognises former Ramones drummer Marky Ramone as the artist who provided the "balls-to-the-wall version", saying that in Ramone's 1999 cover, he "spits and sprays Lennon's lyrics while guitars slash and grind".

Personnel

According to Ian MacDonald, the line-up on the Beatles' recording was:

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position
Australia 1
-
-
-
US Cash Box Top 1002
US Record World 100 Top Pops1
West German Musikmarkt Hit-Parade3

Certifications