[123] Emerick, Here, There and Everywhere , 292-93.
[124] Alan Smith, “Beatles Music Straightforward On Next Album.”
[125] Wigg interview (1969). Miles, Many Years from Now , 555.
[126] Yorke, Interview with George Harrison (1969).
[127] George Martin, In My Life album, cover notes. See also Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: An Oral History , 290.
[128] Alan Smith, “Beatles Music Straightforward On Next Album.”
[129] Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 196. Miles, Many Years from Now , 556.
[130] Miles, Many Years from Now , 556. Also, Snow, “We’re a damn good little band.”
[131] Miles, Many Years from Now , 556. See also “Two of Us” in Let It Be , below.
[132] Anthology , 337. For John, Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror (1971); Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212.
[133] Interview: Apple Offices, London, October 8, 1969. See also Anthology , 337.
[134] Miles, Many Years from Now , 556; Turner, Hard Day’s Write , 194.
[135] Lennon, Interview with Tony Macarthur, late September, 1969.
[136] Ibid.
[137] Lennon, Interview with Tony Macarthur, late September, 1969. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 214.
[138] Lennon, Interview with Tony MacArthur, late September, 1969. See also Anthology , 337. Yorke, Interview with George Harrison. Miles, “My Blue Period” (September 1969).
[139] Lennon, Interview with Tony MacArthur, late September, 1969.
[140] Lost Lennon Tapes, March 14, 1988, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212.
[141] Lennon, Interview with Tony MacArthur, late September, 1969. Anthology , 337.
[142] Lost Lennon Tapes, March 14, 1988, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212. See also Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Miles, “My Blue Period” (September 1969). Anthology , 337.
[143] Miles, Many Years from Now , 421.
[144] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 121-23, 201.
[145] Lost Lennon Tapes, March 14, 1988, cf. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212-13. Ellis’s memories were substantially the same. Ghosh, “The Beatles In 1960 Liverpool: Royston Ellis Remembers.” Turner has another theory: The Beatles had a friend, Pat Dawson, “Polythene Pat,” who ate polythene. Hard Day’s Write , 196-97. Long-time Beatle associate Tony Bramwell, in Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 473, felt that the song dealt with a specific homeless lady who kept her possessions in plastic bags. Both these theories seem weak in the face of John’s explicit mention of Royston Ellis and his polythene-wearing girlfriend.
[146] Anthology , 337. Also, Miles, Many Years from Now , 556.
[147] Aldridge, Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 232.
[148] Ibid. See also John’s comments in Lennon, Interview with Tony MacArthur, late September, 1969; Anthology , 337 (full quote at “Sun King”). Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror . Miles, Beatles in their Own Words , 75. Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 472.
[149] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 240. Unterberger, The Unreleased Beatles , 251.
[150] Lennon, Interview with Tony MacArthur, late September, 1969.
[151] Miles, Many Years from Now , 521.
[152] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212.
[153] Bonici, “Paul McCartney Wings It Alone.”
[154] Turner, Hard Day’s Write , 198.
[155] Carol Bedford, Waiting for the Beatles (1985), as cited in Turner, Hard Day’s Write , 198.
[156] Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 473.
[157] The Classic Artists Series: the Moody Blues , a DVD documentary, as cited in Wikimedia, The Beatles , 1284.
[158] Bonici, “Paul McCartney Wings It Alone.” Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 212. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Yorke, Interview with George Harrison.
[159] David Wigg interview, September 19, 1969. See also Aldridge, The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics , 246; Miles, Many Years from Now , 537.
[160] Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 213. Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Yorke, Interview with George Harrison.
[161] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 80, 141.
[162] Miles, Many Years from Now , 557-58.
[163] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 213.
[164] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 56-57, 77, 80, 84, 141-42.
[165] Miles, Many Years from Now , 558.
[166] Anthology , 337. Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 474.
[167] Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror. Sheff, The Playboy Interviews, 213.
[168] Wigg interview.
[169] Miles, Many Years from Now , 558. See also Badman, The Beatles Off the Record , 474.
[170] Miles/McCartney, Many Years from Now , 558; Kurlander, in Dowlding, Beatlesongs , 294.
[171] For John, see Hennessey, “Who Wrote What,” Record Mirror.
[172] Sulpy and Schweighardt, Get Back , 141, 244.
14
“Writing the song was my way of exorcizing the ghosts” —
LET IT BE
T he original idea of the Get Back sessions was to watch the Beatles developing an album, filming them as they rehearsed, ending in a live performance. In addition, the Beatles would retreat from their orchestrated, elaborately overdubbed studio recordings and create a recording of the band alone. John somewhat undiplomatically told George Martin, “I don’t want any of your production rubbish on this one. I don’t want any overdubbing of voices. I don’t want any editing. Everything has got to be performed live like it used to be. It’s got to be real, man, it’s got to be honest.” [1] However, as the Get Back sessions progressed, the Beatles gradually began to depart from this ideal.
Ironically, John led the way in bringing in Phil Spector (who had recently produced John’s Plastic Ono Band single, “Instant Karma!”) to “re-produce” the album, and Spector added many overdubs, and even full orchestrations in some places. Here we have John going against type again; while we often associate him with hard rock, he is the Beatle most responsible for the lush strings, harps and choral voices added by Spector on Let It Be . Apparently Paul (and certainly George Martin) had no idea that Spector was “re-producing” the album in this way. (Paul knew Spector was working on the album, but did not realize that he was adding many overdubs with orchestral instruments.) Paul, always extremely concerned about the details of recording and arranging his own songs, was understandably upset to hear that some of his songs had received this Spector treatment. George Martin said,
I knew that John was going in the studios, doing some work on Let It Be , but I understood that as they were making a film of it, they were doing some film tracks. When the record finally came out, I got a hell of a shock. Melody Maker : You didn’t know anything about it? George M.: Nothing. Neither did Paul, and Paul wrote to me to say that he was pretty appalled, if you’ll forgive the pun. All the lush un-Beatle-like orchestrations with harps and choirs in the background. [2]
As a result, John was sensitive about how he and George had brought Spector in, and perhaps overemphasized the low quality of the Glyn Johns compilations and of the Get Back sessions in general. “He [Spector] was given the shittiest load of badly recorded shit that — and with a lousy feeling to it — ever. And he made something out of it,” he said in 1970. “It wasn’t fantastic, but it was — when I heard it, I didn’t puke.” [3]
Paul, on the other hand, had liked the bare Glyn Johns mixes. “We then mixed it once with Glyn Johns, who’d done a very straightforward mix, very plain, but I loved it because it was just the Beatles. It was us. It had a lot of character,” he said. [4] He thought that Allen Klein pulled in Phil Spector, when he didn’t think the Get Back tapes were good enough. Paul, of course, hadn’t signed with Klein. In 1989, Paul said that Spector’s contribution was not a total disaster: “For what he was pulled in to do I thought
he did a good job. And you can’t blame him, he was hired in and he thought we all agreed and knew what was happening.” [5]
In any event, the Spector version of Let It Be was released and became part of the Beatles canon. However, in November 2003, the surviving Beatles released a de-Spectorized version of the album, Let It Be . . . Naked . Time will tell if this supplants the 1970 Let It Be , or if the two versions of the album are eventually regarded as equally valid.
Wedding Album — John Lennon and Yoko Ono, October 20 (U.S.), November 7 (U.K.), 1969
John and Yoko’s third experimental album commemorated their marriage on March 20, 1969. John explained,
It was like us sharing our wedding with whoever wanted to share it with us. We didn’t expect a hit record out of it. People make a wedding album, show it to relatives when they come round. Well, our relatives are what you call fans, or people that follow us outside. So, that was our way of letting them join in on the wedding. [6]
It included no real songs, except for an early version of Yoko’s “John John Let’s Hope for Peace” and John doing an acoustic performance of “Goodnight.”
Side one (“John and Yoko”) recorded John and Yoko calling to each other over the sound of heartbeats; it was recorded on April 22 and 27, 1969. John said, “It’s in stereo and our heartbeats are bumping along there, like African drums and we howl over the top. I sing ‘Yoko’ and she sings ‘John’, continuously through one side of it. It’s like an extended, very extreme, . . . It really makes your hair stand on end.” [7]
Side two (“Amsterdam”) was recorded in a hotel in Amsterdam from March 25 to 31, 1969, including moments from John and Yoko’s “bed-in” honeymoon, mixed with random sounds.
“Cold Turkey / Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow)” single — Plastic Ono Band, October 24, 1969
Cold Turkey — (Lennon)
(recorded September 25 to 28, 1969)
As has been mentioned, John and Yoko became addicted to heroin during the White Album sessions. Finally, they realized they needed to stop taking the drug, so subjected themselves to complete withdrawal — “cold turkey.” This song describes that experience; it is directly in John’s confessional mode of songwriting. In 1970, he said that it wasn’t a song, but a diary. [8] “I wrote this about coming off drugs and the pain involved,” he stated in an early interview. [9]
John offered this to the Beatles as a single, but they were not enthusiastic, either put off by the drug lyrics or the minimalist music. John said, in late 1969, “When I wrote it, I went to the other three Beatles and said, ‘Hey, lads, I think I’ve written a new single.’ But they all said, ‘Ummm . . . arrr . . . wellll,’ because it was going to be my project, and so I thought, ‘Bugger you, I’ll put it out myself.’” [10]
So John released it as a solo record, with the Plastic Ono Band, which now included John, Yoko, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman from Hamburg days on bass, and Ringo on drums. It’s typical of this time period, which was a bridge between the Beatles and the solo Beatles eras. “Cold Turkey” might have been a Beatles single, but ended up being the second Plastic Ono Band single, though the band included two Beatles. It was the first Lennon song credited to Lennon, not Lennon-McCartney.
The Plastic Ono Band premiered “Cold Turkey” at the Toronto Rock & Roll Revival Festival on September 13, 1969, and so it was included on Live Peace in Toronto, 1969 .
“Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for a Hand in the Snow) (Yoko Ono)
“Come and Get It / Rock Of All Ages” single — Badfinger, December 5, 1969
Come and Get It — (McCartney)
(recorded by Badfinger on August 2, 1969)
The idea of this song came to Paul late at night, when he was in bed at Cavendish Avenue. He left Linda in bed, went downstairs, “and just whispered it into my tape recorder. I played it very quietly so as not to wake her.” [11]
The next day, July 24, 1969, he came in early to a recording session at Abbey Road and did a demo of the song, playing all the instruments himself. “Because I lived locally, I could get in half an hour before a Beatles session at Abbey Road — knowing it would be empty and all the stuff would be set up — and I’d use Ringo’s equipment to put a drum track down, put some piano down quickly, put some bass down, do the vocal and double track it.” [12] He recorded the demo in about twenty minutes and was satisfied with it. (This has been released on Anthology 3 .)
Paul ended up giving the song to Badfinger, a group that had signed with Apple. [13] Originally known as The Iveys, they hailed from Wales (except for one Liverpudlian), and were talented songwriters in their own right. They went on to a career that was at times very successful, though business and tragic personal problems eventually caused the group to split up.
Paul produced the recording session, on August 2; Badfinger followed the demo closely, [14] and the single became a solid success. This song, with two other Badfinger songs, appeared in the comedy The Magic Christian (released December 1969).
“Come and Get It” was correctly credited to Paul alone.
Rock Of All Ages (Evans, Ham, Gibbins, McCartney)
(recorded on September 18, 1969)
While this song is credited to members of Badfinger, Tom Evans, Pete Ham, and Mike Gibbins, Paul helped develop it. Evans said:
So we started making up a song similar to “Long Tall Sally” in G. We just did the backing track. When it came time to do the vocal I was just floundering over it. He [Paul] started to sing with me and we both kind of made it up. There’s a great take of me and him singing it together. I said, “You’ve got to use that on the record, please use that on the record.” He said, “No, you go down and do it properly.” [15]
No One’s Gonna Change Our World album — various artists, December 12, 1969
Across the Universe — (Lennon)
(lead vocals: John)
(recorded February 4, 8, 1968)
This great song, written back in 1967 during the Sgt. Pepper era, finally sees the light of day. For a full treatment, see the Let It Be album, below.
Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album — Plastic Ono Band, December 12, 1969
The Plastic Ono Band lineup that had recorded “Cold Turkey” performed on September 13, 1969 at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival (but now with Alan White playing drums, instead of Ringo), and this live album of the performance was released. [16] It is arguably the first post-Beatles solo album.
Blue Suede Shoes (Carl Perkins)
Carl Perkins released this rock ’n’ roll standard in 1956, and it was widely covered, including a version by Elvis, also in 1956. The Beatles had performed it as part of a medley during the Get Back sessions, and this can be found on Anthology 3 .
Money (That’s What I Want) (Janie Bradford, Berry Gordy)
See above, With the Beatles .
Dizzy Miss Lizzy (Larry Williams)
See above, Help! .
Yer Blues
See above, White Album .
Cold Turkey
See above, “Cold Turkey” single.
Give Peace a Chance
See above, “Give Peace a Chance” single.
SIDE TWO
Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow) (Yoko Ono)
John, John (Let’s Hope for Peace) (Yoko Ono)
There is no absolute dividing line between the Beatles era and the solo Beatles era. However, one possible point of demarcation is January 4, 1970, which is the last day when the Beatles (minus John, who was on vacation in Denmark) got together at Abbey Road to re-record and add overdubs to “Let It Be” from the Get Back sessions. (The day before, they had re-recorded George’s “I Me Mine.”)
In this book I will use January 4, 1970 as the end of the Beatles era, for practical purposes, though, as we have seen, the Beatles’ solo careers had already begun. John had released Plastic Ono Band recordings before this, and Paul had started recording McCartney in December 1969.
Let It Be had yet to be released, but it had been substantially recorded long before Abbey Road .
In another sense, the Beatles era continued, as songs written and rehearsed during the Beatles heyday continued to appear on the Beatles’ solo albums, and later in important collections such as the three Anthology albums and Let It Be . . . Naked . So I will continue to look at the solo songs that had direct roots in the Beatles era, and new releases of recordings from that time period.
Of course, in another sense, the Beatles era continued in new songs written by the Beatles after the breakup. A careful examination of the Beatle solo albums shows close connections, in quality, subject matter, and aesthetics, between them and the Beatles’ earlier work. I don’t see a sudden disastrous drop-off in content or quality, though there were obvious stylistic changes at times. For me, the dream continued, if we view the dream as the high songwriting skills of the Beatles. Certainly, there have been high and low points, great, good, and bad songs, during the solo Beatles’ career, but we tend to forget that there were great, good and bad songs during the Beatles’ career. John could write “Strawberry Fields,” “I’m Only Sleeping,” as well as“Run for Your Life.” Paul could write “Hey Jude, “Here There Everywhere,” as well as “All Together Now.” George could write “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” on one album, and “For You Blue” and “I Me Mine” on the next.
From this point on, I will consider songs that were written before January 4, 1970, but were released after that date.
This Girl’s In Love With You album — Aretha Franklin, February 21, 1970
Let It Be — (McCartney)
(recorded December 1969)
Possibly the first release of “Let It Be.” [17] See below, “Let it Be / You Know My Name Look Up My Number” single, and the Let It Be album.
Who Wrote the Beatle Songs Page 34