 "No Reply" is about a young man who is unable to contact his apparently unfaithful girlfriend, although he knows she is home.Beatles music publisher Dick James was pleased with the song, saying Lennon had provided "a complete story".Reviewer David Rowley said that its lyrics "read like a picture story from a girl's comic" and evoked a picture "of walking down a street and seeing a girl silhouetted in a window, not answering the telephone".