98 In My Life

THE BEATLES 1965

“’In My Life’ was, I think, my first real, major piece of work,” John Lennon said. The ballad reflects the serious turn the Beatles took with Rubber Soul, but it specifically arose from a journalist’s challenge: “Why don’t you write songs about your life?” The original lyrics put Lennon on a bus in Liverpool, “and it was the most boring sort of ‘What I Did on My Holidays Bus Trip’ song,” he said. So he rewrote it, changing the song into a reminiscence about his life before the Beatles. The distinctive “harpsichord” solo near the end is actually an electric piano played by George Martin and sped up on tape.