Paul, John and George ascribed this to Paul. In 1982, Paul said, “I wrote it.” [158] The song was played frequently during the Get Back sessions. A slower version appears on Anthology 3 .
Golden Slumbers — (McCartney-Dekker)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded July 2 to August 15, 1969)
Paul started writing this when he was visiting his father’s home, Rembrandt, in Cheshire, near Liverpool. He sat down at the piano and found a music book of his half-sister, Ruth, which had “Cradle Song” in it, a song with lyrics by Elizabethan dramatist and poet Thomas Dekker (1572–1632), a poem that was first published in 1603. In his earliest account of the song, Paul said,
So I was just flicking through it and I came to Golden Slumbers, . . . I can’t read music so I didn’t know the tune, and I can’t remember the old tune, you know. . . . So I started just playing MY tune to it. And then I liked the words so I just kept that, you know. And then it fitted with another bit of song I had which is the verse in between it. So I just made that into a song. [159]
Here is the original Dekker poem:
Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise ;
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby,
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
Care is heavy, therefore sleep you,
You are care, and care must keep you ;
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby,
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
Paul, John and George ascribed this to Paul (with help from Dekker). [160] It was played during the Get Back sessions. [161]
Carry That Weight — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded July 2 to August 15, 1969)
Paul said he wrote this song at a time of great stress. “I’m generally quite upbeat but at certain times things get to me so much that I just can’t be upbeat anymore and that was one of those times. We were taking so much acid and doing so much drugs and all this Klein shit and [things were] getting crazier and crazier and crazier.” [162] The music, strangely enough, is joyful.
Paul has never specifically talked about writing this song, though he has discussed the lyrics frequently. John ascribed it to Paul. In 1969, when asked if the song was co-written, he said, “No, that’s Paul’s line.” And ten years later, “That’s Paul again.” [163]
“Golden Slumbers” and “Carry that Weight” were recorded as a single song. Paul played them that way during the Get Back sessions. [164]
The End — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded July 23 to August 18, 1969)
The Beatles were looking for an end to Abbey Road , and Paul remembered how Shakespeare would end a scene with a couple of memorable tag lines. Paul wanted the album to end “with a little meaningful couplet, so I followed the Bard and wrote a couplet.” [165] And the thought just came into his mind: “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
Each of the Beatles took an instrumental solo as they recorded the song, [166] and Abbey Road , and the Beatles era was over.
Until “Her Majesty,” of course.
Both Paul and John ascribed this to Paul. [167]
Her Majesty — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded July 2, 1969)
Paul wrote this little ditty in Scotland. “I just wrote it as a joke, you know.” [168] He described the political philosophy of the song as “basically monarchist . . . It’s almost like a love song to the Queen.” [169]
In the Abbey Road lineup, “Her Majesty” originally followed “Mean Mr. Mustard,” but Paul decided it didn’t work, and told the engineer, John Kurlander, to throw it away. Kurlander cut it out of the master tape, but attached it to the end of the reel, separated by a stretch of leader, which was a common practice. When the album was transferred to acetate, “Her Majesty” suddenly started playing at the very end, by accident. Paul liked that effect, and kept the song as a coda to the album. [170]
Both Paul and John ascribed this to Paul. [171] He performed it during the Get Back sessions. [172]
* * *
[1] For an recent treatment of the breakup, see Mikal Gilmore, “Why the Beatles Broke Up.”
[2] The Get Back sessions have been widely bootlegged, and Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt describe them in detail in their excellent book, Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles’ “Let It Be” Disaster (1999). (Though I would not call any album that included such masterpieces as “Get Back,” “Long and Winding Road,” “Let It Be,” and “Across the Universe” — not to mention solid contributions of the caliber of “Two of Us,” “I’ve Got a Feeling,” “Don’t Let Me Down” and “I Dig a Pony” — a disaster.) A more compressed summary can be found in Unterberger, The Unreleased Beatles .
[3] As quoted in Lewisohn, Complete Beatles Chronicle , 310.
[4] Anthology, 337.
[5] Beatles-unlimited.com website.
[6] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 169. The authors emphasize George’s conflicts with John as the cause of his departure, but undoubtedly, George resented Paul also. See also Winn, That Magic Feeling , 246, 267; Irvin, “Get It Better.”; Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money , 60.
[7] Quoted in The Record Producers , as cited in Doggett, Abbey Road , 78; Matteo, Let It Be , 54.
[8] Emerick, Here, There, Everywhere , 165-66.
[9] I Me Mine , 100.
[10] White, “Billboard Interview” (1999). See also George in Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 415. In 1989, Paul said, “They forced us to do one [song] specially [for the movie],” said Paul, “which was ‘It’s Only a Northern Song,’ which George did with a very big tongue in his cheek, because Northern Songs was the name of the publishing company.” The Paul McCartney World Tour , 55. This doesn’t seem to jibe with the recording history of the song. Possibly Paul confused this song with “Hey Bulldog.”
[11] With a Little Help from My Friends (1994), 124.
[12] Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 415. Also, McCabe, Apple to the Core , 106.
[13] Miles, Many Years from Now , 481.
[14] Ibid. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[15] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 211. Further comments on the song: Blackburn and Ali, “Lennon and Ono interview.” George Harrison in White, “Billboard Interview.”
[16] Miles, Beatles in their Own Words , 102.
[17] Miles, Many Years from Now , 481.
[18] Dowlding, Beatlesongs , 213. Cowan, Behind the Beatles Songs , 24. For the ad-lib barking at the end, see Lewisohn, Beatles Recording Sessions , 134.
[19] Lost Lennon Tapes, Oct. 21, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 213. See also Miles, Beatles in their Own Words , 102, quoted above. George Harrison and Mal and Neil also referred to it as John’s song. Harrison in 1999 (White, “The Billboard Interview”). Evans and Aspinall, “New Single Sessions,” 11.
[20] Miles, Many Years from Now , 481.
[21] I Me Mine , 106.
[22] White, “Billboard Interview.”
[23] For his comments on this, see Hieronimus, “Interview with George Martin.”
[24] I Me Mine , 148.
[25] Glazer, “Growing Up at 33 1/3” (1977).
[26] I Me Mine , 148. Similar: White, “George Harrison Reconsidered” (1987), 57.
[27] Engelhardt, Beatles Undercover , 199-201.
[28] New Muscial Express, March 15, 1969, as quoted in Winn, That Magic Feeling , 264.
[29] Miles, Many Years From Now , 457.
[30] Mary Hopkins in 1995 (Goldmine interview, April 14, 1995, vol. 21 no. 8, Issue 384, as cited in Unterberger, Unreleased Beatles , 350). See also Mary Hopkin in 1984 (Giuliano, The Lost Beatles Interviews , 249).
[31] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 84, 153, 188-90, 222-24, 282. Unterberger, Unreleased Beatles , 240, 243, 245, 250-51. Everett II, 221-22. Doggett, Abbey Road , 97-98.
[32] Cowan, Behind the Beatles Songs , 17.
[33] Quote in a press advertisement for the single, see Doggett, Abbey Road , 47.
[34] The original Pakistani lyrics, Paul said, were anti-racist, not racist. “If there was any group that was not racist it was the Beatles.” Miles, Many Years from Now , 535.
[35] Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 4.
[36] Morse, Classic Rock Stories , 68, cf. Badman, The Dream is Over , 14.
[37] Miles, Many Years from Now , 535.
[38] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 211.
[39] Lost Lennon Tapes, Oct. 21, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews , 214.
[40] Miles, Many Years from Now , 535-36. He had begun writing it by late 1968. Everett II, 222.
[41] Miles, Many Years from Now , 535-36.
[42] Ibid. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[43] Miles, Many Years from Now , 535-36.
[44] Everett II, 238. See also Drummond, Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, May 8, 1969; Badman, Off the Record , 446-47.
[45] Everett II, 242.
[46] White, “George Harrison Reconsidered” (1987), 56.
[47] Pinch and Trocco, Analog Days , 123-24.
[48] Lewisohn interview (1988), 14.
[49] Ibid.
[50] Alan Smith, “Beatles Music Straightforward On Next Album.”
[51] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 210. John actually started it on March 20, in Paris. Lennon interview, Fred Peabody, June 2, 1969, as summarized in Winn, That Magic Feeling , 299.
[52] Miles, Many Years from Now , 537.
[53] I Me Mine 134.
[54] Unterberger, The Unreleased Beatles , 257-61.
[55] Lennon, Rolling Stone Interview, Dec. 1970, BBC, part 4; cf. Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 93. See also Everett II, 239.
[56] Blackburn and Ali, interview.
[57] Derek Taylor, “Congratulations on a hit, everybody!” (1969).
[58] Ibid. Greenfield, Timothy Leary: A Biography , 358.
[59] Renard and Shnurmacher, “Eight Days in Montreal with John and Yoko,” 24. Lost Lennon Tapes, Feb. 22, 1988. See also The Plastic Ono Band Unfinished Discography website; Winn, That Magic Feeling , 297.
[60] Anthology 148.
[61] Badman, The Dream is Over , 23-24.
[62] Ibid. See also Unterberger, Unreleased Beatles , 353, citing a 1994 Club Sandwich .
[63] George Martin, in Anthology , 337. See also Martin, “George Martin Interview” and Tobler and Grundy, “George Martin.”
[64] Lewisohn, McCartney interview, 14. In 2000, Paul is cautious: “I think it was my idea to put all the spare bits together, but I’m a bit wary of claiming these things. I’m happy for it to be everyone’s idea.” Anthology , 33.
[65] Anthology , 338. John later had little good to say about this album. “I liked the ‘A’ side, I never liked that sort of whatever, pop opera on the other side . . . [Abbey Road ] had no life in it.” Lennon, Rolling Stone Interview, Dec. 1970, BBC, part 4; Miles, Beatles in their Own Words , 102. And in 1980 he described it as an album of fragments that had no unified center. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212. More positive views by John are in Anthology , 337.
[66] Leary, Flashbacks, 281. Greenfield, Timothy Leary: A Biography , 358. Conners, White Hand Society (seen in Google books, no page number). Friedman, Tripping , 155. A primitive rendition of this campaign song can be found in “outtakes from Lennon’s second bed-in event in Canada.” Wikipedians, The Beatles , 553. Winn describes a song he titles “Get It Together” that “may or may not be John’s attempt at writing a campaign song for Timothy Leary.” This was recorded from May 26 to June 2, 1969. Winn, That Magic Feeling , 299.
[67] Miles, “My Blue Period” (interview conducted on Sept. 23-24, 1969). See also Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 210-11.
[68] For Leary’s perspective, see Turner, Hard Day’s Write , 188.
[69] Yorke, Interview with George Harrison, September, 1969.
[70] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 210-11.
[71] Lost Lennon Tapes, March 14, 1988.
[72] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 210-11.
[73] Lost Lennon Tapes, March 14, 1988.
[74] Anthology , 339. See also Miles, Many Years from Now , 553.
[75] Anthology 339.
[76] Miles, “My Blue Period” (1969).
[77] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 210-11.
[78] Here, There and Everywhere , 284-85.
[79] Paul, in the 1984 Playboy interview, remembers playing the lick, but he may be remembering playing it the first time, not the performance on record.
[80] Smith, Off the Record , 261. See also Winn, That Magic Feeling , 323.
[81] Williams, “John & Yoko (part 1).” Similar: Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 196. Miles, Beatles in their Own Words , 102. Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 468.
[82] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 210-11.
[83] Wigg interview.
[84] Yorke, Interview with George Harrison, September, 1969. George said that John wrote this soon after his car crash on July 1, 1969. See also Winn, That Magic Feeling , 323.
[85] Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions , 156; Chris Thomas in Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 265; Harrison, I Me Mine , 152. For the White album vintage, see also Harrison before 1979 (transcript from Sold on Song website; abridged version in Cowan, Behind the Beatles Songs , 43). Yorke, Interview with George Harrison, 1969.
[86] Interview with David Wigg, Apple Offices, London, October 8, 1969.
[87] Boyd, Wonderful Tonight , 117.
[88] Harrison 1996 (Cashmere, “George Harrison Gets ‘Undercover’”). See also an interview in Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 469: “It wasn’t about Patti. Everybody says it was, but it wasn’t. It was just a song. It wasn’t about anyone specific.”
[89] Yorke, Interview with George Harrison. Comments from John and Paul: Lennon 1969 (Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 469). McCartney 1969 (Wigg interview). McCartney 2000 (Anthology , 96).
[90] Lewisohn, Beatles Recording Sessions , 179.
[91] Anthology , 339.
[92] Miles, Many Years from Now , 554. Cf. earlier, Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 246.
[93] Linda McCartney, Linda McCartney’s Sixties , 153.
[94] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 50, 95-100, 123, 171.
[95] Miles, “My Blue Period,” (1969); Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 469, cf. Anthology , 339. See also Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 211, quoted below. Yorke, Interview with George Harrison. See also Glazer, “Growing Up at 33 1/3.”
[96] Lost Lennon Tapes, Oct. 21, 1991, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 211.
[97] Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 469; also in Anthology , 339, but slightly different.
[98] Scaggs, “Ringo Starr” (2008), 22.
[99] Lewisohn, Beatles Recording Sessions , 179. Paul’s replies to these criticisms: Anthology , 340; Salewicz, “Tug of War” (1986). John also despised the song itself, saying in late 1969: “The Beatles can go on appealing so a wide audience as long as they make albums like Abbey Road , which have nice little folk songs like ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ for the grannies to dig.” Williams, “John & Yoko (part 1).”
[100] Winn, That Magic Feeling , 305.
[101] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 51-52, 96, 99, 126, 143, 203, 282.
[102] Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 289.
[103] Aldridge, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 253. See also Miles, Many Years from Now , 555.
[104] Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 289.
[105] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212. George, in 1969, also ascribed it to Paul, Ritchie Yorke, Interview with George Harrison.
[106] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212. See also Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[107] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 56; 273, at 26.15. See also Newborn, “Ringo in the Afternoon” (1981), 61.
[108] Newborn, “Ringo in the Afternoon”(1981), 61. See also Anthology , 312.
[109] George Harrison described it as a pure Ringo song, probably out of politeness. Yorke, Interview with George Harrison (1969).
[110] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 271.
[111] Yorke, Interview with George Harrison (1969); Harrison in 1988 (Smith, Off the Record , 261).
[112] Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 470. John also comments briefly on the song in Anthology , 339.
[113] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 293-94.
[114] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 211.
[115] Miles, “My Blue Period” (1969).
[116] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 83. Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 236. Yorke, Interview with George Harrison. Ringo, interview with David Jensen, September 26, 1969, as summarized in Winn, That Magic Feeling , 326.
[117] Interview: Apple Offices, London, October 8, 1969. Similar statements: Yorke, Interview with George Harrison (1969); BBC interview, as quoted in Doggett, Abbey Road , 107 (1969); I Me Mine , 144.
[118] Interview: Apple Offices, London, October 8, 1969.
[119] Yorke, Interview with George Harrison.
[120] Smith, “Beatles Music Straightforward On Next Album.” At about the same time is Lennon, Interview with Tony Macarthur, late September, 1969: “Yoko plays classical piano, and she was playing one day. I dunno, it was Beethoven or something. I said, give me those chords backwards. And I wrote ‘Because’ on top of it.” [Yoko:] Moonlight Sonata. John: Moonlight Sonata backwards. [laughter.]” Similar: Aldridge, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 257. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror . Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 201.
[121] From a bootleg, The Beatles In Their Own Words , CD3 27.0, as cited in Beathoven, a website. Cf. Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 290.
[122] Lennon, Interview with Tony Macarthur, late September, 1969. See also Winn, That Magic Feeling , 326; Badman, Beatles Off the Record , 471.
Who Wrote the Beatle Songs Page 33