Source beatlesbook.com Having met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967 as well as becoming impressed by his teachings about Transcendental Meditation,
The Beatles decided to spend a good portion of 1968 in India for further meditation practice at his ashram in the foothills of the Himalayas.
But for George and John, as the above quote asserts, they flirted seriously with the idea that they may never return from India, which may very well have been the end of The Beatles at that point.
John and George, with their wives and Patti Boyd's sister Jenny, flew out to India on February 15th, 1968, possibly never to return. Paul and Ringo flew out four days later. But before they left, 'Beatles business' needed to be taken care of. In their absence, the powers-that-be insisted that they record a single to be released while they were away so as to keep them in the charts and satisfy their fans.
Four recording sessions took place in early February to accomplish this, the result being the single “Lady Madonna” backed with “The Inner Light,” another track composed by John, “Across The Universe,” being put to tape as well. Then, on February 11th, four days before John and George's departure, The Beatles entered the recording studio again for the purpose of shooting a promo film for “Lady Madonna.” However, John had just written another song, with a slight bit of help from Paul, which ended up being called “Hey Bulldog,” and they decided to use this studio time to record this new song, with the camera crew filming their every move. Four days later, John and George were off to India.
Songwriting History
"They wanted another song, so I knocked off 'Hey Bulldog,'" Lennon stated in 1980, adding: "It's a good-sounding record that means nothing." With four new songs required by them for the soundtrack to the animated movie "Yellow Submarine," The Beatles thought they filled this requirement by mid 1967. However, the first new song they recorded for the film, "Baby You're A Rich Man," was already released as a B-side to the highly successful single "All You Need Is Love," both sides of which hitting the Top 40 on the American Billboard singles chart. They had also begun recording the song "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" for inclusion in the film, but it was deemed unsuitable and decided against. Therefore, another song was needed.
When the group became aware that they needed to come up with another song, presumably during their February 1968 recording sessions, John got to work. Knowing they were going to be in EMI Studios to film the “Lady Madonna” promo clip, they thought they would kill two birds with one stone. “Paul said we should do a real song in the studio,” Lennon explains, “Could I whip one off? I had a few words at home so I brought them in.”
John took to fleshing out the majority of the song by himself and then bringing it into the studio on February 11th, 1968. “At one point, Paul was helping John with the lyrics,” engineer Geoff Emerick recalls the day the song was being recorded, “but most of the song seemed to have been written and worked out before they got to the studio.” In his book “Many Years From Now,” Paul concurs. “I remember 'Hey Bulldog' as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe.”
As for the song's lyrics, John appears to continue his nonsense rhetoric from the previous years' "I Am The Walrus," which was written in response to a letter he received from a student at Quarry Bank school who said his literature teacher was playing Beatles songs in class and discussing the meaning of the lyrics as part of his lessons. "Let the f*ckers work THAT one out," he said about "I Am The Walrus." Similarly, in "Hey Bulldog," John sings, "You think you know me but you haven't got a clue."
