It’s a bit too obvious to say this is a druggie song, about someone who has over-indulged–which John did. I believe it really is about sleeping: the joys of it, taking your time, letting the world rush by, a neat commentary on our crazy modern lifestyle. True, ‘Float upstream’ could be a reference to drugs, but it is also what you do when you dream, when that marvellous drowsy feeling takes over and you feel yourself drifting away.
The words, which are sharp and succinct–not at all the mark of a lazy lyricist–can also be seen as a clear indication of his boredom, not just with life but with Cynthia.
The song took a long time to record, for they were endlessly experimenting with new sounds and effects. I had always assumed that there was a sitar being played in the background, but thanks to the musicologists I have learned that it was a backwards-played guitar. It took twelve hours to get right–for just seventeen seconds.
In John’s voice I can detect the hint of an old man, singing in a strong Lancashire accent, vaguely reminiscent of George Formby. Again, that was deliberate, speeding up and slowing down the tapes to achieve the right effect.
The manuscript with the Post Office bill on the other side is clearly dated 12 April 1966, very useful for musicologists. It shows lots of changes as John worked on the lyrics. It seems to begin with the first line ‘Try to sleep again. Got to get to sleep’–which he didn’t use–before moving on to: ‘When I waken early in the morning’, which became his first line, more or less. The other lines are variations on roughly what was to come.
This manuscript is owned by Pete Shotton, John’s best friend from school:
I was going to see our accountant one day, whom we both used, and John said, ‘I have this bill, will you tell him about it and get him to pay it.’ He gave me the bill and I turned it over and there was a song on the other side. He said, ‘It doesn’t matter, I’ll have to write it out again on a larger piece of paper.’ So I went off to the accountant, showed him the bill. He said he already had a copy, and would pay it. I shoved the bill in my suit pocket–which I never wore again for about four years. So I just kept it. There was no value in Beatles memorabilia in those days.
Early draft (right) of ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, from Revolver, September 1966, in John’s hand, written on the back of a Post Office bill for £12.3s.
The second manuscript of the same song, also in John’s handwriting, now part of the collection housed at Northwestern University in the USA, has the title at the top and is more complete, with the three verses numbered, but some words are different from the finished version.
When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
Please, don’t wake me, no, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am, I’m only sleeping
Everybody seems to think I’m lazy
I don’t mind, I think they’re crazy
Running everywhere at such a speed
Till they find there’s no need (there’s no need)
Please, don’t spoil my day, I’m miles away
And after all I’m only sleeping
Keeping an eye on the world going by my window
Taking my time
Lying there and staring at the ceiling
Waiting for a sleepy feeling…
Ooh yeah
Keeping an eye on the world going by my window
Taking my time
When I wake up early in the morning
Lift my head, I’m still yawning
When I’m in the middle of a dream
Stay in bed, float up stream (float up stream)
Please, don’t wake me, no, don’t shake me
Leave me where I am, I’m only sleeping
Another version of John’s ‘I’m Only Sleeping’–now at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA.
Love You To
This was when we all wondered what the Beatles were up to, where on earth were they going, where would it all lead. We’d heard a snatch of a funny-sounding Indian instrument on ‘Norwegian Wood’, then something a bit weird on ‘I’m Only Sleeping’. Now we suddenly had the full-blown, right-on Indian music, played all the way through, almost like a public demonstration, a master class in the instrument, beginning with what sounded like tuning up, getting ready, practice chords, then whoosh and twang and throb throb and they were away.
George had been taking sitar lessons and at last felt confident enough to let us see where he’d got to and to share his new passion
‘ “Love You To” was one of the first tunes I ever wrote for the sitar,’ he explained in I Me Mine. ‘ “Norwegian Wood” was an accident as far as the sitar part was concerned, but this was the first song where I consciously tried to use the sitar and tabla on the basic track. I over-dubbed the guitars and vocal later.’
He got the North London Asian Music Circle into the studio to play the instruments, along with himself, so it is a pretty professional ensemble. The shock of the music–to our naïve, primitive, virgin 1966 ears, accustomed to guitar-based rock’n’roll–rather overshadowed the words. And still does. But they are pretty good.
Originally the working title of the song was ‘Granny Smith’–after the apple–and George didn’t decide on the final title until they were working on it in the studio. It has confused some musicologists, for the title phrase ‘Love You To’ does not appear anywhere in the lyrics (which makes it unusual amongst Beatles songs, along with ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and ‘The Inner Light’). Personally I can’t understand the confusion, for the last two lines make it perfectly clear where the title comes from: ‘I’ll make love to you, If you want me to.’ He has just cut the lines down to three words, removing the rather bitter ‘if you want me to’, which would not have made such an attractive title.
George’s handwriting again has a childlike, schoolboy feel to it–making him appear far less mature, less educated, and less confident than either John or Paul with their bolder handwriting. He also has to think twice about the correct spelling of ‘their’, as in ‘all their sins’. In the line that begins ‘They’ll fill you in’ he has deleted the first word, but it was used in the recorded version.
The lyrics seem quite short, but this is partly because he doesn’t have the normal chorus, as such, just two lines repeated in the middle: ‘Make love all day long, make love singing songs.’ Which is a nice idea–and it can either mean making love while singing or that singing is making love.
‘You don’t get time to hang a sign on me’ conjures up a schoolboy image, one popular in the comics we all used to read, like the Dandy and Beano, in which pompous people, like teachers or school swots, have signs hung on their backs which read ‘Kick Me’. Hee hee.
‘Before I’m a dead old man’ is now, alas, an even sadder line than it seemed at the time–as George never lived to be old.
‘Love You To’, from Revolver, September 1966, in George’s hand–the title never actually appears in the lyrics.
Each day just goes so fast
I turn around–it’s past
You don’t get time to hang a sign on me
Love me while you can
Before I’m a dead old man
A lifetime is so short
A new one can’t be bought
But what you’ve got means such a lot to me
Make love all day long
Make love singing songs
There’s people standing round
Who screw you in the ground
They’ll fill you in with all their sins you’ll see
I’ll make love to you
If you want me to
Here, There And Everywhere
Arguably Paul’s best love song. Personally, I prefer it to ‘Yesterday’. It was one that he himself was very pleased with–and perhaps even more pleased that John should like it as well. He remembers how, when they were fil
ming Help! the previous year, after a hard day skiing, they happened to put on a cassette of all their recent songs and when it came to ‘Here, There And Everywhere’, John said, ‘I probably like that better than any of my songs on that tape.’ That was high praise, coming from John. He could be very caustic about most things, and people, including himself.
Paul wrote it at Kenwood, John’s house, when he had gone down one summer day to work, only to find that John was still asleep. So he got a cup of tea and went to sit by the pool, playing his guitar. According to some very clever experts, i.e. Ian MacDonald, he was influenced by a recent Beach Boys song, and was trying to create a similar melody.
By the time John woke up, Paul had as good as finished the tune and most of the words, but John helped finish it, making it a roughly 80–20 composition, according to Paul’s estimation.
The title is a common English phrase, used many times, in many places, perhaps the best known being from the 1903 play and novel The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, which Paul probably learned at school, or heard someone reciting. ‘They seek him there, they seek him there / Those Frenchies seek him everywhere / Is he in heaven, Is he in hell / That damned elusive Pimpernel.’
In 1948, Tommy Trinder, the English comedian, starred in a new comedy musical at the London Palladium which was called Here, There and Everywhere. Paul was aged six at the time, so is unlikely to have been aware of it in Liverpool.
Mr MacDonald, alas, didn’t think much of the lyrics; in his opinion, they ‘failed to avoid sentimentality’ and are ‘chintzy and rather cloying’. Hmm.
It is easy to miss how clever the lyrics are. They take the three adverbs in the title, one by one, structuring the verses around Here, then There, and then Everywhere. He finishes the first line on ‘here’ and then begins the next line with the same word, and then repeats the same trick for the fourth and fifth lines with ‘there’. This might look a bit sloppy and repetitious on paper, the sort of thing a school teacher would tell you not to do, but when sung, with all the pauses, it works well.
As for the content, despite some soppy lines, such as ‘knowing that love is to share’, there are some interesting expressions, for example ‘to love her is to meet her everywhere’. Something lovers will understand. He presumably had Jane in mind, at a time when their romance was apparently going well, but there is also an underlying fear that this is not true love, he is only hoping for that, knowing how good it can be.
The manuscript, in Paul’s hand, has various changes: ‘And if she’s beside me’ was originally ‘As long as she’s beside me’. ‘Hoping I’m always there’ was originally ‘hoping she’s always here’ or possibly ‘Near’ or ‘There’. He has stressed the first two adverbs, putting them on separate lines, underlining Here and There, indicating how he was singing those words, what the structure was in his mind.
Early version of ‘Here There And Everywhere’, from Revolver, September 1966, in Paul’s hand, with a few changes.
On the reverse of the manuscript is a neatly typed-out list of Beatles events for 1966, up to the end of August. These are the arrangements and bookings Brian has made for them–which were going to be sent on to the Fan Club for them to use and inform Beatles fans. Paul was sent a copy in advance by Brian’s office–and then used the back of it to write out the words for ‘Here, There And Everywhere’. Perhaps he looked at the places they were due to visit on their final tours, such as Germany, Japan, Philippines and USA and thought, blimey, we’re going to be here, there and everywhere…
Arrangements for the Beatles’ final months of touring, June–August 1966, going here, there and everywhere, on the back of which Paul wrote the lyrics for ‘Here, There and Everywhere’.
To lead a better life, I need my love to be here
Here, making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there’s something there
There, running my hands through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking but she doesn’t know he’s there
I want her everywhere and if she’s beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I’m always there
I want her everywhere and if she’s beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share
Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I’m always there
To be there and everywhere
Here, there and everywhere
Yellow Submarine
After all that strange Indian stuff, and love stuff–sentimental or otherwise, depending on your point of view–what fun to have… well, fun. It makes me smile even now, after all these years, to hear them enjoying themselves in the studio, making the silly noises with whistles and bells and chains, as if they are in a submarine, blowing through straws into a pan of water, shouting ‘Full Steam Ahead’ and ‘Captain’ in daft, distant voices, and then John repeating ‘Sky of blue’ like an echo, but in a pretend posh voice, then breaking into manic laughter. It’s a perfect sing-along tune, which I feel will be sung along to forever. All over Europe you hear football crowds singing it–no doubt with their own obscene words–probably without even realizing it’s a Beatles tune, thinking it’s something old and traditional, like a folk song. Whenever I hear a football crowd lustily singing it, I always wonder whether Sony will bung in a copyright bill to the TV company for broadcasting it.
Paul wrote the song very quickly, lying in bed at the Asher home, having decided to write a children’s song. He deliberately used short words, and short sentences, so that children would easily be able to learn it. Having written most of it, he visited the singer Donovan in his flat and played it to him. Donovan then suggested a couple of lines: ‘Sky of blue, sea of green’. Not exactly earth-shattering, but they fitted nicely.
As always, the more extreme fans and madder experts are not content to take this at face value as a children’s song, insisting that it is all about drug use. Well, why else would they think they’re in a yellow submarine? Obvious, really.
The manuscript, covering two pages, is in Paul’s hand–both pages are in the possession of Northwestern University. The pencilled signature on the first page, ‘Paul McCartney’, is in someone else’s handwriting, added when Yoko handed the lyrics over to John Cage. On the second page you can faintly see ‘John & Paul’, also in someone else’s hand. The words ‘Disgusting!! See me’ appear to be in Paul’s handwriting.
‘Yellow Submarine’, from Revolver, September 1966, in Paul’s hand, with comments, covering two pages. The signature at the end of the first page is not Paul’s.
In the town where I was born,
Lived a man who sailed to sea,
And he told us of his life,
In the land of submarines,
So we sailed on to the sun,
Till we found the sea of green,
And we lived beneath the waves,
In our yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine.
And our friends are all aboard,
Many more of them live next door,
And the band begins to play.
(Full speed ahead, Mr Boatswain, full speed ahead!
Full speed over here, sir!
All together! All together!
Aye, aye, sir, fire!
Captain! Captain!)
As we live a life of ease (life of ease)
Every one of us (every one of us) has all we need, (has all we need)
Sky
of blue (sky of blue) and sea of green (sea of green)
In our yellow (In our yellow) submarine (submarine) (Haha!)
She Said She Said
The lyrics are an existential conversation about the nature of death and the reality of non-existence, between John and some hippie-druggie girl, or perhaps with himself, his alter ego. Any road up, not the bundle of laughs or love-ins you expect from a pop song.
The best line–‘I know what it’s like to be dead’–was a pinch from Peter Fonda, the actor brother of Jane, whom John had met at a party in LA the previous year, August 1965, where they had all taken LSD. Fonda was going around saying this line, referring not to the effects of drugs but a near-death experience when he was ten, and his heart stopped beating on the operating table following an accident. Later, still in a fuddled post-LSD state, John wrote the first version of the song. Then forgot about it. A year later, working on Revolver, he finished it off–with George’s help, rather than Paul’s. Apparently John and Paul had had some sort of argument in the studio that day, which is why Paul does not appear on that track, not as a singer anyway, though he might have added a bit of bass guitar afterwards. George also recollected that John turned up at the studio with several scraps of songs, one of which began ‘When I was a boy’, which was welded on to ‘She Said’.
The Beatles Lyrics Page 16