The Beatles Songs - Blue Jay Way
The Beatles - Blue Jay Way


The Beatles - Blue Jay Way Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Magical Mystery Tour
Released: 1967

Blue Jay Way Lyrics


There's a fog upon L.A.
And my friends have lost their way
We'll be over soon they said
Now they've lost themselves instead

Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
Please don't be long
For I may be asleep

Well it only goes to show
And I told them where to go
Ask a policeman on the street
There's so many there to meet

Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
Please don't be long
For I may be asleep

Now it's past my bed I know
And I'd really like to go
Soon will be the break of day
Sitting here in Blue Jay Way

Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
Please don't be long
For I may be asleep

Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
Please don't be long

Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
Please don't be long

Please don't be long
Please don't you be very long
Please don't be long

Don't be long, don't be long, don't be long
Don't be long, don't be long, don't be long, don't be long, don't be long

Writer/s: HARRISON
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Blue Jay Way Song Chart
  • George Harrison wrote this in a house he rented in Los Angeles on a street named Blue Jay Way. He was waiting for his friend Derek Taylor when he came up with the song.
  • Brian Kehew, who wrote the book Recording The Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums , tells us that "Blue Jay Way" is the most impressive Beatles song in terms of engineering. Says Brian: "It has phasing, flanging, it has varied speed recording, it has tape echo. They put things through Leslies, they compressed and EQed things. It's really fascinating, and it has more stuff going on with it that's more detached from traditional classical recording or a Miles Davis record. It's more Beatles-y in that way. All the tricks that The Beatles had developed with compressing instruments and with EQing things in very strange ways are present on "Blue Jay Way."

    My favorite part of it, which is really a fascinating concept, they took the track, specifically with the vocals, and then mixed it. That mix was played backwards and recorded back into the record on the multi-track, but they played it through a Leslie speaker that's spinning in the room. So occasionally during the song you hear some backwards Leslied tracks, especially vocals, swirling in and out. It's the actual song playing backwards against itself through a Leslie and then fading up and down, which is a really creative and very strange idea. I've never heard of anyone else doing something like that."
  • The line "Don't Be Long" is repeated 29 times.
  • This was used in the Beatles movie Magical Mystery Tour.
  • The vocals, organ, and drums were played on two tape machines slightly out of sync to get the phasing effect.
  • When the ending is reversed, it sounds suspiciously like "Paul is bloody." This added to the "Paul is Dead" hoax. (thanks, Dominic - Pittsburgh, PA)