This fragment (53 seconds long) nearly didn’t make the cut for the final album, but Pattie Harrison liked it, so it survived. [79]
Turner reports that this came from a “spontaneous singalong in Rishikesh,” [80] which seems to conflict with Paul’s explanation above, where it is something made up in the studio. The recording session records give support to Paul’s story. [81]
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill — (Lennon)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on October 8, 1968)
This song is based on an actual person at the ashram in India, a fellow “who . . . took a short break to go away and shoot a few poor tigers, and then came back to commune with God,” as John said in 1980. He took the character Jungle Jim, changed the name to Buffalo Bill, then deformed that to Bungalow Bill. “It’s a sort of teen-age social-comment song, it was a bit of a joke. Yoko’s on that one, actually, I believe, singing along,” John said. [82]
In 1995, Paul remembered John singing it at Rishikesh: “This is another of his great songs and it’s one of my favorites to this day because it stands for a lot of what I stand for now. ‘Did you have to shoot that tiger’ is its message.” [83]
While My Guitar Gently Weeps — (Harrison)
(lead vocals: George) (recorded on September 5-6, 1968)
George wrote this song at his mother’s house in Warrington, [84] using bibliomancy — the tried and true divinatory method of opening a book and accepting the first phrases you read as a revelation. He said, in 1980, “I picked up a book at random — opened it — saw ‘Gently weeps’ — than laid the book down again and started the song.” [85] It is another example of “found poetry” in Beatle lyrics.
George said that because John and Paul were so prolific, he never felt secure bringing his own songs in and pushing to get them recorded. One night the Beatles were doing takes of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” at the studio and George was disappointed at the lack of commitment and inspiration in these performances.
So the next day he brought in Eric Clapton to overdub the lead guitar part. Eric was nervous, thinking the Beatles might object, George remembered. “And I was saying, “Fuck ’em, that’s my song.” [86] Clapton’s introduction into the studio caused everyone to “act better.” Paul went to the piano and played an intro that George liked. Everyone took the song more seriously because of Clapton’s presence. [87] So the stars aligned to produce a great performance of a great song.
Happiness is a Warm Gun — (Lennon-Taylor)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on September 24-25, 1968)
For this cut, John simply combined three separately-composed songs. It was a natural solution to his problem of not finishing songs! “Oh yeah, I like that, one of my best,” he said in 1970. “I just like all the different things that are happening in it. That was like ‘God.’ I put together three sections of different songs. But it was meant to be like — . . . it seemed to run through all the different kinds of rock music.” [88]
In Anthology , John summarized each verse with a handwritten word: first verse, “Dirty old man.” Second, “the junkie.” Third, “the gunman.” [89] Musically, the three sections are each defined by a different style of rock.
The first and third sections were based on found poetry. In fact, the first part came from random phrases shouted out by John’s friends Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall and Pete Shotton while everyone was relaxing in a rented house. John had told them that he needed to finish a song, then said, “Neil, take some notes, we’ll get some stuff down. Think of phrases.” [90] The first line came when John wanted to know how you described a girl who was really smart, and Derek remembered his father’s phrase: “She’s not a girl who misses much.” After that the song continued in entirely surreal fashion, though each phrase has an explanation. According to Taylor, he supplied many of the lines. [91]
The second song was about Yoko (“Mother Superior”) and heroin. John publicly denied that it was about the drug, [92] but his handwritten summary of this section, and the song’s first line, “I need a fix cause I’m going down,” are hard to ignore.
The third song came from the cover of an American gun magazine, which had the picture of a smoking gun that had just been shot. In an undated interview, John said, “I thought, ‘Wow! Incredible,’ you know, the fact that happiness was a warm gun that had just shot something or somebody and that’s why I wrote that song.” [93]
Both Paul and John ascribed this song to John. In 1971, John said, “They were advertising guns and I thought it was so crazy that I made a song out of it.” [94] And in 1980, he affirmed, “Me completely.” [95] Paul, in 1968, said, “And it was so sick, you know, the idea of ‘Come and buy your killing weapons,’ and ‘Come and get it.’ But it’s just such a great line, ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ that John sort of took that and used that as a chorus. And the rest of the words . . . I think they’re great words, you know. It’s a poem.” [96] And in 1995, Paul explained,
It’s very similar to “Bungalow Bill” in that it’s a piss-take of all the people who really do think happiness is a warm gun. There’s a great vocal on it, good lyrics, and it’s a very interesting song because it changes tempo a lot, it’s quite a complex piece. It’s very Lennon. . . . I was thinking the other day how poignant it was that John, who was shot in such tragic circumstances, should have written this song. [97]
While it seems clear that Paul was not involved in writing it, Derek Taylor apparently contributed substantially to it.
SIDE TWO
Martha My Dear — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on October 4, 1968)
This song started as a piano exercise, an instrumental, in which Paul made the conscious effort to come up with something slightly above his “level of competence” as piano player. [98] When he tried to find some words that fit the music, “Martha my dear, though I spend my days in conversation” suddenly came into his head. Martha was Paul’s sheepdog, so, he said, “It’s me singing to my dog.” (laughs ) [99] It turned into a “fantasy song,” with fictional characters. The song was written in a way that was typical for Paul: he had a tune, and an accompaniment, then some words “came into [his] head.”
Both Paul and John attributed it to Paul. [100]
“Martha My Dear” was recorded by Paul, without any of the other Beatles, on October 4, 1968. According to Alistair Taylor, it was written during the Magical Mystery Tour period. [101]
I’m So Tired — (Lennon)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on October 8, 1968)
John wrote this, one of his autobiographical songs, [102] one night during a bout of insomnia after meditating all day with the Maharishi. And in an undated interview, he remembered, “The funny thing about the Maharishi camp was that, although it was very beautiful and I was meditating about eight hours a day, I was writing the most miserable songs on earth, like ‘I’m So Tired’ and ‘Yer Blues.’” [103]
Both John and Paul ascribed it to John. In 1970 and 1980, John said he’d written it in India. [104] Jenny Boyd, Patti Harrison’s sister, remembered John being unable to sleep, in India, and singing “those sad songs he wrote during those evenings, like ‘I’m So Tired.’” [105]
Paul said, in 1995,
“So Tired” is very much John’s comment to the world, and it has that very special line, “And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git.” That’s a classic line and it’s so John that there’s no doubt that he wrote it. I think it’s 100 per cent John. Being tired was one of his themes. [106]
Blackbird — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on June 11, 1968)
Strangely enough, this song started out as a piece by Bach. “The original inspiration was from a well-known piece by Bach,” Paul said in 1995, “which I never know the title of, which George and I had learned to play at an early age.” [107] Paul played it at his “Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road” concert, and it is the Bourrée in E minor, from Lute suite no. 1 BWV 996 (though,
as Paul notes, he didn’t play it correctly). [108] While at his farmhouse in Scotland, in spring 1968, [109] not long after returning from India, Paul began thinking of the Bach tune: “Bach was always one of our favourite composers . . . I developed the melody on guitar based on the Bach piece and took it somewhere else, took it to another level.” [110]
Having composed the music, he then added the lyrics. Just as John’s “Revolution” had been a response to recent anti-war protests, this was a response to the civil rights movement in the United States.
I had in my mind a black woman, rather than a bird. Those were the days of the civil-rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the states: “Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope.” As is often the case with my things, a veiling took place so, rather than say “Black woman living in Little Rock” and be very specific, she became a bird, became symbolic, so you could apply it to your particular problem. This is one of my themes: take a sad song and make it better, let this song help you. [111]
Paul claimed this song, [112] and John generally agreed. [113] However, in 1980, he said that he contributed a line to it. [114] I lean toward his earlier testimony.
Piggies — (Harrison-Lennon-Harrison)
(lead vocals: George) (recorded on September 19, 1968)
George Harrison wrote this, for the most part, and put most of the lyrics in a notebook. Years later, he resurrected it, and brought the unfinished song to John, who contributed “a couple of lines about forks and knives and eating bacon.” [115] But there was still one gap, one line missing from the song’s middle eight. So he turned to, of all people, his mother, Louise French Harrison, who provided the perfect line, “What they need’s a damn good whacking!” [116]
Rocky Raccoon — (McCartney-Lennon-Donovan)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on August 15, 1968)
This song was written when Paul, John and Donovan were “sitting on a roof” at the Maharishi’s ashram, playing together. “I started playing the chords of ‘Rocky Raccoon,’ you know, just messing around,” Paul said in 1968. “We just started making up the words, you know, the three of us — and started just to write them down.” The title was originally Rocky Sassoon, but Paul changed it to Raccoon “because it sounded more like a cowboy.” Paul disavowed any actual knowledge of “the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and Indians or anything. But I just made it up, you know.” [117]
Though John and Donovan helped, Paul stated, in 1995: “‘Rocky Raccoon’ is quirky, very me. I like talking-blues so I started off like that, then I did my tongue-in-cheek parody of a western and threw in some amusing lines . . . it’s me writing a play.” [118]
In 2008, Paul described it as a “pastiche” of the “George Formby sensibility” mixed with a spoof of folk music. (George Formby was a British singer and actor known for his comic songs.) “Rocky Raccoon was a freewheeling thing, the fun of mixing a folky ramble with Albert In The Lion’s Den with its ‘orse’s ‘ead ‘andle,’ ha ha.’” [119] (Comedian Stanley Holloway was well known for his rendition of the comic poem “The Lion and Albert,” by Marriott Edgar.)
John, in 1971, couldn’t remember this song very well: “Paul — I might have helped with some of the words. I’m not sure.” [120] By 1980, he ascribed it completely to Paul. [121]
Don’t Pass Me By — (Starkey)
(lead vocals: Ringo) (recorded on June 5, 1968)
Ringo, in 2000, remembered writing this at his home, on the piano. He was banging away at the piano, playing the three chords he knew, and the melody came, and some words. [122] According to some reports, Starr was working on this as far back as 1963, even before he joined the Beatles. [123] When he played it for the other Beatles, they reportedly went into hysterics, “and said it was a rewrite of a Jerry Lee Lewis B-side.” [124]
However, just to show that song authorship with the Beatles is never straightforward, in June 1964, when John said the song was not finished, both Ringo and Paul asserted that it was finished, and Ringo said, “We finished it.” (Not “I finished it.”)
George: But, as far as Ringo and I are concerned, we’ll leave the songwriting to . . . Ringo: Excuse me! Paul’s gonna sing the one I’ve written! Paul: No, I can’t re — I can’t quite remember it. Ringo: Well, I’ll get — just for a plug, Paul. Paul: But even so, we just — Ringo has written one called “Don’t pass me by, don’t make me cry, don’t make me blue.” A beautiful melody. Sincere, folks. . . . No, but you really — this is Ringo’s first venture into songwriting. . . . John: Unluckily, there’s never quite enough time to fit Ringo’s songs on. Because he never finishes it! Ringo: It’s finished! Paul: It’s finished. Ringo: We finished it. John: After 18 years . . . [125]
Clearly, Paul knew something about the song being finished that John didn’t. But he explicitly says that Ringo wrote it.
In a July 1964 Top Gear interview with the Beatles, Ringo when asked how his songwriting was going, and said, “Oh, yes, I’ve written a good one and nobody seems to want to record it.” And once again, Paul sang the beginning of it. [126]
It’s odd that Paul sang it (twice), and not Ringo. Possibly the drummer had brought it to Paul for help with arranging it.
When an interviewer brought up the Top Gear interview in 1992, Ringo said, “They [the Beatles] didn’t help me at all writing it.”
Q: You’re listed as the author of “Don’t Pass Me By.” I am the author of “Don’t Pass Me By.” Q: But there’s a tape of a BBC interview [Top Gear, July 14, 1964] where you and Paul noted that the two of you were working on your song “Don’t Pass Me By.” [127] You sure that wasn’t George. Q: No, I’m pretty sure it was Paul. Ok. Well, I don’t remember Paul working on it. Paul would have said that as the band was working on it; he wasn’t working on it as the writer. [128]
John said, in a 1968 interview, that the Beatles had just recorded “Ringo’s first song that we’re working on this very moment. Q: He composed it himself? He composed it himself in a fit of lethargy. Q: And what do you think about it? I think it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever heard since Nilsson’s ‘River Deep Mountain Dew.’” [129]
In a 1964 interview, Ringo said that “his songwriting technique is to hum a tune to himself and let the others work out the chords on guitar.” [130]
I accept that this is a pure Ringo song.
Why Don’t We Do It in the Road — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on October 9–10, 1968)
In Rishikesh, Paul was on the ashram roof, meditating, one day, when he saw two monkeys copulating briefly. This led him to pose the question in this song, asking whether civilized rules are necessary. “And I thought, bloody hell, that puts it all into a cocked hat, that’s how simple the act of procreation is, the bloody monkey just hopping on and hopping off. . . . And it’s that simple. We have horrendous problems with it.” [131]
Both Paul and John ascribed this to Paul. In 1968, after mentioning “I Will” and this song, Paul said, “Just completely different things — completely different feelings and . . . But it’s me singing both of them. It’s the same fella. Uhh, and I’ve wrote both of them, you know.” [132]
But paradoxically, Paul described it as written in the Lennon style. “It was a very John sort of song anyway. That’s why he liked it, I suppose. It was very John, the idea of it, not me. I wrote it as a ricochet off John.” [133] John would sometimes sing it, and was offended when Paul recorded it without him (an example of how the Beatles were drifting apart during this album). [134] He later said, “Paul — one of his best.” [135]
I Will — (McCartney-Lennon)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on September 16, 1968)
As Paul tells the story, he had had the melody to this for a long time. “It’s still one of my favorite melodies that I’ve written. You just occasionally get lucky with a melody and it becomes rather complete,” he said in 1995.
[136] He played it with Donovan and “maybe” a few others at Rishikesh, and he and Donovan began to think of lyrics for the song, but they weren’t quite satisfactory, for Paul. Finally, he wrote a new set of lyrics. [137]
Paul and John agreed, repeatedly, that this was written by Paul, and that John did not contribute to it. As we have seen, Paul said in 1968 that he wrote both this and “Why Don’t We Do It.” [138] John, in 1971, put it on a list of songs Paul wrote alone. [139]
Thus we have clarity, it seems. But, as often, a new piece of evidence pops up to break the symmetry. During the Get Back sessions, one day, when John was absent, the other three Beatles were talking about the problem of dealing with Yoko. Paul defended her somewhat, and went “out of his way to explain how she didn’t interfere when he and John were struggling with the lyrics for ‘I Will’ the previous year.” [140]
A reference such as this is a bit unnerving, as it makes one doubt the memories of both Beatles in their later interviews.
Julia — (Lennon-Ono-Donovan-Gibran)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on October 13, 1968)
John wrote this to his mother, Julia Stanley Lennon, after “opening up” about his feelings relating to her during Transcendental Meditation sessions. He also had Yoko in mind as he wrote it. [141]
While Paul did not contribute to “Julia,” three other people did. First, John said in 1971 that Yoko “helped me with this one,” so she both partially inspired the song and helped write it. [142] In the same year, John said, “ She had written other things, even ‘Julia’ back in the Beatles days.” [143]
Then, Donovan said that he helped John with the words “a bit,” after John asked him for help. [144] He also taught John the “finger-picking” method that is used on the song. [145]
Who Wrote the Beatle Songs Page 27