First released Feb 16, 1974 Jet is one of the songs that seems to have been with me from the moment of taking proper notice of the world for the first time. I suppose a moment in which my world was organised by a sense that songs were something that you could 'control' - that they appeared and left; that you could request them on cassette in the car; that if you timed things right and listened to the top 40 on radio you could hear certain songs.
Australian 70s pub-rock band 'Jet' are apparently named after the song, and around the web there is a story that McCartney wrote this about his dog, or maybe his horse. Well, he was busted for growing marijuana outside his Scottish farm around this time, so, sure, that little lady Suffer-a-gette could well be his dog. I do beg to differ however, and my reading of the lyric is of an older suitor and his desired one (Jet). Jet tells her strict parents that she wants to marry, and Jet is 'liberated' (suffragette) so when her parents refuse, she is lonely. Our suitor however has his eye on her, and protests his love to her Mater (Mother) with the caveat that he will wait to marry - 'much later'. Jet deserves freedom, and the lyric ends with the balladeer promising to take her on a ride to the sky.
That said, I can't quite get over how affecting this song is for me. Ok it has a fairly standard rock feel and opens onto a glam-like verse, with a tenor sax driving the walls of sound - complex and lush harmonies included - but then the whole thing just dips and the wall drops away - the scratch-skank guitar and McCartney's voice 'And Je-taaaaaaaaah' just this side of melancholic (for me anyway). It just breaks me. The feeling of the song is like Springsteen's 'Born to Run' - there's somethin Fordist and big R Romantic about both songs: perhaps it's the young couple escaping to freedom on the road. Or something like that.
ps: After listening some more here's how I now interpret the lyric:
Jet - I can almost remember their funny faces
That night you told them that you would be marrying soon
*the singer recalls the reaction of Jet's family when she told them she was going to get married*
And Jet- I though the only lonely place was on the moon
*Jet is lonely because she wants to leave home and be with her beloved*
Jet - was your father as bold as a sergeant major
How come he told you that you were hardly old enough yet[?]
*Jet's father lays down the law to her and tells her she's too young to marry - he acts like a sergeant major*
And Jet - I thought the major was a lady suffragette
* This is ambiguous but I'm going for this interpretation: the singer expected Jet's father to support her in wanting to get married because he supports female suffrage (feminist liberation)i.e the major is a lady suffragette. It's an awkward phrase, but lady suffragette sets up the perfect rhyme with 'Jet'*
Ah Mater want Jet to always love me (x3)
Ah Mater . . . Much Later (aside-ad lib: What she said - oh what she said)
*Here the singer declares his desire for Jet's eternal love, addressing his reciprocal committment to her mother (Mater). However the adverbial phrase - "Much later" - is Jet's mother's reply. If you listen to the live version above and the single you can here an ad lib - "what she said" - which I take to mean: Jet's mother is also putting the brakes on the singer and Jet's nuptials: she can love you forever when she's older*
And Jet - I thought the major was a lady suffragette
Ah Mater want Jet to always love me (x3)
Ah Mater . . . Much Later (aside-ad lib - What she said - oh what she said)
* same as above*
Jet - with the wind in your hair of a thousand laces
Climb on the back and we'll go for a ride in the sky
*OK I can see the horse references here - the black mane as 1,000 laces and the climbing reference. But why can't these be metaphors for Jet's desire for freedom and the singer's desire to be with Jet? Also this is a Fordist image of freedom similar to Springsteen's line in 'Born to Run' 'Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims and strap your hands 'cross my engines.'*
And Jet - I thought the major was a little lady suffragette
*Same as above - little lady is sexist but emphasising Jet's youth*
And Jet - you know I thought you was a little lady suffragette
*Right, here there is a slight turn. Rather than Jet's parents preventing her from eloping/ marrying, it's Jet herself that the singer is now directing his query at: Aren't you liberated enough to make up your own mind about me and be with me?*
Jet
A Little Lady
My Little lady . . . Yes.
*In the end, a romantic sax phrase ends the song on a bitter-sweet note, veering toward the schmaltz that Big Mac can so easily fall into. But the meaning is fairly clear: it's a song of fidelity and encouragement with a hint of sadness at its edges - a sadness that is performed in that sweet way that McCartney often perfects (cf 'She's Leaving Home' - 'Something inside that was always denied for so many years').*
Here's a 1987 live version.
