Your Mother Should Know is a song from the Magical Mystery Tour TV movie, EP and album. It was written by Paul McCartney and deals explicitly with a theme that is present in quite a lot of his work – the idea that music is a thread that connects generations. The most obvious parallel is When I’m Sixty-Four, from the Beatles previous album, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The songs are similar enough both thematically and musically to be non-identical twins. They create a similar impression, but the arrangements are quite different, with When I’m Sixty-Four relying heavily on scored woodwind while Your Mother Should Know is a Beatle-only backing track, with the McCartney’s piano and overdubbed bass very prominent. For me Your Mother Should Know – maybe weaker lyrically – has the edge musically; I am a sucker for the bass-heavy shuffles that characterize this and quite a few other Pepper and post-Pepper songs.
The Beatles Bible‘Your Mother Should Know’ was written by Paul McCartney at his home in London. The music harked back to Busby Berkeley showtunes and the golden age of music hall.
Continue reading on Beatles Bible →
WikipediaBoth When I’m Sixty-Four and Your Mother Should Know have a music hall flavour where the “old-time” music is chosen deliberately to complement lyrics about nostalgia, aging and familial affection. Although are both light-hearted with an element of pastiche about them, McCartney is sincere in his respect and affection for the older generation and in his hopes that music can help overcome the generation gap. He frequently talks about how he came from a happy extended family where music played a central part in celebrations that brought people together. These were foundational experiences for him, a big part of how and why he became a musician and, for him, a fundamental part of what music is for.
Your Mother Should Know was directly inspired by Paul’s family and particularly by his Aunty Jin and Uncle Harry who visited his London home, as he explained in his authorized biography Many Years Ago by Barry Miles:
“I wrote in Cavendish Avenue on the harmonium I have in the dining room there. My Aunty Jin and Uncle Harry and a couple of relatives were staying and they were in the living room just across the hall, so I went to the dining room for a few hours with the door open with them listening. I suppose because of the family atmosphere ‘Your Mother Should Know’ came in. It’s a very music hall kind of thing, probably influenced by the fact that my Aunty Jin was in the house.
I always hated generation gaps. I always feel sorry for a parent or a child that doesn’t understand each other… So I was advocating peace between the generations.”
This was not the only song Aunty Jin inspired (see also I’ve Just Seen A Face), and she seems to be a particularly potent link back to Paul’s memories of family and their connection through music. This was a period in his own life where he was beginning to experience a bit of instability in his life and relationships. He told Miles (talking about his initial experiences with meditation a few months later):
For me, then, it was the sixties, I’d been doing a bunch of drugs, I wasn’t in love with anyone, I hadn’t settled down. I think I was looking for something to fill some sort of hole. I remember at the time, feeling a little bit empty. I don’t know whether it was spiritual or what, it was probably just staying up all night and doing too many drugs. I was probably just physically tired.
I suspect that Aunty Jin’s visit had subconsciously suggested a potential antidote to this malaise: family and music “fixing a hole”.