The Fool on the Hill

Ok people, here's what the song is about:

This song is about a man who is considered a fool by others, but whose foolish demeanor is actually an indication of wisdom. An event which prompted this song happened when Paul was walking his dog Martha, on Primrose Hill one morning. As he watched the sun rise, he noticed that Martha was missing. In an instant, Paul turned around to look for his dog, and there a man stood, who appeared on the hill without making a sound. The gentleman was dressed respectably, in a belted raincoat. Paul knew this man had not been there seconds earlier as he had looked in that direction for Martha. Paul and the stranger exchanged a greeting, and this man then spoke of what a beautiful view it was from the top of this hill that overlooked London. Within a few seconds, Paul looked around again, and the man was gone. He had vanished as he had appeared. A friend of McCartney's, Alistair Taylor was present with Paul doing this strange incident, and wrote of this event in his book, Yesterday.

Both Paul and Alistair could not imagine what happened to this man. He had seemed to vanish in thin air. The nearest trees for cover were too far to reach by walking or running in a few seconds, and the crest of the hill was too far as well to reach in that short time. What made the experience even more mysterious, was that just before this man first appeared, Paul and Alistair were speaking to each other of the beauty they observed of the view towards London and the existence of God. Once back home, they spent the morning discussing what had happened, trying to make some sense of it. They both agreed that this was something others were infer occurred as a result of an "acid trip," but they both swore they had not taken or used any drugs.

iamthebeatles.com

But... what happened to the dog?

I think this song is about being in your own little world, and despite what people think of you, you're still the wiser.

Paul wrote this one and I believe the song is more about John than anything else. Case in point: lyrics such as "day after day, alone on a hill"...keep in mind that John wasn't the happy-go-lucky guy that he was portrayed as being at the time of Beatlemania and was commonly found to be sitting alone and somewhat removed as the Beatles traveled on tour......other lyrics "foolish grin"..."they can see he's just a fool" and "he never shows his feelings" ....sounds like Paul's describing John to me. And lyrics such as "he never listens to them and he knows they're the fools. They don't like him" sounds like Paul describing John's relationship with the press.....thoughts anyone?

I think this song refers to a person who is not blinded by illusions that many people either chose to not notice or lie to themselves about. He is alone because there are not many people who want to accept the truth (aka. "he sees the sun going down.") However, I don't think this is a pessimistic song because what is the point of talking or wanting attention from people who are not even true to themselves (aka. "he knows they're the fools")? I think Nietzsche said it best. “there are truths in this world that are ugly and humiliating and this is why people prefer diets of illusions”

Wow. I am speechless after reading two years of comments about this song. Pablo Picasso said "People who try to interpret art are barking up the wrong tree.." I think he has a point. These lyrics mean something to each person individually and each interpretation is as valid and important as the next. (That's how I feel) There is simplicity and elegance in allowing everyone to chime in and avoiding the judgement. Anyway, I was surprised, but also inspired to think about some new stuff after reading all of these comments. To me, The song speaks to me about confidence in being who you are no matter where you are, no matter what. This "fool" is on the top of the hill, in everyone's view...being judged and he knows this and he doesn't acknowledge. He grins, laughs, and just does what is meaningful to him. In Plain view...Easy to do this in private, harder to put your true self out there for the world to judge.

I know that The Fool is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, as that's a matter of public record, but that's never what the song was about to me.

To me, it was about scientific visionaries who saw the world a different way from the rest of us and advanced mankind as a result, but who were derided as fools or even persecuted for their assertions.

The line "The fool on the hill sees the sun going down / and the eyes in his head see the world spinning round" especially make me think of Copernicus, the most known proponent of the theory that the Sun was the centre of the solar system and the Earth revolved around it. I can imagine him standing on a hill watching the sunset, and realising that what was actually happening was the earth was rotating until the sun moved behind it, while the sun stayed still.

I also think of people such as Newton, Einstein and Galileo Galilei, and especially Richard Feynman, a man renowned for acting foolish to express complicated ideas to laymen.

I know that's not what the song is really about, but it's what comes to mind for me.

Maybe it's how Paul percieves himself...?

from the first time i heard the song, i just interpreted the fool to be god, a highly enlightened being, or whatever you want to believe in. He does what he does and is content within himself, but those who don't understand him can find nothing better to do than deem him a fool. If you believe in some higher power in human form, it's like a prophet preaching the good word to a mass of people, but nobody gets the message. But, my problem is I haven't decided if the song is about god, or just one of those ridiculously talented songwriters that makes much more sense than people can understand.

Paul is describing a certain quality that he sees in John Lennon. Some might say that it has Paul's trademark lack of depth but a simple song about a fool seems fitting. Its a bit ambiguous and not necessary judgmental. But is probably a bit of a ribbing.

I always thought it was about the Maharishi (the spiritual guru the Beatles spent some time studying under at some point). Wikipedia seems to support this. It says,

McCartney said the song relates to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: "'Fool on the Hill' was mine and I think I was writing about someone like Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously ... I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool hitting a D 6th chord, and I made up 'Fool on the Hill.'"

To me, the most interesting line has always been, "they can tell what he wants to do." It's like... what does he want to do, and what makes it so obvious to everyone? And then I imagine the Maharishi wiggling his fingers perversely while approaching me with a menacing, molestatory expression. --But that's probably because of all the drugs.

Anyway, the song is about the M-man, and how he wasn't taken seriously by people, but was secretly wise.