Not to imply what Lennon was feeling or going through when he penned these amazing lyrics. This makes this his most special song, to me. I have always thought this of awakened souls who know truth and see the bigger picture that even so, we still want to express those things we currently feel even though we know it is in reality much bigger than that. But he shows by the way he ended the song that in and of himself as a man, that although he knows the truth about love, that in the natural he was still feeling that this current love is most special. It says to me, that he logically knows and understands that love doesn’t go away, if I loved you once I always will, that love has no location, and even if it was romantic love and that romantic feeling is gone that that is still separate from actual love which remains, that he understood the truest meaning of love, meaning there is no “amount: of love, and that love is radiated from him not something in another location or person as far as he is concerned etc… He himself did know this, he was a wise man, he espoused love and knew it couldn’t be compartmentalized. I have loved this song for this reason, “And these memories lose their meaning Even Lennon himself, apparently, thought about the song that way, years after he recorded it.īut I just wanted to set the record straight. That’s what they think “In My Life” is about, anyway. I’m sure most of the musical’s attendees don’t mind. That’s why “love” had to be turned into “loved.” But this turns the song on its head. That’s not how the song is used in “My Very Own British Invasion.” The singer there hasn’t found anyone new, but is just revisiting the past.

This emphasizes the point: This is a song about the present, and rebirth. The song ends by repeating the second half of the second verse. (Now that I think about it, “I Love You More” really would have been a better title for this song.) But “I love you more.” In other words, the past just can’t compare. He reiterates his “affection” (a carefully chosen word “affection” is not as powerful as love) for the past and says he’ll still think about it. Not only that, those memories “lose their meaning” (!) in the presence of new love. Those old friends and lovers can’t compare with the person who is standing before him, now. This upends the first verse, where Lennon sang about the past.

I know I’ll often stop and think about them Okay, that fits the conventional thinking about the song: Nice, sweet nostalgia. With lovers and friends I still can recall Let’s take a close look at the song’s lyrics, starting with the first verse: I believe the change (“love” to “loved”) makes the song into what most people think it is - that whole “a remembrance of friends and lovers of the past” thing - but this represents a huge change in the intention of the song, as it was originally recorded. “In My Life” ends with the line “I love you more,” but in “My Very Own British Invasion,” it is changed to “I loved you more.” And it wasn’t just sung incorrectly on the night I happened to be there, or heard wrong by me: The change is spelled out in a projection above the actors. The song is used at the end of the evening, to put a sentimental spin on a story of love won and lost in the heady days of the 1960s British Invasion. I’ve thought this about “In My Life” for a long time, but was inspired to write this post after seeing the new jukebox musical, “My Very Own British Invasion,” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn.

Those were the days of my life lyrics