The Beatles kept a busier schedule than just about any human beings on the planet during their heyday in the 1960s. Studio sessions, promotional appearances, live performances—it was a never-ending whirlwind of activity for the four young men at the center of the maelstrom.
Which is why it was so striking to hear them singing a song about trying to find simple tasks to occupy their mind and while away the day. That’s the gist of “Fixing a Hole,” one of the mesmerizing tracks that make up Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Paul McCartney wrote it and combined a few different influences and inspirations to devise the lyrics.
“Hole” Hearted
For an album so devoted to incredible sounds and boundary-pushing production techniques, the songs on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band often tell routine, even mundane stories of average folks. Some are getting ready for a big date (“Lovely Rita”), some are taking a stroll through town (“Good Morning Good Morning”). Even the most fantastical song (“A Day in the Life”) concerns a guy desperate to keep his audience’s attention with what he did and saw in his daily rounds.
“Fixing a Hole” fits very well in that regard. It is not, as many have speculated, a song about heroin use, although marijuana and LSD intake seem to have played into its creation. But beyond that, the song mostly pertained to Paul’s wishes to exert his personal freedom and do a little decorating, as he explained in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now:
“It was the idea of me being on my own now, able to do what I want. If I want I’ll paint the room in a colorful way. … I was living now pretty much on my own in Cavendish Avenue, and enjoying my freedom and my new house and the salon-ness of it all.”
As a result, “Fixing a Hole,” like the other tracks on Sgt. Pepper’s, proved very relatable to the listening public. The Beatles then used their incredible talents as musicians, along with the innovative studio techniques, to lift those basic tales into otherworldly territory.
Exploring the Lyrics of “Fixing a Hole”
“Fixing a Hole” features a marvelous set of lyrics from McCartney, as he manages to say so little and suggest so much. On the surface, the song depicts a series of menial tasks the narrator is currently undertaking. I’m fixing a hole where the rain gets in, he begins, a responsible bit of housework.
As we find out about more of these tasks, it’s fair to wonder if they represent something within the narrator’s psyche. Is he fixing a hole or filling the cracks in his home, or is he referring to patching up his own insides? In the third verse, he begins to branch out into something a bit more creative: I’m painting the room in a colorful way. It’s at this point he allows his wandering mind, heretofore kept in check by these tasks, to go wherever it might.
In the middle eight section of the song, McCartney’s voice, up to then distracted and dreamy, takes on a different urgency. This is when he feels the need to defend himself for how he chooses to spend his days. McCartney’s wordplay is quite deft here: And it really doesn’t matter if I’m wrong I’m right / Where I belong I’m right / Where I belong.
He also chastises those people who speed up the pace and end up in needless clashes: See the people standing there who disagree and never win / And wonder why they don’t get in my door.
In the final verse, the narrator makes a statement of purpose about his actions: I’m taking the time for a number of things / That weren’t important yesterday. For Paul McCartney, it was clearly important with “Fixing a Hole” to let everyone know that his personal freedoms meant more than anyone’s opinions of how he should spend his free time.
