The Beatles A-Z: Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite

As with many songs written by John Lennon, "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" has always been an overly-analyzed piece of music, despite his simple inspiration for it. Recorded on February 17th, 1967, "Mr. Kite" was written in a pinch by Lennon when The Beatles were in need of more material. "I wasn't very proud of that," the ever self-deprecating Lennon once said of the tune. "There was no real work. I was just going through the motions because we needed a new song for Sgt. Pepper at that moment."

While critics have gone to great lengths to find hidden meaning in the song's carnivalesque lyrics, the origin is much more straightforward. Lennon purchased an antique poster advertising a circus variety show, and struck up the music on the spot in the studio.

"'Mr. Kite' was a straight lift," Lennon explained. "I had all the words staring me in the face one day when I was looking for a song. It was from this old poster I'd bought at an antique shop. We'd been down in Surry or somewhere filming a piece... There was a break, and I went into this shop and bought an old poster advertising a variety show which starred Mr. Kite. It said the Hendersons would also be there, late of Pablo Fanques Fair. There would be hoops and horses and someone going through a hogshead of real fire. Then there was Henry the Horse. The band would start at ten to six. All at Bishopsgate. Look, there's the bill, with Mr. Kite topping it. I hardly made up a word, just connecting the lists together. Word for word, really."

Like the oft-misinterpreted "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," many guessed that drug allusions were the source of "Mr. Kite." The lyrics about "Henry the Horse" were widely rumored to be referencing heroin, but Lennon refuted those claims as "rubbish."

"People want to know what the inner meaning of 'Mr. Kite' was. There wasn't any. I just did it," Lennon also said in explaining the song's creation. "I didn't dig that song when I wrote it. I didn't believe in it when I was doing it. But nobody will believe it. They don't want to. They want it to be important."

Justin Starling for Citadel Digital © 2010

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