I was in my Beatles and 60s class, and my professor was telling us about the inspiration behind the song She's Leaving Home (I had not heard this story before-shocking!). It was the story of 17 year old Melanie Coe who had run away from her parents' comfortable North London home in 1967. The news of her disappearance made front page news, and after reading the story Paul McCartney was inspired to write the song, which ended up on The Beatles' revolutionary album Sgt.Pepper.
However, McCartney's reading of her escape in the newspapers was not the first time he had come across her:
"I first met Paul when I was 13 on the pop show Ready Steady Go!
"He presented me with first prize for miming to Brenda Lee's Let's Jump The Broomstick, which meant I danced on the show for a year," says Melanie.
"We had spent a long day in the studio filming. John Lennon was aloof and unapproachable, Paul shook our hands but Ringo and George were sweethearts, chatting to us all day.
"Something probably clicked in Paul's mind when he read the story about me running away from home three years later, as it was pretty unusual back then."
She's Leaving Home
Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begings
Silently closing her bedroom door
Leaving the note that she hoped would say more
She goes downstairs to the kitchen clutching her hankerchief
Quietly turing the backdoor key
Stepping outside she is free.
She (we gave her most of our lives)
Is leaving (sacraficed most of our lives)
Home (we gave her everything money could buy)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. bye, bye
Father snores as his wife gets into her dressing gown
Picks up the letter that's lying there
Standing alone at the top of the stairs
She breaks down and cries to her husband
Daddy our baby's gone.
Why would she treat us so thoughtlessly
How could she do this to me.
She (we never though of ourselves)
Is leaving (never a thought for ourselves)
Home (we struggled hard all our lives to get by)
She's leaving home after living alone
For so many years. bye, bye
Friday morning at nine o'clock she is far away
Waiting to keep the appointment she made
Meeting a man from the motor trade.
She what did we do that was wrong
Is having we didn't know it was wrong
Fun fun is the one thing that money can't buy
Something inside that was always denied
For so many years. bye, bye
She's leaving home bye bye
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
18 comments:
wow i didn't know that. thanks <3 xx
Cool post...thanks!
wait! beatles and the 60s is a class!?!!?! i went to the wrong university. i love this song, it makes me cry. thanks for telling the story.
www.paperplanesandmaryjanes.blogspot.com
I didn't think there was a bigger beatles fan than me, but you just might be!
alonothing.wordpress.com
she looks like Pattie Boyd
Oh neat! Thanks for that interesting tid bit on the song and the actual video-sooo cute!
Oh, wow. I had no idea. Reminds me a bit of the story behind Fastball's "The Way".
i thought that was pattie boyd when i saw the little thumbnail. and man that class is probably awesome, do you just love it?
that is a really interesting bit of information, good post darling :)
That's pretty cool, I didn't know that. And I thought I knew EVERYTHING about the Beatles. That video is pretty funny, don't all the girls just do the same thing? How awkward for Paul.
Wow! I've never heard this! Thank you, it's a great post!
Yeah, there are a lot of weird coincidences with Beatles lyrics! Another good one is the "Eleanor Rigby" tombstone in Liverpool - right outside the church where John and Paul met for the first time. Supposedly Paul didn't even know about it when he titled his song nearly ten years later... The man clearly had an active (and creative) subconscious.
There's a fun devoted completely to the story behind every Beatles song - both inspiration and composition - called Here There and Everywhere. Actually there might be a few out there, but that's the one I know. The author not only tracked down Coe but the real Lucy who inspired Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - Julian's classmate who showed up in a drawing he brough home to John. (Sadly, she died in the last year or so from cancer.)
I've got a couple Beatle posts coming up on my own blog in the next week - a visual tribute to Help! and a kickoff to a 5 or 6-part series about the Beatles and their various film appearances ranging from their own films to those they starred in as actors to those that were made about them or their music. Should be interesting (/shameless self-promotion). Thanks for this post...
Thanks for sharing this, never knew either. Interesting - a snippet of information that could have been possibly lost in time.
wowzers! that so awesome. i had no idea about this. thanks for sharing:)
I thought she was Pattie at first.
She's Leaving Home is such a beautiful song.
PD: I LOVE YOUR BLOG!!
wow!! thanks a lot for posting! i loved the martha post as well.
so much love for bob dylan. we share a birthday too!
BM
thebohemiangoods.blogspot.com
xxx
I love the photograph- a younger and much prettier Bette Davis.
I loved that mime contest video so much! The dark haired girl that should have won had some moves that put most adults to shame. Paul messed up on that one man. She was robbed.
It's amazing how songs are made. How they are based on experiences or other events in life. I think that's so cool.
-Zane of ontario honey
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