Paul McCartney possesses the kind of talent that inexplicably falls from the divine realm into human form. The composer has been asked countless times to explain how his endless stream of songs flows from him. Paul McCartney can only say that it's something that comes “out of the air” as he explained in his 1993 interviews relating to “Flaming Pie” and in numerous prior and subsequent interviews.

The founding Beatle and half of the heralded Lennon-McCartney songwriting dynasty imagined that surely someone had come up with the chorus of “Yesterday” before it came to him in a dream.

It was only after he exhausted himself and his full list of musical friends that Paul McCartney finally accepted that “Well, I guess I wrote it then.” The only adjustment was to move the tentative “Scrambled Egg” title to “Yesterday” for eternity.

Near and dear to “Yesterday” in the hearts of ageless (no matter how chronologically aging) Paul McCartney fans is “Hey Jude.” The ballad’s beautiful, building non-word chorus of “Naa Naa’s” springing from the final, fourth “better” is as much proof of genius as any rhyming verse or imagery that McCartney ever crafted. Peppered by Paul’s unbridled screams, those purposeful utterances give permission for joy after sorrow.

One joyful purchaser, as reported by the BBC and Rolling Stone on April 11, now owns the ultimate, permanent artifact of “Hey Jude,” from the pen of Paul McCartney.

The song went for six times the asking price at auction, but odds are that the new owner hasn’t got a hint of regret.

Could nearly $1 million be nearly enough for the Paul McCartney treasure?

The Friday auction was held in commemoration of 50 years since the breakup of the Beatles. While each member of the forever-revered foursome went through personal sieges of bitterness following the barrage of legal battles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have fondly embraced the legacy and the love enthralled in the Beatles catalog.

Both also love their status as performing musicians in their late 70s—Paul is 77 and Ringo is 79.

The global coronavirus crisis has prompted Ringo to postpone his All-Star Band Tour until 2021. Paul is probably tucked away composing music through the quarantine. His energy and curiosity were on display in his 2018 album, “Egypt Station,” and staying quiet is cause for the creative mind to run wild.

“Hey Jude” was expected to go for about $160,000, but the anonymous buyer snagged the handwritten lyric sheet for $910,000 at Julien’s Auctions’ curated collection of 250 Beatle-related items. Paul McCartney gifted the lyric sheet to a studio engineer after the 1968 recording session at Trident Studios.

At 7 minutes and 11 seconds, “Hey Jude” is still the longest song to ever top the British charts, and it reigned for nine weeks in the US. The elusive buyer’s patience and loose purse-strings will hopefully allow the coveted keepsake to survive for generations.

Paul McCartney wasn't present to give a response, but the musician’s reward has come hundreds of times over, as audiences close every live show from the famous former Beatle with loving renditions of “Hey Jude.” The artist realizes that his songs mark milestones in the lives of listeners, and he celebrates with the same zeal.

Paul McCartney wrote ‘Hey Jude’ as a comfort to Julian Lennon

“Hey Jude” was born on a car ride to visit the then Cynthia Lennon and her young four-year-old son, Julian. John and Cynthia were recently separated, and as Paul McCartney described in 1985, “you don't choose sides,” particularly when hurting children are involved. While the arrival of Yoko Ono was a revelation of love and artistic and personal liberation for John Lennon, her presence and the power of their devotion ripped through his devoted family and the devoted collaboration that he had known since his early teens.

“Hey Jules, don’t make it bad…” Paul McCartney sang. Likely for the sake of privacy as well as a solid title, “Jules” became “Jude,” since it was “a bit more country and Western for me,” as McCartney reflects.

The rise and fall of a child's breathing reverberates through the ballad, urging comfort where it can be found, from a mother’s lap to an old friend. “Let it in and let it out,” the song encourages. No one knows exactly the identity of the “her” in the verses. Those could be sung for John or for Julian amid the upheaval. For all involved, there is the assurance that “the movement you need this on your shoulders,” and there is caring all around.

John and Yoko’s “BAGISM” drawing from their Bed-In for Peace also brought a pretty penny of over $93,000, and an Abbey Road ashtray from Ringo took $32,000.

Julian Lennon always reflected fondly on his memories with Paul McCartney, until 2011, when Julian related in the Daily Mail and elsewhere that he and his mother were being “snubbed” and removed from Beatle history.

At the time, Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, and Julian and Sean Lennon were making peaceful strides, appearing at Julian’s photography exhibits and collaborating on other projects. When Julian wasn’t invited to McCartney's wedding to Nancy Shevell or to The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil celebration the same year, with Yoko and Sean in attendance, the discourtesy seemed deliberate.

Paul McCartney's representative declared that the matter was “an oversight.” Not too much has been shared from either the son or the super composer about their current relationship. One of Paul's recent songs declares “People Want Peace,” so hopefully these longtime friends have mended fences privately.

‘Hey Jude’ still holds a timely message from Paul McCartney

No one could have ever imagined that 50 years after the dissolution of the Beatles as the band that the world would be in a battle for survival against the COVID-19 outbreak. “Hey Jude” was a message to one child to not be overtaken by fear and sadness during an unforeseen situation, over which he had no control.

The entire world, from grocers to the greatest medical professionals, sense a feeling of powerlessness over a foe that they are battling desperately. Children look out of their windows and dream of running beyond their backyards. When it truly does seem like we all have to “carry the world upon your shoulders,” there is that counsel in song from Paul McCartney to “refrain-- don't carry the world on your shoulders.” Instead, every person is reminded to just “let it in and let it out,” breathe, do the best he or she can in this crisis.

Refuse to let fear make the world “a little colder.” “Hey Jude” still speaks a big “Hey!” for these times.

Even under self-isolation, this world is one, and the “better” will come after this mournful, sad song. Take a break and put on another Paul McCartney tune from the living room-- how about a little “Dance Tonight.” It’s a better time than rerun TV Shows.
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