Who Wrote the Beatle Songs
Page 35
“Ain’t That Cute / Vaya Con Dios” single — Doris Troy, February 13, 1970
Ain’t That Cute (Harrison-Troy)
George wrote this with soul singer Doris Troy, best known for the song, “Just One Look.” She had come to England to live, and George signed her to Apple and helped with her album, Doris Troy . [18] He said,
We did her single, “Ain’t That Cute,” which we wrote in the studio, actually. This is a good exercise because . . . I wouldn’t consider going in there and just making it up on the spot, which is what we did with “Ain’t That Cute.” We didn’t have a song, so we made it up, and I just pinched the chords from (Leon Russell’s) “Delta Lady” and away I went. We wrote that, and it’s very nice, with Pete Frampton playing guitar. [19]
The album, Doris Troy , was recorded during the Beatles era, mid-1969 to end of the year.
Vaya Con Dios (Larry Russell, Inez James, Buddy Pepper)
“Let It Be / You Know My Name Look Up My Number” single, March 6, 1970
Let It Be — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded January 31, April 30, 1969, January 4, 1970, March 26, 1970)
“Let It Be,” written during the White Album sessions, [20] was another song that came from a dream. Paul experienced dark, paranoid times in the late sixties, caused by drugs, the breakup of his working relationship with John (in part due to John’s relationship with Yoko), and the looming bitter breakup of the Beatles and the accompanying business and legal problems.
Paul had always been close to his mother, Mary Patricia Mohin McCartney, who had died in 1956, when Paul was fourteen. More than a decade later, as the Beatles were approaching their breakup, as emotionally painful and catastrophic as a divorce, Paul had a dream and “saw my mum, who’d been dead ten years or so.” They talked, and to Paul, he and she seemed “to both be physically together again. It was so wonderful for me.” She might not have said “let it be,” but she was very reassuring. Things would work out. “It was such a sweet dream I woke up thinking, Oh, it was really great to visit with her again. I felt very blessed to have that dream. So that got me writing the song “Let It Be.” I literally started off “Mother Mary,” which was her name.” [21]
Paul wrote the song as therapy: “Writing the song was my way of exorcizing the ghosts.” [22]
Both Paul and John ascribed this song to Paul. [23] In 1980, John said, “That’s Paul. . . . Nothing to do with the Beatles, no, it could’ve been Wings, right? . . . I don’t know what he’s thinking when he writes ‘Let It Be.’” [24] This comment parallels John’s contention that the real Beatle breakup happened before the White album.
Mal Evans has a severely revisionist account of this song’s writing, in which Paul saw him in a dream, and changed the lyrics to “mother Mary.” [25] This must be rejected in favor of Paul’s strong, consistent testimony through the years.
The Beatles started performing “Let It Be” during the Get Back sessions, on January 3, 1969. The master recording was made on January 31. George Harrison added overdub solos on April 30, 1969 (used for the single release) and January 4, 1970 (used for the album release). The single version of the song was produced by George Martin, with Paul’s help, and included orchestrations and overdubs, also added on January 4. [26] This single version can be found on Past Masters 2 .
Later, on March 26, 1970, Phil Spector added more orchestration and used only George’s January 4, 1970 solo. This version appeared on the album.
For the first release of “Let it Be,” see above, Aretha Franklin’s This Girl’s In Love With You album.
You Know My Name (Look Up My Number) — (Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey)
(lead vocals: John and Paul) (recorded from May 17, 1967 to April 30, 1969)
During the Sgt. Pepper era, John was at Paul’s house one day, and saw a phone book on the piano. Prominently displayed was the phrase, “You know the name, look up the number.” John took that sentence home and began to write a song around it, changing the words slightly. It was intended to be a rhythm and blues, Four Tops kind of tune, but it never developed into a finished song. [27] In fact, John apparently added no lyrics to the one phrase, instead repeating it over and over.
Paul remembered John coming to the studio with a new song, and Paul asked him, “‘What’s the words?” And John said, “You know my name look up my number.” Paul asked: “What’s the rest of it?” “No, no other words, those are the words. And I wanna do it like a mantra!” [28] Paul described it as “originally . . . a fifteen-minute chant” brought in by John “when he was in space-cadet mode.” [29]
So during the Sgt. Pepper period, the Beatles began to rehearse and record this song. They never turned it into an actual rhythm and blues song. Instead, it became, “a comedy record,” in the Goon Show spirit, and, John explained, “We made a joke of it.” [30]
First, they recorded the backing. “and we did these mad backings,” said John. [31] The first recording, mostly backing, took place on May 17, 1967. Paul called this song “probably my favorite Beatles track” because of all the memories connected with it, such as Mal Evans shoveling gravel (as a “rhythmic device”) and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones playing sax (which he did not know how to play). [32] Paul remembered it as a song that they kept trying over and over and never quite getting it right, but “we had these endless, crazy fun sessions.”
A master edit of the backing was done on June 9, 1967, but vocals and many special effects were not added till two years later, on April 30, 1969. Engineer Nick Webb remembered Paul and John singing together around one microphone. [33] Paul remembered, “And eventually we pulled it all together and I sang [sings in a jazzy style ] “You know my name . . .” and we just did a skit, Mal and his gravel. . . . And it was just so hilarious to put that record together.”
John considered releasing this as a Plastic Ono Band record, and cut it from six to four minutes, [34] but the song finally appeared as a Beatles song, a B-side, a remarkable contrast to the A-side, “Let it Be.”
John often claimed this. [35] In 1969, he said, “There was another song I wrote around ‘Pepper’ time that’s still in the can, called ‘You Know My Name Look Up The Number.’ . . . But I never finished it, and I must.” [36] However, in 1980, he said, “That was a piece of unfinished music that I turned into a comedy record with Paul.” [37] Based on this statement, and Paul’s substantial contributions, such as the parodic lounge singing, he deserves secondary credit. John definitely was the main writer, though.
McCartney album — Paul McCartney, April 17, 1970
This album is part of the “Beatles to solo album” transitional period. Some of the songs were written during the middle Beatles period (in India), and were performed during the Get Back sessions. Two are even of pre-Beatles vintage. Other songs were written (or improvised) in late 1969 or early 1970.
The first songs were recorded at Cavendish, on Paul’s newly-installed four-track recorder, from December 1969 to January 1970. On February 12th, 1970, Paul recorded two songs (“Kreen-Akrore” and “Suicide”) at Morgan Studios, in Willesden Green, London, and added overdubs to his home tapes. Then he recorded three songs at Abbey Road, “Every Night,” and “Maybe I’m Amazed” on February 22, 1970, and “Man We Was Lonely” on February 25. [38]
Three of these songs (such as “Man We Was Lonely,” “Ooh You” and “Kreen-Akrore”) were written/improvised after my January 4, 1970 cutoff date, but I will look at all the cuts on the album, as the exact recording or songwriting dates are not known for all of them.
These songs are all accepted as written by Paul, as they were released on a McCartney solo album.
The Lovely Linda
This was a song from Paul’s and Linda’s early time together, so it was possibly written in 1968. (They met on May 15, 1967, but started a serious relationship about a year later.) It was written in Scotland. [39]
While Paul at first thought he would “finish” this song, it remains as a fragment
. [40] As such, this, and other songs on this album, continued the aesthetics of the song fragment as found in the White Album (“Can You Take Me Back,” “Wild Honey Pie”) and Abbey Road .
That Would Be Something
This was written in Scotland in 1969. [41]
Valentine Day
This instrumental was improvised and recorded at home. Paul explained:
Made up as I went along — acoustic guitar first, then drums (maybe drums were first). Anyway — electric guitar and bass were added and the track is all instrumental. . . . This one and Momma Miss America were ad-libbed with more concern for testing the machine than anything else. [42]
Every Night
Paul had the first two lines of this song for a few years before this album. He played an unfinished version of it during the Get Back sessions, on January 22 and 24, 1969. [43] In June 1969, while on holiday in Benitses, Greece, he developed it further. The finished product reflects his depression at the breakup of the Beatles and his newfound love for Linda.
Hot as Sun/Glasses
“Hot as Sun” was a very early song — Paul said he wrote it in 1958, 1959 or “maybe earlier.” [44] It was “one of those songs that you play now and then,” he said. [45] He performed “Hot as Sun” during the Get Back sessions, [46] recorded this version at home, then added the middle at Morgan Studio.
Sulpy and Schweighardt suggest that it had a Polynesian inspiration, and was part of a musical movement that looked to exotic music during the 1950s. [47]
Paul said, of “Glasses,” “Wine glasses played at random and overdubbed on top of each other.”
Suicide
An eight-second fragment of “Suicide,” not listed on the album credits, follows “Glasses.” Paul explained, “the end [of “Glasses”] is a section of a song called Suicide — not yet completed.”
This song was written when Paul was a teenager, and a version was recorded during the Get Back sessions. [48] The mature Paul, in 1995, had no fondness for the song. “It was murder! Horrible song! But you had to go through all those styles to discover your own. I only had one verse, so I cobbled together another.” [49]
Paul sent the song to Frank Sinatra in 1974, but the singer rejected it.
Apparently he thought it was an almighty piss-take . . . I think he couldn’t grasp it was tongue in check. It was only supposed to be a play on the word ‘suicide,’ not the actual physical suicide. . . . Looking back on it I’m quite relieved he did [reject it], actually, it wasn’t a good song, it was just a teenage thought. [50]
Paul performed it on TV in 1999, but the complete song was not officially released until it appeared as a bonus track on the remastered special edition of McCartney in 2011. [51]
Junk
Paul wrote this song, originally entitled “Jubilee,” in India, [52] and played it as one of the Esher demos in May 1968. This performance can be heard on Anthology 3 . He completed it gradually in London during the White Album recordings, [53] and played it during the Get Back sessions. [54] He remembered, “‘Junk’ was intended for Abbey Road , but something happened.” [55]
Man We Was Lonely
This was written fairly late, and is definitely of post-January 4 songwriting vintage. Paul said, “The chorus (‘Man We Was Lonely’) was written in bed at home shortly before we finished recording the album. The middle (‘I used to ride...’) was done one lunchtime in a great hurry as we were due to record the song that afternoon. Linda sings harmony on this song which is our first duet together.” [56]
SIDE TWO
Oo You
Paul said, in 1970, “This, like ‘Man We Was Lonely,’ was given lyrics one day after lunch just before we left for Morgan Studios, where it was finished that afternoon.”
Momma Miss America
According to Paul, this was “An instrumental recorded completely at home. Made up as I went along — first a sequence of chords, then a melody on top. Piano, drums, acoustic guitar, electric guitar. Originally it was two pieces but they ran into each other by accident and became one.”
Teddy Boy
Paul wrote this in India, [57] and it was repeatedly rehearsed during the Get Back sessions. [58] Glyn Johns included it in some of the Get Back lineups. A version edited from two Get Back performances appeared on Anthology 3 . Paul explained, “On the new Anthology we do ‘Teddy Boy’ which was considered as a Beatles song but we never got around to it.’ [59]
Singalong Junk
Maybe I’m Amazed
This was written in 1969, as a tribute to Linda. Paul said, in 1970, “Written in London, at the piano, with the second verse added slightly later, as if you cared.” Later, asked if the song was written for McCartney , Paul replied, “Yeah, that was very much a song of the period.” [60]
Kreen-Akrore
This experimental track sounds odd, but the explanation, by Paul, is even odder.
On February 11, 1970, the BBC aired The Tribe That Hides from Man , by Adrian Cowell, a documentary about the Kreen-Akrore Indians, living in the Brazilian rainforest. [61] Paul and Linda watched it, and decided to create an experimental percussion track based on how the Kreen-Akrore Indians hunted. Paul did drumming, then later added piano, guitar, organ, voices, the sounds of running, animal noises, an arrow sound, “then animals stampeding across a guitar case.” The McCartneys even built a fire in the studio, though they ended up not using this sound. But they did include the “sound of the twigs breaking.”
Since none of this was explained in the liner notes to McCartney , virtually all listeners simply listened with incomprehension to the last song on this remarkable album, as I did many years ago.
Let It Be album, May 8, 1970
Two of Us — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded January 24 to 31, 1969)
This was written during one of Paul’s and Linda’s wandering trips through the countryside. They would put Martha in the back seat and drive out of London. “Let’s get lost,” Linda would say, and they would stop looking at signs and drive at random. They’d try to find beautiful, isolated places to stop, then just do nothing.
Well, not entirely nothing. Paul had his guitar with him, and he began writing “Two of Us” on one of these trips. “Hence the line in the song, ‘Two of us going nowhere,’” said Linda. “Paul wrote that on one of those days out.” [62]
Linda took a picture of him — with a day’s growth of stubble, sitting in the driver’s seat with open door, playing his guitar. Paul said “Two of Us” was a favorite song of his because it reminded him of those days, “getting together with Linda, and the wonderfully free attitude we were able to have, I had my guitar with me and I wrote it out on the road, and then maybe finished some of the verses at home later, but that picture is of me writing it.” [63]
The authorship of the song is straightforward enough, it seems. John, in 1971 ascribed it to Paul. [64] But then in the 1980 Playboy interviews, Lennon is reported as saying, about this song, “Mine.” [65] And Ringo remembered John bringing the song to the sessions. “When John brought it in, he called it ‘On Our Way Home.’ And when we’d finished with it in the studio it became ‘Two Of Us.’” [66]
However, Beatle historian Donald Sauter checked the original tapes of the Playboy interview, and concluded that the word “Mine” is actually not present in the interview. Sheff asked about ‘Don’t Let Me Down,’ to which Lennon responded, “That’s me, singing about Yoko….” Then Sheff asked about “Two of Us,” but Lennon, disregarding “Two of Us,” continued talking about “Don’t Let Me Down”: “. . . which Rod Stewart took note for note and turned into (singing) “Maggie don’t go-o-o”, some girl’s name, “Maggie don’t go-o-o” . That’s one the publishers never noticed.” [67] This is consistent with Lennon’s 1971 ascription of “Two of Us” directly to Paul. Sauter also notes that in the Get Back sessions, Paul teaches the song to the other Beatles, and takes the lead in rehearsing it. [68]
This leaves Ringo as the odd man out on th
is song! He was undoubtedly simply confused, if the interview was transcribed correctly.
Paul brought the song to the session thinking of it as a rock song with electric guitars. This kind of performance is captured in the Let It Be movie. But Glyn Johns suggested acoustic guitars, and this inspired suggestion was eventually adopted. [69]
Dig a Pony — (Lennon)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded January 22 to 30, 1969)
Lennon brought this as a song fragment at the beginning of the Twickenham sessions, and improvised the lyrics. Beatles historian Peter Doggett writes:
The song’s lyrics were, as Lennon conceded, ‘interchangeable,’ and when serious rehearsals resumed at Apple on 22 January, he admitted that he was inspired less by the meaning of the words than by their sounds: ‘Lots of d’s and b’s.’ When Harrison queried the order of the verses, Lennon admitted, ‘I just make it up as I go along,’ and he continued to do so even as the final version of the song was being taped on the Apple rooftop a week later. [70]
John had no high opinion of the song: “Another piece of garbage,” he said in 1980. [71]
The chorus is from a separate song about Yoko called ‘All I Want Is You.’ [72]
John claimed this. “Yeah, I was just having fun with words. It was literally a nonsense song,” he said in 1972. [73] Paul agreed. Miles/McCartney wrote, “Paul had no input on ‘Dig a Pony,’ which was entirely John’s.” [74]
Across the Universe — (Lennon)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded February 4, 8, 1968, October 2, 1969, April 1, 1970)