"Nowhere Man" | ||||||||
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Song by the Beatles from the album Rubber Soul | ||||||||
Released | 3 December 1965 | |||||||
Recorded | 21–22 October 1965, EMI Studios, London |
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Genre | Folk rock | |||||||
Length | 2:44 | |||||||
Label | Parlophone | |||||||
Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||||||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||||||
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"Nowhere Man" | ||||
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Single by The Beatles | ||||
from the album Yesterday and Today | ||||
B-side | "What Goes On" | |||
Released | 21 February 1966 (US) | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Recorded | 21–22 October 1965, EMI Studios, London |
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Genre | Folk rock | |||
Length | 2:44 | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
The Beatles US singles chronology | ||||
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"Nowhere Man" is a song by the Beatles, from the British version of their album Rubber Soul. The song was written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney).
Recorded on 21 and 22 October 1965, "Nowhere Man" is one of the first Beatles songs to be entirely unrelated to romance or love, and marks a notable instance of Lennon's philosophically oriented songwriting. It was released as a single (although not in the United Kingdom) on 21 February 1966, and reached number 1 in Australia and Canada and number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Similarly to what had happened a year earlier ("Eight Days a Week" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" were on Beatles for Sale but not on Beatles '65), "Nowhere Man" and "What Goes On" were not on the US version of Rubber Soul (released in December around the same time as the British version), but were back-to-back on a subsequent single and later (in June) on an album (Yesterday and Today).
Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison sing the song in three-part harmony. The song appears in the film Yellow Submarine, where the Beatles sing it about the character Jeremy Hillary Boob after meeting him in the "nowhere land".
The lead guitar lines on the song were performed in unison by Harrison and Lennon. The pair played identical "sonic blue"-coloured .
Lennon claimed that he wrote the song about himself. He wrote it after racking his brain in desperation for five hours, trying to come up with another song for Rubber Soul. Lennon told Playboy magazine: