Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall?

Question

John Lennon's lyric appeared in 1967, but the question how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall also ocurrs in the 1965 film "The Knack: And How to Get It". My question is whether the latter is the first reference or is there something historical which both refer to? A Brit will know.

Bear: I read that on the internet about the potholes but that refers to the holes in Blackburn Lancashire--it doesn't explain the holes in Albert Hall. The Knack--if you see it--definitely makes this reference in 1965, two years earlier. But what I have always wondered is whether it refers to something else earlier which is not known to Americans?

I also found this: 'Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.' It was a nonsense verse really, but for some reason I couldn't think of the verb. What did the holes do to the Albert Hall? It was Terry (Doran) who said 'fill' the Albert Hall."
John Lennon
Wo-momma--now I'm up against The Man himself?? Can I now challenge this-- continue with my suspicion that the reference to filling the holes in Albert Hall is not simply the product of Lennon's eye-magination in 1967 when he wrote the song? Yeah, what they hey. These LSD'd pot-heads will say anything, especially when they get bored with the interviewer. But I digress...

Answer 1

It is a reference to potholes - - - the sort you find in the road not the sort you burn in your clothing when you drop an herbal cig.

Here is a soirce that backs me up - - - it also pops up in two of the Beattles biographies.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1097385
""Jeremy Hilary Boob PhD.'s reply to one of the Beatles' hypothetical question regarding the number of holes in the Sea of Holes. This exchange takes place in The Beatles' only animated film, Yellow Submarine, a masterpiece of psychedelia, and it is a clear reference to the song "A Day in the Life" off of the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which contains the following line: "Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall". This line was a reference to a newspaper article in circulation at the time (which one of the Beatles must have read) that contained the results of a survey of how many potholes could be found at the time on the roads of Blackburn, Lancashire. As the song reports, the number was approximately 4,000.
In case you did not catch the reference at first, after Jeremy says this, one of the other animated Beatles chimes in with a sing-song "Oh, boy", which is how the first line of each stanza of Lennon's part of the song ends. ""

Peace

Answer 2

0 due to the fact that you can not fill a room with holes. a gap is created while whatever is taken out of it. so should you have been to fill Albert Hallwith holes would not you be taking matters out?

Answer 3

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!! The REAL QUESTION is what the "holes" were...in Albert Hall. Of course, that whole general section of the song was a matter of the two having fun making a song from newspaper pieces.

This happened to come to me just this morning...some fifty years later. You probably happen to remember that Lennon had a wry (and sometimes terribly sarcastic or angry) sense of humor. Obviously the "holes" were "assholes." It was like saying there were thousands of sons-of-bitches for an event in that particular "high-fallutin" theater venue. .And, several dudes (in the "Guardian) have backed me up on this. ; )

"So many bizarre & idiotic guesses. Lennon was jealous of the Stones - of course he would never admit it! The Stones filled Albert Hall and the "holes" were assholes obviously. And the "lucky man" killed himself because he was bummed at getting a red light, another example of his dark humour."

Gordon, Medford, US

Answer 4

a few weeks ago I was laying on an examiners table looking up at the little holes in the acoustic ceiling.....I started singing..."4,000 holes in Blackburn Lancaster".....I always sing that tune when I'm looking up at a holy ceiling.....the actual know correlation to the 4k holes are the towns potholed roads.....I had always taken the Albert Hall reference to a concert that John asked the front row folks to rattle their jewelry....kind-a sort-a like....hey you in the high price ticket section.....fix the damn roads

Answer 5

It's all going to depend on the size of the holes--and that's the hole truth.