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The Beatles, album ""

Lyrics of the album - Listen the album

Concert videos - Studio Capitol Records - 2015
CD: 06.11.2015

  1. 02:03 Twist And Shout (Bert Russell and Phil Medley) - 11.02.1963

    JOHN 1963: 'I always hate singing the song, 'Twist And Shout' when there's a colored artist on the bill with us.
    It doesn't seem right, you know.
    I feel sort of embarrassed… It makes me curl up.
    I always feel they could do the song much better than me.'

    JOHN 1971: 'The more interesting songs to me were the black ones because they were more simple.
    They sort of said shake-your-arse, or your prick, which was an innovation really.
    The blacks were singing directly and immediately about their pain, and also about sex, which is why I like it.'

    JOHN 1976: 'The last song nearly killed me.
    My voice wasn't the same for a long time after – everytime I swallowed it was like sandpaper.
    I was always bitterly ashamed of it because I could sing it better than that, but now it doesn't bother me.
    You can hear I'm just a frantic guy doing his best.'

    PAUL 1988: 'There's a power in John's voice there that certainly hasn't been equaled since.
    And I know exactly why – It's because he worked his bollocks off that day.
    We left 'Twist And Shout' until the very last thing because we knew there was one take.'

    RINGO 1994: 'We started (recording the album) about noon and finished it at midnight, with John being really hoarse by 'Twist And Shout.''

  2. 02:40 Baby It's You (Burt Bacharach, Luther Dixon and Mack David) - 20.02.1963

  3. 02:04 Words of Love (Buddy Holly) - 18.10.1964

  4. 02:34 Please Mister Postman (Georgia Dobbins, William Garrett, Freddie Gorman, Brian Holland and Robert Bateman) - 30.07.1963

    PAUL 1984: 'Influenced by the Marvelettes, who did the original version.
    We got it from our fans, who would write 'Please Mr. Postman' on the back of the envelopes.
    'Posty, posty, don't be slow, be like the Beatles and go, man, go!' That sort of stuff.'
  5. 02:15 I Feel Fine (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 17.11.1964

    JOHN 1964: 'George and I play the same bit on the guitar together – that's the bit that'll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say.
    The middle-eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it's a typical Beatles bit.'

    JOHN 1972: 'This was the first time feedback was used on a record.
    It's right at the beginning.'

    JOHN 1974: 'I wrote this at a recording session.
    It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me completely.
    Including the guitar lick with the first feedback anywhere.
    I defy anybody to find a record… unless it is some old blues record from 1922… that uses feedback that way.
    So I claim it for the Beatles.
    Before Hendrix, before the Who, before anybody.
    The first feedback on record.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar.
    It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified… We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp.
    I can still see him doing it… and it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object – an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp.
    The song itself was more John's than mine.
    We sat down and co-wrote it with John's original idea.
    John sang it, I'm on harmonies.'

  6. 02:49 Day Tripper (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.10.1965

    JOHN 1972: 'Me.
    But I think Paul helped with the verse.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's mine.
    Including the guitar lick, the guitar break, and the whole bit.
    It's just a rock 'n roll song.
    Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferry boat or somethng.
    But it was kind of – you know, you're just a weekend hippie.
    Get it?'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'Acid was coming on the scene, and we'd often do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it.' Mainly the impetus for that used to come from John – I think John met quite a few girls who thought they were it… But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a sunday painter, a sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea.
    Where we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper.
    That was a co-written effort – we were both making it all up but I would give John the main credit.'

  7. 02:49 Day Tripper (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.10.1965

    JOHN 1972: 'Me.
    But I think Paul helped with the verse.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's mine.
    Including the guitar lick, the guitar break, and the whole bit.
    It's just a rock 'n roll song.
    Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferry boat or somethng.
    But it was kind of – you know, you're just a weekend hippie.
    Get it?'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'Acid was coming on the scene, and we'd often do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it.' Mainly the impetus for that used to come from John – I think John met quite a few girls who thought they were it… But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a sunday painter, a sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea.
    Where we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper.
    That was a co-written effort – we were both making it all up but I would give John the main credit.'

  8. 02:15 We Can Work It Out (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.10.1965

    JOHN 1980: 'Paul did the first half, I did the middle-eight.
    But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out/ We can work it out' real optimistic, you know.
    And me, impatient, 'Life is very short and there's no time/ for fussing and fighting, my friend.''

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I wrote it as more of an up-tempo thing, country and western.
    I had the basic idea, the title, had a couple of verses… then I took it to John to finish it off and we wrote the middle together, which is nice – 'Life is very short/ And there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend.' Then it was George Harrison's idea to put the middle into waltz time, like a german waltz… The lyrics might have been personal.
    It is often a good way to talk to someone or to work your thoughts out.
    It saves you going to a psychiatrist, you allow yourself to say what you might not say in person.'

  9. 02:18 Paperback Writer (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.10.1965

    JOHN 1972: 'Paul.
    I think I might have helped with some of the lyrics, Yes, I did.
    But it was mainly Paul's tune.'

    JOHN 1980: ''Paperback Writer' is son of 'Day Tripper' …meaning a rock 'n roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy loud guitar.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I arrived at Weybridge and told John I had this idea of trying to write off to a publishers to become a paperback writer, and I said, 'I think it should be written like a letter.' I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like, 'Dear Sir or Madam, as the case may be…' and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him, occasionally rhyming it… And then we went upstairs and put the melody to it.
    John and I sat down and finished it all up, but it was tilted towards me – the original idea was mine.
    I had no music, but it's just a little bluesy song, not alot of melody.
    Then I had the idea to do the harmonies, and we arranged that in the studio.'

  10. 02:58 Rain (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.04.1966

    JOHN 1966: 'After we'd done the session on that particular song – it ended at about four or five in the morning – I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it.
    And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards.
    And I liked it better.
    So that's how it happened.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me again – with the first backwards tape on record anywhere… I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana… and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day.
    Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint.
    I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know… listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards.
    The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards.
    (sings) 'Sharethsmnowthsmeanss!' That one was the gift of God… of Ja actually – the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one.'

    RINGO 1984: 'My favorite piece of me is what I did on 'Rain.' I think I just played amazing.
    I was into the snare and hi-hat.
    I think it was the first time I used the trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat.
    I think it's the best out of all the records I've ever made.
    'Rain' blows me away.
    It's out in left field.
    I know me and I know my playing… and then there's 'Rain.''

    PAUL circa-1994: 'It was nice.
    I really enjoyed that one.'

  11. 02:58 Rain (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 16.04.1966

    JOHN 1966: 'After we'd done the session on that particular song – it ended at about four or five in the morning – I went home with a tape to see what else you could do with it.
    And I was sort of very tired, you know, not knowing what I was doing, and I just happened to put it on my own tape recorder and it came out backwards.
    And I liked it better.
    So that's how it happened.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me again – with the first backwards tape on record anywhere… I got home from the studio and I was stoned out of my mind on marijuana… and, as I usually do, I listened to what I'd recorded that day.
    Somehow it got on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on, with a big hash joint.
    I ran in the next day and said, 'I know what to do with it, I know… listen to this!' So I made them all play it backwards.
    The fade is me actually singing backwards with the guitars going backwards.
    (sings) 'Sharethsmnowthsmeanss!' That one was the gift of God… of Ja actually – the god of marijuana, right? So Ja gave me that one.'

    RINGO 1984: 'My favorite piece of me is what I did on 'Rain.' I think I just played amazing.
    I was into the snare and hi-hat.
    I think it was the first time I used the trick of starting a break by hitting the hi-hat first instead of going directly to a drum off the hi-hat.
    I think it's the best out of all the records I've ever made.
    'Rain' blows me away.
    It's out in left field.
    I know me and I know my playing… and then there's 'Rain.''

    PAUL circa-1994: 'It was nice.
    I really enjoyed that one.'

  12. 04:07 Strawberry Fields Forever (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 22.12.1966

    JOHN 1968: 'Strawberry Fields was a place near us that happened to be a Salvation Army home.
    But Strawberry Fields – I mean, I have visions of Strawberry Fields.
    And there was Penny Lane, and the Cast Iron Shore, which I've just got in some song now, and they were just good names – just groovy names.
    Just good sounding.
    Because Strawberry Fields is anywhere you want to go.'

    PAUL 1974: 'That wasn't 'I buried Paul' at all – that was John saying 'Cranberry sauce.' It was the end of Strawberry Fields.
    Thatīs Johnīs humor.
    John would say something totally out of sync, like cranberry sauce.
    If you donīt realize that Johnīs apt to say cranberry sauce when he feels like it, then you start to hear a funny little word there, and you think, 'Aha!''

    JOHN 1980: 'Strawberry Fields is a real place.
    After I stopped living at Penny Lane, I moved in with my auntie who lived in the suburbs… not the poor slummy kind of image that was projected in all the Beatles stories.
    Near that home was Strawberry Fields, a house near a boys' reformatory where I used to go to garden parties as a kid with my friends Nigel and Pete.
    We always had fun at Strawberry Fields.
    So that's where I got the name.
    But I used it as an image.
    Strawberry Fields Forever.
    'Living is easy with eyes closed.
    Misunderstanding all you see.' It still goes, doesn't it? Aren't I saying exactly the same thing now? The awareness apparently trying to be expressed is – let's say in one way I was always hip.
    I was hip in kindergarten.
    I was different from the others.
    I was different all my life.
    The second verse goes, 'No one I think is in my tree.' Well, I was too shy and self-doubting.
    Nobody seems to be as hip as me is what I was saying.
    Therefore, I must be crazy or a genius – 'I mean it must be high or low,' the next line.
    There was something wrong with me, I thought, because I seemed to see things other people didn't see.
    I thought I was crazy or an egomaniac for claiming to see things other people didn't see.
    I always was so psychic or intuitive or poetic or whatever you want to call it, that I was always seeing things in a hallucinatory way.
    Surrealism had a great effect on me, because then I realized that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity; that if it was insane, I belong in an exclusive club that sees the world in those terms.
    Surrealism to me is reality.
    Psychic vision to me is reality.
    Even as a child.
    When I looked at myself in the mirror or when I was 12, 13, I used to literally trance out into alpha.
    I didn't know what it was called then.
    I found out years later there is a name for those conditions.
    But I would find myself seeing hallucinatory images of my face changing and becoming cosmic and complete.
    It caused me to always be a rebel.
    This thing gave me a chip on the shoulder; but, on the other hand, I wanted to be loved and accepted.
    Part of me would like to be accepted by all facets of society and not be this loudmouthed lunatic musician.
    But I cannot be what I am not.'

  13. 03:07 Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows - Medley

  14. 05:08 A Day In the Life (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 10.02.1967

    JOHN 1967: 'I was writing the song with the 'Daily Mail' propped up in front of me on the piano.
    I had it open to the 'News In Brief' or whatever they call it.
    There was a paragraph about four thousand holes being discovered in Blackburn Lancashire.
    And when we came to record the song there was still one word missing from that verse… I knew the line had to go, 'Now they know how many holes it takes to – something – the Albert Hall.' For some reason I couldn't think of the verb.
    What did the holes do to the Albert Hall? It was Terry Doran who said 'fill' the Albert Hall.
    And that was it.
    Then we thought we wanted a growing noise to lead back into the first bit.
    We wanted to think of a good end and we had to decide what sort of backing and instruments would sound good.
    Like all our songs, they never become an entity until the very end.
    They are developed all the time as we go along.'

    JOHN 1968: ''A Day in the Life' – that was something.
    I dug it.
    It was a good piece of work between Paul and me.
    I had the 'I read the news today' bit, and it turned Paul on.
    Now and then we really turn each other on with a bit of song, and he just said 'yeah' – bang bang, like that.
    It just sort of happened beautifully, and we arranged it and rehearsed it, which we don't often do, the afternoon before.
    So we all knew what we were playing, we all got into it.
    It was a real groove, the whole scene on that one.
    Paul sang half of it and I sang half.
    I needed a middle-eight for it, but Paul already had one there.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Just as it sounds: I was reading the paper one day and I noticed two stories.
    One was the Guinness heir who killed himself in a car.
    That was the main headline story.
    He died in London in a car crash.
    On the next page was a story about 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.
    In the streets, that is.
    They were going to fill them all.
    Paul's contribution was the beautiful little lick in the song 'I'd love to turn you on.' I had the bulk of the song and the words, but he contributed this little lick floating around in his head that he couldn't use for anything.
    I thought it was a damn good piece of work.'

    PAUL 1984: 'That was mainly John's, I think.
    I remember being very conscious of the words 'I'd love to turn you on' and thinking, Well, that's about as risque as we dare get at this point.
    Well, the BBC banned it.
    It said, 'Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall' or something.
    But I mean that there was nothing vaguely rude or naughty in any of that.
    'I'd love to turn you on' was the rudest line in the whole thing.
    But that was one of John's very good ones.
    I wrote… that was co-written.
    The orchestra crescendo and that was based on some of the ideas I'd been getting from Stockhausen and people like that, which is more abstract.
    So we told the orchestra members to just start on their lowest note and end on their highest note and go in their own time… which orchestras are frightened to do.
    That's not the tradition.
    But we got 'em to do it.'

    PAUL 1988: 'Then I went around to all the trumpet players and said, 'Look all you've got to do is start at the beginning of the 24 bars and go through all the notes on your instrument from the lowest to the highest – and the highest has to happen on that 24th bar, that's all.
    So you can blow 'em all in that first thing and then rest, then play the top one there if you want, or you can steady them out.' And it was interesting because I saw the orchestra's characters.
    The strings were like sheep – they all looked at each other: 'Are you going up? I am!' and they'd all go up together, the leader would take them all up.
    The trumpeters were much wilder.'

  15. 03:27 Hello, Goodbye (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 02.11.1967

    JOHN 1980: 'That's another McCartney.
    An attempt to write a single.
    It wasn't a great piece.
    The best bit was at the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano.
    Like 'Ticket To Ride,' where we just threw something in at the end.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''Hello Goodbye' was one of my songs.
    There are Geminian influences here I think – the twins.
    It's such a deep theme of the universe, duality – man woman, black white, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write.
    It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive.
    You say goodbye, I say hello.
    You say stop, I say go.
    I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.'

  16. 03:27 Hello, Goodbye (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 02.11.1967

    JOHN 1980: 'That's another McCartney.
    An attempt to write a single.
    It wasn't a great piece.
    The best bit was at the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano.
    Like 'Ticket To Ride,' where we just threw something in at the end.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''Hello Goodbye' was one of my songs.
    There are Geminian influences here I think – the twins.
    It's such a deep theme of the universe, duality – man woman, black white, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write.
    It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive.
    You say goodbye, I say hello.
    You say stop, I say go.
    I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.'

  17. 03:11 Hey Bulldog (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 11.02.1968

    JOHN 1980: 'It's a good sounding record that means nothing.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I remember 'Hey Bulldog' as being one of John's songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it's mainly his vibe.
    There's a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end.
    We always tried to make every song different because we figured, 'Why write something like the last one? We've done that.' We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung, or even staying on the same rung, it was better to move one rung ahead.'

    GEORGE 1999: 'We now have an unreleased video of 'Hey Bulldog,' as you know.
    When we were in the studio recording 'Bulldog,' apparently it was at a time when they needed some footage for something else, some other record (Lady Madonna), and a film crew came along and filmed us.
    Then they cut up the footage and used some of the shots for something else.
    But it was Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording 'Bulldog.' This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put (the unused footage) all back together again and put the 'Bulldog' soundtrack onto it, and there it was!'

  18. 07:05 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.'

  19. 03:23 Revolution (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 12.07.1968

    JOHN 1968: 'On 'Revolution' I'm playing the guitar and I haven't improved since I was last playing, but I dug it.
    It sounds the way I wanted it to sound.'

    JOHN 1972: 'I should never have put that in about Chairman Mao.
    I was just finishing off in the studio when I did that.'

    JOHN 1980: 'The statement in 'Revolution' was mine.
    The lyrics stand today.
    It's still my feeling about politics.
    I want to see the plan.
    That is what I used to say to Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
    Count me out if it is for violence.
    Don't expect me to be on the barricades unless it is with flowers.
    For years, on the Beatles' tours, Brian Epstein had stopped us from saying anything about Vietnam or the war.
    And he wouldn't allow questions about it.
    But on one of the last tours, I said, 'I'm going to answer about the war.
    We can't ignore it.' I absolutely wanted the Beatles to say something about the war.'

  20. 02:05 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.'

  21. 03:30 Don't Let Me Down (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 14.04.1969

    JOHN 1969: (to Ringo, regarding the cymbal smash in the intro) 'Give me a big 'kzzzsshhhh!' Give me the courage to come screaming in.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me, singing about Yoko.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'It was a very tense period.
    John was with Yoko, and had escalated to heroin and all the accompanying paranoias and he was putting himself out on a limb.
    I think that, as much as it excited and amused him, at the same time it secretly terrified him.
    So 'Don't Let Me Down' was a genuine plea, 'Don't let me down, please, whatever you do.
    I'm out on this limb…' It was saying to Yoko, 'I'm really stepping out of line on this one.
    I'm really letting my vulnerability be seen, so you must not let me down.' I think it was a genuine cry for help.
    It was a good song.
    We recorded it in the basement of Apple for 'Let It Be' and later did it up on the roof for the film.
    We went through it quite alot for this one.
    I sang harmony on it, which makes me wonder if I helped with a couple of the words, but I don't think so.
    It was John's song.'

  22. 04:25 Free As a Bird (John Lennon) - 01.03.1994

  23. 03:54 Real Love (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 01.02.1995

  24. 02:20 Love Me Do (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered - 04.09.1962

    JOHN 1963: 'It came to the charts in two days.
    And everybody thought it was a 'fiddle' because our manager's stores send in these… what is it… record returns.
    And everybody down south thought, 'Aha! He's just fiddling the charts.' But he wasn't.'

    JOHN 1972: 'Paul wrote the main structure of this when he was sixteen, or even earlier.
    I think I had something to do with the middle.'

    RINGO 1976: 'The first record, 'Love Me Do,' for me that was more important than anything else.
    That first piece of plastic.
    You can't believe how great that was.
    It was so wonderful.
    We were on a record!'

    JOHN 1980: ''Love Me Do' is Paul's song.
    He had the song around in Hamburg even, way, way before we were songwriters.'

    PAUL 1982: 'In Hamburg we clicked… At the Cavern we clicked… but if you want to know when we 'knew' we'd arrived, it was getting in the charts with 'Love Me Do.' That was the one.
    It gave us somewhere to go.'

    PAUL 1984: ''Love Me Do' …the first song we recorded, like, for real.
    First serious audition.
    I was very nervous, I remember.
    John was supposed to sing the lead, but they changed their minds and asked me to sing lead at the last minute, because they wanted John to play harmonica.
    Until then, we hadn't rehearsed with a harmonica; George Martin started arranging it on the spot.
    It was very nerve-wracking.'

    PAUL 1988: ''Love Me Do' was us trying to do the blues.
    It came out whiter because it always does.
    We're white, and we were just young Liverpool musicians.
    We didn't have the finesse to be able to actually sound black.
    But 'Love Me Do' was probably the first bluesy thing we tried to do.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'George Martin said, 'Can anyone play a harmonica? It would be rather nice.
    Couldn't think of some sort of bluesy thing, could you John?' John played a chromatic harmonica… I actually had one too but he'd been clever – he learned to play it.
    John expected to be in jail one day and he'd be the guy who played the harmonica.
    The lyric crossed over the harmonica solo, so I suddenly got thrown the big open line, 'Love me do,' where everything stopped.
    Until that session John had always done it.
    I didn't even know how to sing it… I can still hear the nervousness in my voice.'

  25. 01:56 From Me to You (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered - 20.10.1963

    PAUL 1964: ''From Me To You.' It could be done as an old Ragtime tune… especially the middle-eight.
    And so, we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom.
    In five years time, we may arrange the tunes differently.
    (jokingly) But we'll probably write the same old rubbish!!'

    JOHN 1980: 'We were writing it in a car, I think… and I think the first line was mine.
    I mean, I know it was mine.
    (humms melody) And then after that we just took it from there.
    We were just writing the next single.
    It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it.
    The notes, today… you could rearrange it pretty funky.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'The thing I liked about 'From Me To You' was it had a very complete middle.
    It went to a surprising place.
    The opening chord of the middle section of that song heralded a new batch for me.
    That was a pivotal song.
    Our songwriting lifted a little with that song.
    It was very much co-written.'

  26. 02:20 She Loves You (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered - 04.11.1963

    JOHN 1963: 'We wrote that two days before we recorded it, actually.'

    PAUL 1963: 'John and I wrote it together.
    We were in a van up in Newcastle somewhere, and we'd just gone over to our hotel.
    I originally got an idea of doing one of those answering songs, where a couple of us sing about 'she loves you' …and the other one sort of says the 'yes, yes' bit.
    You know, 'yeah yeah' answering whoever is saying it.
    But we decided that was a crummy idea anyway.
    But we had the idea to write a song called 'She Loves You' then.
    And we just sat up in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it, you know.'

    JOHN 1963: ''Yeah.' That's sort of the main catch phrase from 'She Loves You.' We'd written the song, and then suddenly realized we needed more… so we added 'yeah, yeah, yeah' and it caught on.'

    JOHN 1980: 'It was written together (with Paul) and I don't remember how.
    I remember it was Paul's idea – instead of singing 'I love you' again, we'd have a third party.
    The 'Woooo' was taken from the Isley Brothers 'Twist And Shout,' which we stuck into everything.'

    PAUL 1982: 'Occasionally, we'd overrule George Martin, like on 'She Loves You,' we end on a sixth chord, a very jazzy sort of thing.
    And he said, 'Oh, you can't do that! A sixth chord? It's too jazzy.'
    We just said, 'No, it's a great hook, we've got to do it.''

    PAUL 1988: 'We rehearsed the end bit of 'She Loves You' and took it to George.
    And he just laughed and said, 'Well, you can't do the end of course… that sixth… it's too like the Andrew Sisters.' We just said, 'Alright, we'll try it without,' and we tried it and it wasn't as good.
    Then he conceded, 'You're right, I guess.' But we were both very flexible.
    We would listen to George's ideas too, because he was a producer and a musician, and he obviously knew what he was talking about.
    There was good to-and-fro.
    We loved that bit, and we rehearsed it alot.
    John and I wrote that in a hotel room, on twin beds during an afternoon off – I mean, God bless their little cotton socks, those boys WORKED! Here I am talking about an afternoon off, and we're sitting there writing! We just loved it so much.
    It wasn't work.'

  27. 02:25 I Want to Hold Your Hand (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 02.12.1963

    PAUL 1964: 'Let's see, we were told we had to get down to it.
    So we found this house when we were walking along one day.
    We knew we had to really get this song going, so we got down in the basement of this disused house and there was an old piano.
    It wasn't really disused, it was rooms to let.
    We found this old piano and started banging away.
    There was a little old organ too.
    So we were having this informal jam and we started banging away.
    Suddenly a little bit came to us, the catch line.
    So we started working on it from there.
    We got our pens and paper out and just wrote down the lyrics.
    Eventually, we had some sort of a song, so we played it for our recording manager and he seemed to like it.
    We recorded it the next day.'

    JOHN 1980: 'We wrote alot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball.
    Like in 'I Want To Hold Your Hand,' I remember when we got the chord that made the song.
    We were in Jane Asher's house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time.
    And we had, 'Oh you-u-u/ got that something…' And Paul hits this chord, and I turn to him and say, 'That's it!' I said, 'Do that again!' In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that – both playing into each other's noses.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''Eyeball to eyeball' is a very good description of it.
    That's exactly how it was.
    'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was very co-written.'

  28. 02:11 Can't Buy Me Love (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 10.03.1964

    JOHN 1972: 'John and Paul, but mainly Paul.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's Paul completely.
    Maybe I had something to do with the chorus, but I don't know.
    I always considered it his song.'

    PAUL 1984: 'We recorded it in France, as I recall.
    Went over to the Odeon in Paris.
    Recorded it over there.
    Felt proud because Ella Fitzgerald recorded it, too, though we didn't realize what it meant that she was doing it.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''Can't Buy Me Love' is my attempt to write a bluesy mode.
    The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won't buy me what I really want.'

  29. 02:32 A Hard Day's Night (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 16.04.1964

    RINGO 1964: 'We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night.
    I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day…' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '…night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.''

    JOHN 1980: 'I was going home in the car and Dick Lester suggested the title, 'Hard Day's Night' from something Ringo had said.
    I had used it in 'In His Own Write,' but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo.
    You know, one of those malapropisms.
    A Ringo-ism, where he said it not to be funny… just said it.
    So Dick Lester said, 'We are going to use that title.' And the next morning I brought in the song… 'cuz there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side – who got the hits.
    If you notice, in the early days the majority of singles, in the movies and everything, were mine… in the early period I'm dominating the group.
    The only reason he sang on 'A Hard Day's Night' was because I couldn't reach the notes.
    (sings) 'When I'm home/ everything seems to be right/ when I'm home…' – which is what we'd do sometimes.
    One of us couldn't reach a note but he wanted a different sound, so he'd get the other to do the harmony.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'The title was Ringo's.
    We'd almost finished making the film, and this fun bit arrived that we'd not known about before, which was naming the film.
    So we were sitting around at Twickenham studios having a little brain-storming session… and we said, 'Well, there was something Ringo said the other day.' Ringo would do these little malapropisms, he would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical… they were sort of magic even though he was just getting it wrong.
    And he said after a concert, 'Phew, it's been a hard day's night.''

  30. 02:19 I Feel Fine (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 17.11.1964

    JOHN 1964: 'George and I play the same bit on the guitar together – that's the bit that'll set your feet a-tapping, as the reviews say.
    The middle-eight is the most tuneful part, to me, because it's a typical Beatles bit.'

    JOHN 1972: 'This was the first time feedback was used on a record.
    It's right at the beginning.'

    JOHN 1974: 'I wrote this at a recording session.
    It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's me completely.
    Including the guitar lick with the first feedback anywhere.
    I defy anybody to find a record… unless it is some old blues record from 1922… that uses feedback that way.
    So I claim it for the Beatles.
    Before Hendrix, before the Who, before anybody.
    The first feedback on record.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'John had a semi-acoustic Gibson guitar.
    It had a pick-up on it so it could be amplified… We were just about to walk away to listen to a take when John leaned his guitar against the amp.
    I can still see him doing it… and it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!' And we went, 'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' Wow, it's a great sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on the front.' It was a found object – an accident caused by leaning the guitar against the amp.
    The song itself was more John's than mine.
    We sat down and co-wrote it with John's original idea.
    John sang it, I'm on harmonies.'

  31. 02:43 Eight Days a Week (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 18.10.1964

    JOHN 1972: 'Both of us wrote it.
    I think we wrote this when we were trying to write the title song for 'Help!' because there was at one time the thought of calling the film, 'Eight Arms To Hold You.''

    JOHN 1980: 'Eight Days A Week' was never a good song.
    We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song.
    It was his (Paul's) initial effort, but I think we both worked on it.
    I'm not sure.
    But it was lousy anyway.'

    PAUL 1984: 'Yeah, he (Ringo) said it as though he were an overworked chauffeur: (in heavy accent) 'Eight days a week.' (Laughter) When we heard it, we said, 'Really? Bing! Got it!'' (Laughs)

  32. 03:10 Ticket to Ride (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 01.08.1965

    GEORGE 1965: 'We are always worried with each record.
    With 'Ticket To Ride' we were even more worried.
    There's bound to be a time when we come in at 19 (on the charts).
    But this 'number one' business doesn't seem to stop – great while it lasts – but now we'll have to start all over again and people will start predicting funny things for the next one.'

    JOHN 1970: 'It's a heavy record, and the drums are heavy too.
    That's why I like it.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That was one of the earliest heavy-metal records made.
    Paul's contribution was the way Ringo played the drums.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I think the interesting thing is the crazy ending – instead of ending like the previous verse, we changed the tempo.
    We picked up one of the lines, 'My baby don't care,' but completely altered the melody.
    We almost invented the idea of a new bit of a song on the fade-out with this song… It was quite radical at the time.'

  33. 02:19 Help! (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 13.04.1965

    JOHN 1965: 'We think it's one of the best we've written.'

    JOHN 1980: 'The whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension.
    When 'Help' came out, I was actually crying out for help.
    Most people think it's just a fast rock 'n roll song.
    I didn't realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie.
    But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.
    So it was my fat Elvis period.
    You see the movie: He – I – is very fat, very insecure, and he's completely lost himself.
    And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was.
    Now I may be very positive… yes, yes… but I also go through deep depressions where I would like to jump out the window, you know.
    It becomes easier to deal with as I get older; I don't know whether you learn control or, when you grow up, you calm down a little.
    Anyway, I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help.'

    PAUL 1984: 'John wrote that… well, John and I wrote it at his house in Weybridge for the film.
    I think the title was out of desperation.'

  34. 02:05 Yesterday (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 14.06.1965

  35. 02:49 Day Tripper (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 16.10.1965

    JOHN 1972: 'Me.
    But I think Paul helped with the verse.'

    JOHN 1980: 'That's mine.
    Including the guitar lick, the guitar break, and the whole bit.
    It's just a rock 'n roll song.
    Day trippers are people who go on a day trip, right? Usually on a ferry boat or somethng.
    But it was kind of – you know, you're just a weekend hippie.
    Get it?'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'Acid was coming on the scene, and we'd often do these songs about 'the girl who thought she was it.' Mainly the impetus for that used to come from John – I think John met quite a few girls who thought they were it… But this was just a tongue-in-cheek song about someone who was a day tripper, a sunday painter, a sunday driver, somebody who was committed only in part to the idea.
    Where we saw ourselves as full-time trippers, fully committed drivers, she was just a day tripper.
    That was a co-written effort – we were both making it all up but I would give John the main credit.'

  36. 02:15 We Can Work It Out (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 29.10.1965

    JOHN 1980: 'Paul did the first half, I did the middle-eight.
    But you've got Paul writing, 'We can work it out/ We can work it out' real optimistic, you know.
    And me, impatient, 'Life is very short and there's no time/ for fussing and fighting, my friend.''

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I wrote it as more of an up-tempo thing, country and western.
    I had the basic idea, the title, had a couple of verses… then I took it to John to finish it off and we wrote the middle together, which is nice – 'Life is very short/ And there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend.' Then it was George Harrison's idea to put the middle into waltz time, like a german waltz… The lyrics might have been personal.
    It is often a good way to talk to someone or to work your thoughts out.
    It saves you going to a psychiatrist, you allow yourself to say what you might not say in person.'

  37. 02:18 Paperback Writer (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 29.10.1965

    JOHN 1972: 'Paul.
    I think I might have helped with some of the lyrics, Yes, I did.
    But it was mainly Paul's tune.'

    JOHN 1980: ''Paperback Writer' is son of 'Day Tripper' …meaning a rock 'n roll song with a guitar lick on a fuzzy loud guitar.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I arrived at Weybridge and told John I had this idea of trying to write off to a publishers to become a paperback writer, and I said, 'I think it should be written like a letter.' I took a bit of paper out and I said it should be something like, 'Dear Sir or Madam, as the case may be…' and I proceeded to write it just like a letter in front of him, occasionally rhyming it… And then we went upstairs and put the melody to it.
    John and I sat down and finished it all up, but it was tilted towards me – the original idea was mine.
    I had no music, but it's just a little bluesy song, not alot of melody.
    Then I had the idea to do the harmonies, and we arranged that in the studio.'

  38. 02:38 Yellow Submarine (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 01.06.1966

    PAUL 1966: 'It's a happy place, that's all.
    You know, it was just… We were trying to write a children's song.
    That was the basic idea.
    And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song.'

    JOHN 1972: 'Paul wrote the catchy chorus.
    I helped with the blunderbuss bit.'

    JOHN 1980: ''Yellow Submarine' is Paul's baby.
    Donovan helped with the lyrics.
    I helped with the lyrics too.
    We virtually made the track come alive in the studio, but based on Paul's inspiration.
    Paul's idea.
    Paul's title… written for Ringo.'

    PAUL 1984: 'I wrote that in bed one night.
    As a kid's story.
    And then we thought it would be good for Ringo to do.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'I was laying in bed in the Asher's garret, and there's a nice twilight zone just as you're drifting into sleep and as you wake from it – I always find it quite a comfortable zone.
    I remember thinking that a children's song would be quite a good idea… I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey in the vocal.
    I just made up a little tune in my head, then started making a story – sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived.
    It was pretty much my song as I recall… I think John helped out.
    The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine.'

    GEORGE 1999: 'Paul came up with the concept of 'Yellow Submarine.' All I know is just that every time we'd all get around the piano with guitars and start listening to it and arranging it into a record, we'd all fool about.
    As I said, John's doing the voice that sounds like someone talking down a tube or ship's funnel as they do in the merchant marine.
    (laughs) And on the final track there's actually that very small party happening! As I seem to remember, there's a few screams and what sounds like small crowd noises in the background.'

  39. 02:05 Eleanor Rigby (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 06.06.1966

    PAUL 1966: 'I was sitting at the piano when I thought of it.
    The first few bars just came to me, and I got this name in my head… Daisy Hawkins picks up the rice in the church.
    I don't know why.
    I couldn't think of much more so I put it away for a day.
    Then the name Father McCartney came to me, and all the lonely people.
    But I thought that people would think it was supposed to be about my Dad sitting knitting his socks.
    Dad's a happy lad.
    So I went through the telephone book and I got the name McKenzie.
    I was in Bristol when I decided Daisy Hawkins wasn't a good name.
    I walked 'round looking at the shops, and I saw the name Rigby.
    Then I took the song down to John's house in Weybridge.
    We sat around, laughing, got stoned and finished it off.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Paul's baby, and I helped with the education of the child… The violin backing was Paul's idea.
    Jane Asher had turned him on to Vivaldi, and it was very good.'

    PAUL 1984: 'I got the name Rigby from a shop in Bristol.
    I was wandering round Bristol one day and saw a shop called Rigby.
    And I think Eleanor was from Eleanor Bron, the actress we worked with in the film 'Help!' But I just liked the name.
    I was looking for a name that sounded natural.
    Eleanor Rigby sounded natural.'

  40. 03:00 Penny Lane (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 17.01.1967

    JOHN 1968: 'We really got into the groove of imagining Penny Lane – the bank was there, and that was where the tram sheds were and people waiting and the inspector stood there, the fire engines were down there.
    It was just reliving childhood.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Penny Lane is not only a street but it's a district… a suburban district where, until age four, I lived with my mother and father.
    So I was the only Beatle that lived in Penny Lane.'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'John and I would always meet at Penny Lane.
    That was where someone would stand and sell you poppies each year on British Legion poppy day… When I came to write it, John came over and helped me with the third verse, as often was the case.
    We were writing childhood memories – recently faded memories from eight or ten years before, so it was recent nostalgia, pleasant memories for both of us.
    All the places were still there, and because we remembered it so clearly we could have gone on.'

  41. 03:47 All You Need Is Love (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 25.06.1967

    PAUL 1967: 'We had been told we'd be seen recording it by the whole world at the same time.
    So we had one message for the world – Love.
    We need more love in the world.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''All You Need Is Love' was John's song.
    I threw in a few ideas, as did other members of the group, but it was largely ad libs like singing 'She Loves You' or 'Greensleeves' or silly little things like that at the end, and we made those up on the spot.'

  42. 03:27 Hello, Goodbye (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 02.11.1967

    JOHN 1980: 'That's another McCartney.
    An attempt to write a single.
    It wasn't a great piece.
    The best bit was at the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano.
    Like 'Ticket To Ride,' where we just threw something in at the end.'

    PAUL circa-1994: ''Hello Goodbye' was one of my songs.
    There are Geminian influences here I think – the twins.
    It's such a deep theme of the universe, duality – man woman, black white, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye – that it was a very easy song to write.
    It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive.
    You say goodbye, I say hello.
    You say stop, I say go.
    I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.'

  43. 02:16 Lady Madonna (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 06.02.1968

    RINGO 1968: 'It sounds like Elvis, doesn't it? No, it doesn't sound like Elvis… it IS Elvis.
    Even those bits where he goes very high.'

    JOHN 1980: 'Paul.
    Good piano lick, but the song never really went anywhere.
    Maybe I helped him on some of the lyrics.'

    PAUL 1986: ''Lady Madonna' is all women.
    How do they do it? – bless 'em.
    Baby at your breast, how do they get the time to feed them? Where do they get the money? How do you do this thing that women do?'

    PAUL circa-1994: 'The original concept was the Virgin Mary, but it quickly became symbolic of every woman – the Madonna image but as applied to ordinary working-class women.
    'Lady Madonna' was me sitting down at the piano trying to write a bluesy boogie-woogie thing.
    It reminded me of Fats Domino for some reason, so I started singing a Fats Domino impression.
    It took my voice to a very odd place.'

  44. 07:05 Hey Jude (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 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.'

  45. 03:11 Get Back (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 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.'

  46. 02:59 The Ballad of John And Yoko (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 18.04.1969

  47. 03:01 Something (George Harrison) - Remastered 2015 - 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.'

  48. 04:18 Come Together (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 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)

  49. 03:50 Let It Be (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 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.'

  50. 03:39 The Long And Winding Road (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - Remastered 2015 - 01.04.1970

    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.'


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