The Beatles sometimes advocated antimaterialism. Despite this, some of the best Beatles songs are about money. In addition, one of the best Beatles songs is implicitly about how money is unnecessary.
4. ‘Baby, You’re a Rich Man’
The Beatles gave us many silly songs and many serious songs, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” is somewhere in the middle. On one level, it’s a ridiculous song about keeping money in a big brown bag inside a zoo. On another level, there was probably a little twinge of introspection in it since the Fab Four members each became very wealthy.
“Baby, You’re a Rich Man” was the B-side of “All You Need Is Love.” The former reached No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100 while the latter topped the chart for one week. While “All You Need Is Love” has more pop appeal, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” is definitely more experimental.
3. ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’
The medley at the end of Abbey Road includes many jocular moments, including “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” and “Her Majesty.” “You Never Give Me Your Money” starts as a stunningly beautiful ballad before transitioning into an uptempo joke song. It’s a bit of a shame Paul McCartney didn’t turn the opening bit into a ballad of its own! In a way, the song encapsulates the two sides of Paul: the sentimental balladeer and the rock ‘n’ roll star with a sense of humor.
2. ‘All You Need Is Love’
“All You Need Is Love” isn’t about money directly. It’s implicitly about how money, power, and all the other things we desire don’t matter as much as love. The book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters includes an interview from 1969. In it, George said he wanted to work hard to get close to God.
“It’s like to ‘give peace a chance,’ or ‘all you need is love,'” he said. “The thing is, you can’t just stand there and say, ‘love, love, love’ or ‘peace, peace, peace’ and get it. You have to have a direct process of attaining that. Like, you know, Christ said, ‘Put your own house in order.” For context, the quote “Put your house in order” is from Isaiah 38:1 and it’s not attributed to Jesus Christ.
“Maharishi [Mahesh Yogi] said, ‘For a forest to be green, each tree must be green,'” George added. “So the same for the world to have peace, each individual must have peace. And you don’t get it through society’s normal channels. And that’s why each individual must tend to himself and get his own peace. And that way the whole society will have peace.”
1. ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’
The Beatles covered many R&B songs. One of their most famous covers was a rendition of Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want).” While Strong’s original has a great groove, but the Fab Four’s cover adds some rock ‘n’ roll adrenaline.
It’s funny to think a band so known for love songs covered “Money (That’s What I Want),” a song that postulates cash is more important than love. I guess The Beatles really did everything!
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