Jim is clearly taking his theme for this week from the old adage ‘sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me’. There seems to be some debate about the origins of this saying, but it appears to be from the Book of Nehemiah in the Bible Old Testament. Anyway, the meaning is surely clear enough.

Out of idle curiosity, I searched online for songs featuring ‘word’ or ‘words’ in their lyrics. I was immediately presented with over 31,000 pages of results. Notwithstanding there’s a fair bit of duplication (although I certainly haven’t ploughed through all of them), that gave me pretty much carte blanche as regards my selection.

This was my choice, however, and why not? From the soundtrack of the Beatles’ cartoon ‘Yellow Submarine’. Written by George Harrison, there’s more than a touch of psychedelia in it (it was 1968 after all), as well as, more obviously, references to England’s North/South divide. And I’m fine with both.

If you’re listening to this song
You may think the chords are going wrong
But they’re not
He just wrote it like that

When you’re listening late at night
You may think the band are not quite right
But they are
They just play it like that

It doesn’t really matter what chords I play
What words I say or time of day it is
As it’s only a Northern song

It doesn’t really matter what clothes I wear
Or how I fare or if my hair is brown
When it’s only a Northern song

If you think the harmony
Is a little dark and out of key
You’re correct
There’s nobody there

And I told you there’s no one there

Written by George Harrison

Song Lyric Sunday 19 October 2025