The “I Want To Hold Your Hand” Lyric Bob Dylan Misheard That Led to His Smoky First Encounter With the Beatles

Sometimes, misheard lyrics seem even better than the original, which was certainly the case for the “I Want to Hold Your Hand” lyric that Bob Dylan misheard, which informed his smoky first encounter with the Beatles. The meeting took place on August 28, 1964, as both musical acts were fast approaching pivotal turning points in their career.

Videos by American Songwriter

Dylan was eager to break free from the confines of his politically charged folk music. The Fab Four felt shackled by their teeny-bopper roots. Several joints and plenty of cheap wine later, and rock ‘n’ roll would never be the same.

Bob Dylan First Fell For The Beatles In The Rockies

As the Beatles were making their way across the pond to the East Coast, Bob Dylan was heading further west. The latter musician was on a cross-country mission to collect strangers’ stories for song inspiration when he noticed a trend among the radio stations they surfed along the way. Roughly speaking, eight of the ten top songs played on the radio were by the Beatles. “I started thinking it was so far out that I couldn’t deal with it,” Dylan recalled in Anthony Scaduto’s biography, Bob Dylan. “It seemed to be a definite line was being drawn.”

But it wasn’t just the Beatles’ commercial viability that struck Dylan. “They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid,” he explained. “You could only do that with other musicians. Even if you’re playing your own chords, you had to have other people playing with you. That was obvious. And it started me thinking about other people.”

For the most part, and by Dylan’s own admission, he kept his admiration for the Beatles to himself. Following the latest trend wasn’t the vagabond’s usual M.O. But as Dylan’s tour manager Victor Maymudes later recalled, after the singer-songwriter heard “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the radio in Colorado, Dylan “nearly jumped out of the car. ‘Did you hear that?’ Dylan asked. ‘F***! Man, that was great.’”

The Misheard Lyrics Of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

Bob Dylan was no stranger to smoking when he embarked on his cross-country tour in 1964, tobacco or marijuana, but even a protest anthem-writing legend like himself knew that mentions of the latter drug were largely censored by the popular media of the day. That’s partially why “I Want to Hold Your Hand” shocked Dylan so much. He loved the end of the B-section where John Lennon sings, And when I touch you I feel happy inside, it’s such a feeling, that my love, I get high, I get high, I get high. The only problem, as most Beatles fans would know, is that those weren’t the actual lyrics.

Dylan got his information straight from the horse’s mouth when he met the Beatles for the first time at the Delmonico Hotel in New York City in August 1964. The folk musician, eager to show his hospitality and camaraderie, offered the Brits a joint. They refused, saying they had never smoked before. Dylan pushed back, asking them about the lyric in “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” “‘You know,’ Dylan said,” per BeatlesBible. “And then he sang, and when I touch you, I get high. John [Lennon] flushed with embarrassment. ‘Those aren’t the words,’ he admitted. ‘The words are, I can’t hide.’”

The misunderstanding did little to stifle their fun. Dylan and his tour manager began rolling marijuana joints for everyone, eventually devolving into giggles, metaphysical musings, and bottles of cheap wine the band sent out for per Dylan’s request. The Beatles’ introduction to marijuana would change their musical trajectory forever, setting them off on the psychedelic journey they’d explore for the rest of the 1960s. Dylan bought his first electric guitar that fall. He’d go electric at the Newport Folk Festival the next summer.

Photo by Dezo Hoffman/Shutterstock