The Beatles Songs - Run For Your Life Lyrics

The Beatles - Run For Your Life

The Beatles - Run For Your Life Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Rubber Soul
Released: 1965

Run For Your Life Lyrics

Well I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won't know where I am

You better Run For Your Life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end'a little girl

Well I know that I'm a wicked guy
And I was born with a jealous mind
And I can't spend my whole life
Trying just to make you toe the line

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end'a little girl

Let this be a sermon
I mean everything I've said
Baby, I'm determined
And I'd rather see you dead

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end'a little girl

I'd rather see you dead, little girl
Than to be with another man
You better keep your head, little girl
Or you won't know where I am

You better run for your life if you can, little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end'a little girl
Na, na, na
Na, na, na
Na, na, na
Na, na, na

Writer/s: LENNON, JOHN / MCCARTNEY, PAUL
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Run For Your Life Song Chart

John Lennon was inspired by an Elvis Presley song, "Baby, Let's Play House," when he wrote this. The title and entire first line came from Elvis' song: "I'd rather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man."

"Baby, Let's Play House" was written in 1955 by Richard Gunther and was based on a 1951 Country & Western song by Eddy Arnold titled "I Want To Play House With You," written by Cy Coben. That song contains the lyric, "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man."

We'd all rather forget this song, an otherwise sour note on the monumental Rubber Soul album, but here it is, so we have to look at it anyway. John Lennon made no bones about this being his "least favorite Beatles song." Just about everybody agrees. Do keep in mind that this was 1965; there was more slack attitudes towards gender equality than there are now.

There are a couple of other songs by Lennon with misogynist undertones, including "I'll Cry Instead" and "You Can't Do That." Paul McCartney, in interviews for the book Many Years From Now, explains that while he had girlfriends and open relationships, Lennon had a marriage and hence a wife to worry about while he was on the road touring all the time. Interestingly enough, Yoko Ono mellowed him out and Lennon and Ono became crusading activists for all kinds of civil rights causes.

On December 18, 1992, the Canadian radio station CFRA banned this song because they felt the line, "I'd reather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man," promoted violence against women.