Bob Dylan's music - (the acoustic Another Side Of Bob Dylan was his most recent album) - directed John towards a more intense and personal style of writing. He began to write songs in which his state of mind became the immediate starting point. In the first lines of 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', the image of John standing facing a wall with his head in his hands was probably a perfect description of how he felt when he was writing.

the song is about a relationship that has gone wrong and John's hidden feelings for a girl he has lost. Tony Bramwell suggests that it was written for Brian Epstein, warning him to keep his homosexual relationships (which, at the time, were illegal in Britain) from public view. It was also rumoured that it referred to a secret affair John was having.

Written by John at Kenwood, it was used in the film during a scene in which British actress Eleanor Bron visited the group in their terraced house to try and retrieve the missing ring.