Off The Beatle Track

On some days, Hey Bulldog is my favorite Beatles’ song.* I love John’s opening piano riff (followed by George’s guitar and Paul’s bass echoing the riff), and John’s lyrics and vocals (backed by Paul) have a looseness that not many of their tracks match. It sounds like–and I mean this as a compliment–he’s singing off the cuff, making up the song as he goes. He and Paul apparently did just that over the long outro.

A little background: In February 1968, The Beatles went into the studio to record a video for their pre-Rishikesh single, Lady Madonna. Ever efficient, they decided to take advantage of the studio time to record a new track. John had an unfinished and untitled song he was thinking of as “Hey Bullfrog,” which he and Paul finished writing in the studio.

So let’s talk about the outro. Around 2:10 into the song, Paul starts to bark, and John, playing along, asks “What do you say?” and “You know any more?” When Paul howls, John exclaims “That’s great!” and “You got it!”

Then John says, I believe, “Don’t look at me, man, I already [or possibly “only’] have 10 children.”**

Which, ok, but: what?

I’ve poked around online, and most sites that include lyrics for Hey Bulldog cite “Don’t look at me, man, I only have 10 children.” I’ve always heard a three-syllable adverb modifying “have,” but whether John says “only” or “already” is not the part confuses me (although, see below, because “only” may in fact be even weirder than “already”). Both versions confuse me, as would a version in which John omits the adverb altogether. John’s non-sequitur doesn’t make much sense in the context of the song, which seems to be mostly about alienation, possibly about the kind of isolation that John would write about two years later on Plastic Ono Band.

As far as I can remember, the only official release to include the lyrics to Hey Bulldog was the 2023 edition of The Beatles 1967-1970 (the Blue Album), which ends the printed lyrics before the long outro begins, thereby pretending that no one sang or said anything after several repetitions of “Hey Bulldog”.***

I’ve never heard or read an explication of that line, so I’ll tentatively offer a guess: because the singer interpreted the howling by the barker as a sexual advance, the singer wants to make clear that he is not interested in reciprocating because he has already sufficiently procreated. (But then why would he say he has “only” 10 children?) So maybe turning down the offer of sex reinforces or is symptomatic of the singer’s alienation?

As you can tell, I’m not convinced that I’ve unlocked the mystery of Hey Bulldog. What do you think “”Don’t look at me, man, I already [or “only”] have 10 children” means? Email me at beatletrack@gmail.com.

*On other days, my favorite might be Nowhere Man, And Your Bird Can Sing, or Here Comes The Sun.

**Of course, John in 1968 had one child, Julian, whom he acknowledged, and I know of no credible reports that John had fathered other children.

***I’ll relegate this rant to a footnote: This is the kind of thing that drives Beatles’ fans, or at least this Beatles’ fan, crazy. I don’t know whether Universal, Sony, or Apple is to blame for this particular oversight, but it’s been 63 years since the band first recorded for EMI and 55 years since they broke up. Let’s agree that the music will endure and that their songs deserve the respect of thorough documentation.