The Beatles, album "Anthology 3"

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The Beatles, album "Anthology 3"

Lyrics of the album - Listen the album

LP - collections - Studio Apple Corps - 1996
stereo: 28.11.1996

Anthology 3

  1. 00:50 A Beginning (George Martin) - 22.07.1968

  2. 02:15 Happiness Is a Warm Gun (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 28.05.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'The idea of 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun' is from an advert in an American paper.
    It said, Happiness is a warm gun, and it was 'Get ready for the long hot summer with a rifle,' you know, 'Come and buy them now!' It was an advert in a gun magazine.
    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.
    And he finishes off, 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun, yes it is.' It's just good poetry.'

    JOHN 1972: 'Thay all said it was about drugs, but it was more about rock 'n roll than drugs.
    It's sort of a history of rock 'n roll… I don't know why people said it was about the needle in heroin.
    I've only seen somebody do something with a needle once, and I don't like to see it at all.'

    JOHN 1980: 'A gun magazine was sitting around and the cover was the picture of a smoking gun.
    The title of the article, which I never read, was 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' I took it right from there.
    I took it as the idea of happiness after having shot somebody.
    Or some animal.'

  3. 04:38 Helter Skelter (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 18.07.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'Umm, that came about just 'cuz I'd read a review of a record which said, 'And this group really got us wild, there's echo on everything, they're screaming their heads off.' And I just remember thinking, 'Oh, it'd be great to do one.
    Pity they've done it.
    Must be great – really screaming record.' And then I heard their record and it was quite straight, and it was very sort of sophisticated.
    It wasn't rough and screaming and tape echo at all.
    So I thought, 'Oh well, we'll do one like that, then.' And I had this song called 'Helter Skelter' which is just a ridiculous song.
    So we did it like that, 'cuz I like noise.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul completely.
    All that (Charles) Manson stuff was built 'round George's song about pigs and this one… Paul's song about an English fairground.
    It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me.'

    PAUL 1985: 'The Who had made some track that was the loudest, the most raucous rock 'n roll, the dirtiest thing they'd ever done.
    It made me think, 'Right.
    Got to do it.' I like that kind of geeking up.
    And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we could.'

  4. 01:58 Mean Mr. Mustard (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.05.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'I'd read somewhere in the newspaper about this mean guy who hid his five-pound notes, not up his nose but 'somewhere else.' No, it had nothing to do with cocaine.'
  5. 01:26 Polythene Pam (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.05.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'That was me, remembering a little event with a woman in Jersey, and a man who was England's answer to Allen Ginsberg, who gave us our first exposure… I met him when we were on tour and he took me back to his apartment, and I had a girl and he had one he wanted me to meet.
    He said she dressed up in polythene, which she did.
    She didn't wear jackboots, and kilts, I just sort of elaborated.
    Perverted sex in a polythene bag – Just looking for something to write about.'
  6. 01:51 Glass Onion (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 28.05.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me, just doing a throwaway song, a la 'Walrus' a la everything I've ever written.
    I threw in the line 'The walrus was Paul' just to confuse everybody a bit more.
    It could've been the fox terrier is Paul, you know.
    I mean, it's just a bit of poetry.
    It was just thrown in like that… The line was put in because I was feeling guilty because I was with Yoko and I was leaving Paul.
    I was trying… I don't know.
    It's a perverse way of saying to Paul, you know, 'Here, have this crumb, this illusion, this stroke, because I'm leaving.'
  7. 02:25 Junk (Paul McCartney) - 28.05.1968

  8. 02:01 Piggies (George Harrison) - 28.05.1968

    GEORGE 1980: ''Piggies' is a social comment.
    I was stuck for one line in the middle until my mother came up with the lyric, 'What they need is a damn good whacking' which is a nice simple way of saying they need a good hiding.
    It needed to rhyme with 'backing,' 'lacking,' and had absolutely nothing to do with American policemen or Californian shagnasties!'

    JOHN 1980: 'I gave George a couple of lines about forks and knives and eating bacon.'

  9. 01:19 Honey Pie (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 28.05.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'My dad's always played fruity old songs like that, you know.
    And I liked 'em.
    I like the melody of old songs, and the lyrics actually as well.
    There's some old lyrics, like, you know – the woman singing about the man, and she's saying something about 'I wanna have his initial on my monogram.' You know what I mean? There's good lyrics and just good thoughts that you don't sort of hear so much these days, you know.
    And so, I would quite like to have been a 1920's writer, 'cuz I like that thing, you know.
    Umm, you know, up in top hat and tails and sort of coming-on to 'em.
    So this kind of number, I like that thing.
    But, uhh… So this is just me doing it, pretending I'm living in 1925.'

    GEORGE 1987: 'John played a brilliant solo on 'Honey Pie' – sounded like Django Reinhardt or something.
    It was one of them where you just close your eyes and happen to hit all the right notes… sounded like a little jazz solo.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I very much liked that old crooner style – the strange fruity voice that they used, so 'Honey Pie' was me writing one of them to an imaginary woman, across the ocean, on the silver screen, who was called Honey Pie.
    It's another of my fantasy songs.
    We put a sound on my voice to make it sound like a scratchy old record.
    So it's not a parody, it's a nod to the vaudville tradition that I was raised on.'

  10. 02:42 Don't Pass Me By (Richard Starkey) - 06.06.1968

    JOHN 1968: 'We've just done two tracks, both unfinished.
    The second one is Ringo's first song that we're working on this very moment.
    He composed it himself in a fit of lithargy.'
  11. 02:56 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 22.07.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'I might've given him a couple of lyrics, but it's his song, his lyric.'

    PAUL 1984: 'A fella who used to hang around the clubs used to say, (Jamaican accent) 'Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on,' and he got annoyed when I did a song of it, 'cuz he wanted a cut.
    I said, 'Come on, Jimmy, it's just an expression.
    If you'd written the song, you could have had a cut.' He also used to say, 'Nothin's too much, just outta sight.' He was just one of those guys who had great expressions, you know.'

  12. 02:38 Good Night (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.07.1968

    RINGO 1968: 'Everybody thinks Paul wrote 'Goodnight' for me to sing, but it was John who wrote it for me.
    He's got a lot of soul, John has.'

    PAUL 1968: 'John wrote it, mainly.
    It's his tune, uhh, which is surprising for John – 'cuz he doesn't normally write this kind of tune.
    It's a very sweet tune, and Ringo sings it great, I think.
    The arrangement was done by George Martin, uhh, 'cuz he's very good at that kind of arrangement, you know – very sort of lush, sweet arrangement.'

    JOHN 1980: ''Good Night' was written for Julian, the way 'Beautiful Boy' was written for Sean… but given to Ringo and possibly overlush.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I think John felt it might not be good for his image for him to sing it, but it was fabulous to hear him do it, he sang it great.
    We heard him sing it in order to teach it to Ringo and he sang it very tenderly.
    John rarely showed his tender side, but my key memories of John are when he was tender, that's what has remained with me – those moments where he showed himself to be a very generous, loving person.
    I always cite that song as an example of the John beneath the surface that we only saw occasionally… I don't think John's version was ever recorded.'

  13. 02:46 Cry Baby Cry (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 11.06.1968

    JOHN 1968: 'I've got another one here… a few words… I think I got them from an advert.
    'Cry baby cry, make your mother BUY.' I've been playing it over and over on the piano.
    I've let it go now, but it will come back if I really want it.
    Sometimes I get up from the piano as if I've been in a trance, and I know I have let a few things slip away which I could have caught had I wanted something.'

    JOHN 1980: 'A piece of rubbish.'

  14. 02:19 Blackbird (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 19.07.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'It's simple in concept because you couldn't think of anything else to put on it.
    Maybe on 'Pepper' we would have sort of worked on it until we could find some way to put violins or trumpets in there.
    But I don't think it needs it, this one.
    You know, it's just… There's nothing to the song.
    It is just one of those 'pick it and sing it' and that's it.
    The only point where we were thinking of putting anything on it is where it comes back in the end… sort of stops and comes back in… but instead of putting any backing on it, we put a blackbird on it.
    So there's a blackbird singing at the very end.
    And somebody said it was a thrush, but I think it's a blackbird!'

    JOHN 1980: 'I gave him (Paul) a line on that one.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'The original inspiration was from a well-known piece by Bach, which I never know the title of, which George and I had learned to play at an early age – he better than me actually.
    Part of its structure is a particular harmonic thing between the melody and the bass line which intrigued me… I developed the melody based on the Bach piece and took it somewhere else, took it to another level, then I just fitted words to it.
    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.'

  15. 04:07 Sexy Sadie (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 25.07.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'That was inspired by Maharishi.
    I wrote it when we had our bags packed and we're leaving.
    It was the last piece I wrote before I left India.
    I just called him, 'Sexy Sadie,' instead of (sings) 'Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool…' I was just using the situation to write a song, rather calculatingly but also to express what I felt.
    I was leaving the Maharishi with a bad taste.
    You know, it seems that my partings are always not as nice as I'd like them to be.'
  16. 03:28 While My Guitar Gently Weeps (George Harrison) - 29.07.1968

    GEORGE 1980: 'I had a copy of the I Ching – the Book of Changes, which seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental.
    The idea was in my head when I visited my parents' home in the North of England.
    I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book – as it would be relative to that moment, at that time.
    I picked up a book at random, opened it – saw 'gently weeps' – than laid the book down again and started the song.
    Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it.'

    GEORGE 1987: 'I worked on that song with John, Paul, and Ringo one day, and they were not interested in it at all.
    And I knew inside of me that it was a nice song.
    The next day I was with Eric Clapton, and I was going into the session, and I said, 'We're going to do this song.
    Come and play on it.' He said, 'Oh no.
    I can't do that.
    Nobody ever plays on the Beatles records.' I said, 'Look, it's my song, and I want you to play on it.' So Eric came in, and the other guys were as good as gold – because he was there.
    Also, it left me free to just play the rhythm and do the vocal.
    So Eric played that, and I thought it was really good.
    Then we listened to it back, and he said, 'Ah, there's a problem though; it's not Beatley enough.' So we put it through the ADT (automatic double-track) to wobble it up a bit.'

  17. 04:21 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 12.08.1968

    JOHN 1968: 'Well, when Paul first sang 'Hey Jude' to me… or played me the little tape he'd made of it… I took it very personally.
    'Ah, it's me,' I said, 'It's me.' He says, 'No, it's me.' I said, 'Check.
    We're going through the same bit.' So we all are.
    Whoever is going through a bit with us is going through it, that's the groove.'

    JOHN 1972: 'That's his best song.'

    PAUL 1974: 'I remember I played it to John and Yoko, and I was saying, 'These words won't be on the finished version.' Some of the words were: 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' and John was saying, 'It's great!' I'm saying, 'It's crazy, it doesn't make any sense at all.' He's saying, 'Sure it does, it's great.''

    JOHN 1980: 'He said it was written about Julian.
    He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian then.
    He was driving to see Julian to say hello.
    He had been like an uncle.
    And he came up with 'Hey Jude.' But I always heard it as a song to me.
    Now I'm sounding like one of those fans reading things into it… Think about it: Yoko had just come into the picture.
    He is saying.
    'Hey, Jude' – 'Hey, John.' Subconsciously, he was saying, 'Go ahead, leave me.' On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead.
    The angel in him was saying, 'Bless you.' The devil in him didn't like it at all, because he didn't want to lose his partner.'

    PAUL 1985: 'I remember on 'Hey Jude' telling George not to play guitar.
    He wanted to do echo riffs after the vocal phrases, which I didn't think was appropriate.
    He didn't see it like that, and it was a bit of a number for me to have to 'dare' to tell George Harrison – who's one of the greats – not to play.
    It was like an insult.
    But that's how we did alot of our stuff.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'There is an amusing story about recording it… Ringo walked out to go to the toilet and I hadn't noticed.
    The toilet was only a few yards from his drum booth, but he'd gone past my back and I still thought he was in his drum booth.
    I started what was the actual take – and 'Hey Jude' goes on for hours before the drums come in – and while I was doing it I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums.
    And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was absolutely impeccable.'

  18. 03:22 Not Guilty (George Harrison) - 09.08.1968

  19. 03:17 Mother Nature's Son (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 26.09.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'It says 'Born a poor young country boy' and I was born in Woolton hospital actually – so it's a dirty lie.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Paul.
    That was from a lecture of Maharishi where he was talking about nature, and I had a piece called 'I'm Just A Child Of Nature,' which turned into 'Jealous Guy' years later.
    Both inspired from the same lecture of Maharishi.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I seem to remember writing 'Mother Nature's Son' at my dad's house in Liverpool… I've always loved the song called, 'Nature Boy' …'Mother Nature's Son' was inspired by that song.
    I'd always loved nature, and when Linda and I got together we discovered we had this deep love of nature in common.
    There might have been a little help from John with some of the verses.

  20. 02:08 Glass Onion (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 15.08.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me, just doing a throwaway song, a la 'Walrus' a la everything I've ever written.
    I threw in the line 'The walrus was Paul' just to confuse everybody a bit more.
    It could've been the fox terrier is Paul, you know.
    I mean, it's just a bit of poetry.
    It was just thrown in like that… The line was put in because I was feeling guilty because I was with Yoko and I was leaving Paul.
    I was trying… I don't know.
    It's a perverse way of saying to Paul, you know, 'Here, have this crumb, this illusion, this stroke, because I'm leaving.'
  21. 04:13 Rocky Raccoon (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 14.08.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'I was sitting on the roof in India with a guitar – John and I were sitting 'round playing guitar, and we were with Donovan.
    And we were just sitting around enjoying ourselves, and I started playing the chords of 'Rocky Raccoon,' you know, just messing around.
    And, oh, originally it was Rocky Sassoon, and we just started making up the words, you know, the three of us – and started just to write them down.
    They came very quickly.
    And eventually I changed it from Sassoon to Raccoon, because it sounded more like a cowboy.
    So there it is.
    These kind of things – you can't really talk about how they come 'cuz they just come into your head, you know.
    They really do.
    And it's like John writing his books.
    There's no… I don't know how he does it, and he doesn't know how he does it, but he just writes.
    I think people who actually do create and write… you tend to think, 'Oh, how did he do that,' but it actually does flow… just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down, you know.
    And that's what happened with this.
    I don't know anything about the Appalachian mountains or cowboys and indians or anything.
    But I just made it up, you know.
    And the doctor came in stinking of gin and proceeded to lie on the table.
    So, there you are.'

    PAUL circa-1994: '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.
    The bit I liked about it was him (Rocky) finding Gideon's Bible and thinking, 'Some guy called Gideon must have left it for the next guy.' I like the idea of Gideon being a character.
    You get the meaning, and at the same time get in a poke at it.
    All in good fun.'

  22. 06:12 What's the New Mary Jane (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.09.1968

  23. 02:31 Step Inside Love / Los Paranoias (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Medley - 08.10.1968

  24. 02:14 I'm So Tired (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.09.1968

    JOHN 1980: ''I'm So Tired' was me, in India again.
    I couldn't sleep, I'm meditating all day and couldn't sleep at night.
    The story is that.
    One of my favorite tracks.
    I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well.'

    PAUL circa-1994: '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 who wrote it.
    I think it's 100 percent John.'

  25. 01:55 I Will (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 09.10.1968

    PAUL 1968: 'We're not just completely rock & roll.
    We're not just completely one kind of group.
    'Cuz like, when we played in Hamburg, we didn't just do rock all evening 'cuz we had to have these sort of fat old businessmen coming in and saying… (jokingly) or THIN old businessmen, as well, were coming in and saying 'Play a mambo.
    Can you do a rhumba?' And we couldn't just keep saying no, you know, so we had to get into mambos and rhumbas a bit.
    So this kind of thing is like a pretty sort of smootchy ballad – 'I Will.' I don't know if it's getting off the subject, but that's why there's great variety in this LP – 'cuz in everything we do, you know, we just haven't got one bag, you know.
    And 'cuz on one hand you'll get something like 'I Will' and then you'll get 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road,' you know.
    Just completely different things – completely different feelings… But it's me singing both of them.
    It's the same fella.
    Uhh, and I've wrote both of them, you know.
    So you can't explain it.
    I don't know why I do 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' shouting it like that… and then do this sort of smootchy laughing American 'Girl From Ipenema.''

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I was doing a song, 'I Will,' that I had as a melody for quite a long time but I didn't have lyrics to it.
    I remember sitting around (in India) with Donovan, and maybe a couple of other people.
    We were just sitting around one evening after our day of meditation and I played him this one and he liked it, and we were trying to write some words.
    We kicked around a few lyrics, something about the moon, but they weren't very satisfactory and I thought the melody was better than the words… 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 and I think this is one of them – quite a complete tune.'

  26. 02:15 Why Don't We Do It in the Road? (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 13.10.1968

    JOHN 1972: 'Paul.
    One of his best.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul.
    He even recorded it by himself in another room.
    That's how it was getting in those days.
    We came in, and he'd made the whole record.
    Him drumming, him playing the piano, him singing.
    But he couldn't… maybe he couldn't make the break from the Beatles.
    I don't know what it was, you know.
    I enjoyed the track.
    Still I can't speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us.
    But that's just the way it was then.'

    PAUL 1981: 'There's only one incident I can think of, which John has publically mentioned.
    It was when I went off with Ringo and did 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road.' It wasn't a deliberate thing, John and George were tied up finishing something, and me and Ringo were free, just hanging around, so I said to Ringo, 'Let's go and do this.' I did hear John some time later singing it.
    He liked the song, and I suppose he wanted to do it with me.
    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.'

  27. 01:58 Julia (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 23.01.1969

    JOHN 1972: 'Me.
    Yoko helped me with this one.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Julia was my mother.
    But it was sort of a combination of Yoko and my mother blended into one.
    That was written in India… We wrote tons of songs in India.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'The interesting thing for me on 'Julia' is the finger-picking (guitar) style.
    He learned to fingerpick off Donovan or Gypsy Dave… That was John's song about his mum, folk finger-picking style, and a very good song.'

  28. 02:49 I've Got a Feeling (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 22.01.1969

    PAUL 1969: (describing a guitar lick for the middle-eight, during the recording sessions) 'It's coming down too fast – the note.
    There shouldn't be any recognizable jumps.
    Falling… Falling…'
  29. 03:37 She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 22.01.1969

    GEORGE 1969: 'A very strange song of Paul's with terrific lyrics, but it's hard to explain what they're all about.'

    JOHN 1980: 'He wrote that when we were in New York announcing Apple and we first met Linda.
    Maybe she's the one that came in the window.'

  30. 04:18 Dig a Pony (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 24.01.1969

    JOHN 1972: 'I was just having fun with words.
    It was literally a nonsense song.
    You just take words and you stick them together, and you see if they have any meaning.
    Some of them do and some of them don't.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Another piece of garbage.'

  31. 03:27 Two of Us (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 25.01.1969

    PAUL AND GEORGE 1969: (arguing during the recording of the song 'Two Of Us')

    PAUL: 'It's complicated now.
    We can get it simpler, and then complicate it where it needs complications.'

    GEORGE: 'It's not complicated.'

    PAUL: 'This one is like, shall we play guitars through 'Hey Jude' …well, I don't think we should.'

    GEORGE: 'Ok well I don't mind… I'll play, you know, whatever you want me to play, or I wont play at all if you don't want to me to play.
    Whatever it is that will please you… I'll do it!'

    JOHN: 'I wish that we could start hearing the tapes now.
    Like – Do it, and then hear what it is.
    Is it just 'cuz we don't feel like it, or is it 'Does the guitar sound alright, really.''

    JOHN 1969: (ad-libbing during the recording sessions) ''Two of us wearing postcards.''

  32. 02:23 For You Blue (George Harrison) - 25.01.1969

    GEORGE 1980: ''For You Blue' is a simple twelve-bar song following all the normal twelve-bar principles, except that it's happy-go-lucky!'
  33. 03:18 Teddy Boy (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 26.01.1969

  34. 03:11 Rip It Up / Shake, Rattle and Roll / Blue Suede Shoes (Robert Blackwell and John Marascalco) - Medley - 26.01.1969

  35. 03:42 The Long and Winding Road (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 27.01.1969

    PAUL 1970: 'The album was finished a year ago, but a few months ago American record producer Phil Spector was called in by John Lennon to tidy up some of the tracks.
    But a few weeks ago, I was sent a re-mixed version of my song 'The Long And Winding Road' with harps, horns, an orchestra, and a women's choir added.
    No one had asked me what I thought.
    I couldn't believe it.
    The record came with a note from Allen Klein saying he thought the changes were necessary.
    I don't blame Phil Spector for doing it, but it just goes to show that it's no good me sitting here thinking I'm in control because obviously I'm not.
    Anyway, I've sent Klein a letter asking for some things to be altered, but I haven't received an answer yet.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Paul again.
    He had a little spurt just before we split.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'It's rather a sad song.
    I like writing sad songs, it's a good bag to get into because you can actually acknowledge some deeper feelings of your own and put them in it.
    It's a good vehicle, it saves having to go to a psychiatrist.
    Songwriting often performs that feat – you say it, but you don't embarrass yourself because it's only a song, or is it? You are putting the things that are bothering you on the table and you are reviewing them, but because it's a song, you don't have to argue with anyone… It's a sad song because it's all about the unattainable; the door you never quite reach.
    This is the road that you never get to the end of.'

  36. 04:07 Oh! Darling (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 25.02.1969

    JOHN 1980: ''Oh! Darling' was a great one of Paul's that he didn't sing too well.
    I always thought that I could've done it better – it was more my style than his.
    He wrote it, so what the hell, he's going to sing it.
    If he'd had any sense he should have let me sing it.' (laughs)

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I mainly remember wanting to get the vocal right, wanting to get it good, and I ended up trying each morning as I came into the recording session.
    I tried it with a hand mike, and I tried it with a standing mike, I tried it every which way, and finally got the vocal I was reasonably happy with.
    It's a bit of a belter and if it comes off lukewarm then you've missed the whole point.
    It was unusual for me – I would normally try all the goes at a vocal in one day.'

  37. 03:05 All Things Must Pass (George Harrison) - 29.01.1969

  38. 01:56 Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues (Ruth Roberts, Bill Katz and Stanley Clayton) - 30.01.1969

  39. 03:09 Get Back (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 27.01.1969

    PAUL 1969: 'We were sitting in the studio and we made it up out of thin air.
    We started to write words there and then… When we finished it, we recorded it at Apple Studios and made it into a song to rollercoast by.'

    JOHN 1980: ''Get Back' is Paul.
    That's a better version of 'Lady Madonna.' You know, a potboiler rewrite.'

  40. 03:03 Old Brown Shoe (George Harrison) - 26.04.1969

  41. 02:49 Octopus's Garden (Richard Starkey) - 09.07.1969

    GEORGE 1969: ''Octopus's Garden' is Ringo's song.
    It's only the second song Ringo has ever written, mind you, and it's lovely.
    Ringo gets bored with just playing drums all the time, so at home he sometimes plays a bit of piano, but unfortunately he only knows about three chords.
    He knows about the same on guitar too.
    This song gets very deep into your consciousness, though because it's so peaceful.
    I suppose Ringo is writing cosmic songs these days without even realizing it.'

    RINGO 1981: 'He (a ship captain) told me all about octopuses – how they go 'round the sea bed and pick up stones and shiny objects and build gardens.
    I thought, 'How fabulous!' because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea, too.
    I wanted to get out of it for a while.'

  42. 03:50 Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 25.02.1969

    GEORGE 1969: 'The song 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' is one of Paul's which we've been trying to record for ages.
    It's one of those instant whistle-along tunes which some people hate, and other people really like.
    It's a fun song, but it's kinda sick because Maxwell keeps on killing everyone.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''Maxwell's Silver Hammer' is my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life.
    I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer.
    I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer.
    It was needed for scanning.
    We still use that expression now when something unexpected happens.'

  43. 03:19 Something (George Harrison) - 21.07.1969

    PAUL 1969: 'I like George's song 'Something.' For me I think it's the best he's written.'

    GEORGE 1969: 'I wrote the song 'Something' for the album before this one, but I never finished it off until just recently.
    I usually get the first few lines of words and music together, both at once… and then finish the rest of the melody.
    Then I have to write the words.
    It's like another song I wrote when we were in India.
    I wrote the whole first verse and just said everything I wanted to say, and so now I need to write a couple more verses.
    I find that much more difficult.
    But John gave me a handy tip.
    He said, 'Once you start to write a song, try to finish it straight away while you're still in the same mood.' Sometimes you go back to it and you're in a whole different state of mind.
    So now, I do try to finish them straight away.'

    GEORGE 1980: ''Something' was written on the paino while we were making the White Album.
    I had a break while Paul was doing some overdubbing so I went into an empty studio and began to write.
    That's really all there is to it, except the middle took some time to sort out.
    It didn't go on the White Album because we'd already finished all the tracks.'

  44. 03:40 Come Together (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 24.07.1969

    PAUL 1969: 'On the new album I like 'Come Together,' which is a great one of John's.'

    JOHN 1980: ''Come Together' is me – writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing.
    I left the line 'Here comes old flat-top.' It is nothing like the Chuck Berry song, but they took me to court because I admitted the influence once years ago.
    I could have changed it to 'Here comes old iron face,' but the song remains independent of Chuck Berry or anybody else on earth.
    The thing was created in the studio.
    It's gobbledygook – 'Come Together' was an expression that Tim Leary had come up with for his attempt at being president or whatever he wanted to be, and he asked me to write a campaign song.
    I tried and I tried, but I couldn't come up with one.
    But I came up with this, 'Come Together,' which would've been no good to him – you couldn't have a campaign song like that, right? Leary attacked me years later, saying I ripped him off.
    I didn't rip him off.
    It's just that it turned into 'Come Together.' What am I going to do, give it to him? It was a funky record – it's one of my favorite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favorite Lennon tracks, let's say that.
    It's funky, it's bluesy, and I'm singing it pretty well.
    I like the sound of the record.
    You can dance to it.
    I'll buy it!' (laughs)

  45. 02:30 Come and Get It (Paul McCartney) - 24.07.1969

  46. 02:08 Ain't She Sweet (Milton Ager and Jack Yellen) - 22.06.1961

  47. 02:24 Because (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 25.01.1969

    PAUL 1969: 'I like John's 'Because' on the second side.
    To say, 'Because the world is round it turns me on' is great.
    And 'Because the wind is high it blows my mind''

    GEORGE 1969: 'I think my favorite one on the album is 'Because.' The lyrics are uncomplicated… but the harmony was actually pretty difficult to sing.
    I think it's one of those tunes that will definitely impress most people.'

    JOHN 1980: 'I was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' on the piano.
    Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them.
    The song sounds like 'Moonlight Sonata,' too.
    The lyrics are clear, no bullshit, no imagery, no obscure references.'

  48. 04:05 Let It Be (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 03.01.1970

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul… I think it was inspired by 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.' That's my feeling, although I have nothing to go on.
    I know he wanted to write a 'Bridge Over Troubled Water.''

    PAUL 1986: 'I had alot of bad times in the '60s.
    We used to lie in bed and wonder what was going on and feel quite paranoid.
    Probably all the drugs.
    I had a dream one night about my mother.
    She died when I was fourteen so I hadn't really heard from her in quite a while, and it was very good.
    It gave me some strength.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'One night during this tense time I had a dream I saw my mum, who'd been dead ten years or so.
    And it was great to see her because that's a wonderful thing about dreams, you actually are reunited with that person for a second… In the dream she said, 'It'll be alright.' I'm not sure if she used the words 'Let it be' but that was the gist of her advice, it was 'Don't worry too much, it will turn out okay.' 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.'

  49. 01:48 I Me Mine (George Harrison) - 18.08.1969

    GEORGE 1980: ''I Me Mine' is the ego problem.
    I looked around and everything I could see was relative to my ego.
    You know, like 'that's my piece of paper,' and 'that's my flannel,' or 'give it to me,' or 'I am.' It drove me crackers – I hated everything about my ego – it was a flash of everything false and impermanent which I disliked.
    But later I learned from it – to realize that there is somebody else in here apart from old blabbermouth.
    'Who am I' became the order of the day.
    Anyway, that's what came out of it: 'I Me Mine' …it's about the ego, the eternal problem.'
  50. 02:53 The End (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 18.08.1969

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul again, the unfinished song, right? Just a piece at the end.
    He had a line in it, (sings) 'And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make,' which is a very cosmic, philosophical line – which again proves that if he wants to, he can think.'

    PAUL 1988: 'Ringo would never do drum solos.
    He hated drummers who did lengthy drum solos.
    We all did.
    And when he joined the Beatles we said, 'Ah, what about drum solos then?' and he said, 'I hate 'em!' We said, 'Great! We love you!' And so he would never do them.
    But because of this medley I said, 'Well, a token solo?' and he really dug his heels in and didn't want to do it.
    But after a little bit of gentle persuasion I said, '…it wouldn't be Buddy Rich gone mad,' because I think that's what he didn't want to do.
    … anyway we came to this compromise, it was a kind of a solo.
    I don't think he's done one since.'