I remember the first time I heard The Beatles. I was in grade school and the older classes were learning ‘She Love’s You’ to be sang later that month at some school assembly. My parents were huge Beatles fans, so when they heard that I liked a Beatles song they went out of bought me a greatest hits tape. Two sides of all the best Beatles songs. I remember listening to these songs over and over again. Pushing rewind and play again and again if it was a game. The obsession grew until I was the biggest Beatles fan ever, like millions before me had already claimed. My uncle bought me my first Beatles CD, ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band’.
After several years, I started getting into the solo careers of The Beatles. I started listening to McCartney. To this day one of my favorite albums of all time is ‘McCartney’. A collection of simple songs, with the hidden gem ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’. Of course I picked up the rest of the albums over time. ‘Ram’ was another favorite. One day at the local library I borrowed (remember when you checked out CDs?) John Lennon’s 1971 album ‘Imagine’. On it was a song called ‘How Do You Sleep?’
How Do You Sleep, John?
‘How Do You Sleep?’ is a very dark song. While Lennon claimed after the song was released that it was actually about his life, anyone who actually listens to the song knows otherwise. Also a worthy note about this song. George Harrison plays the slide guitar part in the song.
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead / The one mistake you made was in your head
Ah, how do you sleep? / Ah, how do you sleep at night?
This is an obvious reference to the whole “Paul Is Dead” phenomena that The Beatles helped snowball. Right off the bat Lennon is attacking McCartney. The song continues.
The only thing you done was yesterday /And since you’re gone you’re just another day.
McCartney wrote ‘Yesterday’ which was the first official recording by The Beatles that only 1 member performed. Also, later in McCartney’s career he wrote ‘Another Day’.
A pretty face may last a year or two / But pretty soon they’ll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears / You must have learned something in all those years
Personally I think that these are probably the most insulting. It was no secret that Lennon and McCartney’s music style changed when they still played together. Lennon is implying that McCartney got where he was based on his looks instead of his music.
Overall, a very insulting song. But is Lennon the only bad guy in this story?
Mr. Paul McCartney
Lennon didn’t just write these songs to be aggressive. Rumor is that he felt attacked by McCartney who admitted that several lines in the song ‘Too Many People’ on ‘Ram’ were written about Lennon. ‘Too Many People’ could be in reference to the later of the Beatles when Yoko and John were inseperable, even during studio sessions. This caused high tensions in an already tense environment, and many claim to this day that she was a determining factor, directly or indirectly, in the break up the band.
McCartney’s response to the song was a simple song called ‘Dear Friend’ (ironically recorded during Ram).
Dear friend, whats the time? / Is this really the borderline?
Does it really mean so much to you? / Are you afraid, or is it true?Dear friend, throw the wine. / I’m in love with a friend of mine.
Really truly, young and newly wed. / Are you a fool, or is it true?
‘Let Me Roll It’ was a song on the album ‘Band On The Run’ that is referred to as the last song in the ‘war through music’. The song is very similar to ‘How Do You Sleep?’ in terms of how the song is structured. This song, however, does not contain any personal attacks.
And In The End
Lennon was killed on December 8th, 1980. In the very personal and touching song by McCartney called ‘Here Today’, McCartney says goodbye to his friend. Here are two snippets of my favorite parts of the song.
Didn’t understand a thing. / But we could always sing.
And if I say I really loved you. / Was glad you came along.
If you were here today. / Oh- ooh- ooh- for you were in my song.
I understand that the feelings between both of them stemmed for other issues as well. It just saddens me to think about what could have been.
As a huge Beatles fan and Lennon fan, I enjoyed reading this.
Although I do like McCartney’s work including the “Silly Love Songs” and Band on the Run, I consider the album Imagine as probably the finest piece of music from the 20th century.
On How do you sleep?, I was taken aback the first time I heard it many years ago. The attack was so direct and so uncharacteristic of Lennon. But, it was difficult to completely dismiss Lennon’s points on McCartney. I did and still do feel sorry for McCartney.
I did appreciate Paul’s ode to Lennon on his death.
What could have been is neither here, nor there. I think Abbey Road did round out the work of the finest group of musicians to grace this planet.
While I agree that Abbey Road is one of the finest pieces of work from any group, you can’t argue the fact that if Lennon/McCartney would have stuck together probably something even better would have been released.
It’s too bad that the music styles of Lennon and McCartney changed so much. McCartney wanted to write “silly love songs” while Lennon wanted to write deeper songs with more meaning.
Funny thing about Abbey Road though was that it was mostly completed by McCartney as the band was breaking up and not around all that much. McCartney and the producer (forgot who) pieced it all together.
I’m a brit… hehehe, I remember when I discovered the beatles. My dad had his all his vinyls stashed away and I got them out because I was bored and started rooting through them (1982 - me 12 yo) he had all of the albums up to the white album and I loved them all. Later, I remember asking my mum and dad if they had ever seen them live (my mum was from Liverpool after all and dated my dad while she was at University there) and they both said “nooo, at the time everyone thought they were crap, I was given a couple of tickets once from a bouncer mate of mine and I sold them for a few quid down the pub”…. It shocked me at first but later I realised it would be like me being offered a couple of tickets to see… Metallica in 1986, for example, before they became huge. People forget that the beatles just weren’t big news for a long time, really not until after their first American tour.
Having said all that, the Beatles are one of the very very very few bands that I can imagine my great-great-great grand children still listening to when I am well under the earth.
Best song : Maxwell’s silver hammer
“Mark - remember when you checked out CDs”
Jeez, I’m only 37 and you’re making me feel old…..
I recently read that “Silly Love Songs” is a response to Lennon saying that the only songs that Paul wrote for the Beatles were “Silly Love Songs.”
Not worth updating the post for that, but just an interesting part of all this.
I think at this late date we should acknowledge that our perceptions of the Beatles and their perceptions of themselves were very much rooted in the times and the ages they were. Remember that the oldest Beatle when they broke up was 29 years old. You grow up a lot after that it is hoped and it would have been interesting what might have happened to their personal friendships if they hadn’t been responsible for keeping the Beatles legacy and business alive all those years and had had the ability to deal with each other one on one without all the STUFF.
That being said.. I’ve loved the Beatles for 30 years. Their music is the primary music in my life.. but to say they are the greatest musicians who ever lived and made the greatest music is an insult to the 20th century which contained everyone from Miles Davis to Frank Sinatra to Irving Berlin to the Rites of Spring! There are WORLDS of music that Beatles never touched and levels of skill and grace they never even attempted to master. They were a really good pop band possessed of a real sense of ingenuity, talent, and a strong work ethic. Let’s not overstate what they were .. let’s not insult the 20th century and MOST of all.. let’s not insult THEM!!!
The Beatles coulc have achieved MUCH more than Abbey Road which is SO GREAT because it is such a modest set of musical ideas and musicianship so expertly and tastefully arranged that one hardly notices how basic anf folksy the music is!!! Listen to the basic tracks for Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End or You Never Give Me Your Money .. there’s McCartney banging out the chords and singing hoarsely and yet once completed the very same recording with overdubs and edits and that strong work ethic sounds like a BILLION dollars and heals the heart. But even so.. I wish there were more and that the Beatles had continued and gone deeper. They could have but they didn’t… this was a band that they started when they were schoolboys and with all the pressures and distractions of megastardom their personal friendships and philosophies outgrew their ability to update and mature themselves and their relationships and they fell apart as a unit of four people. Like Lennon correctly said.. “not the end of the world.. just a pop group splitting up”.. to which I’d have said to him.. the Vietnam War isn’t a big deal either.. just the latest skirmish amidst a group of Khmer cultures who have been at war for 4000 years… er.. only with Americans brings lots of party favors to the table. Then Lennon would have thumped me. But anyway .. sadly.. the Beatles moved on but didn’t update and ended up at each others throats hating each other acrimoniously. It shouldn’t have been. It makes me sad to think about and to think that these musicians weren’t even LOOSE yet.. they hadn’t even explored their potential. All they had done by the time of Abbey Road is exhausted that initial burst of youthful vision. Had they survived they could have achieved much more.
What we know about the Beatles is for the most part untrue. Much of the conventional story of the Beatles that we all know is wrong. Even the Anthology book gives us the varnished sunny vision of who what and where. The real story is realer and darker and simpler and more complex. The Beatles as we knew them were over by the time of Rubber Soul with 4 more years of bickering and falling out occuring in slow motion until the day of the breakup. Bless you Beatles.