Come Together – The Beatles
Which song to
pick out of the thousands that float around your head on a daily basis? Do you
show the world your “Pop Tart” ways by admitting to knowing all the words to Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call
Me Maybe” or do you go with the hipster song choice that no-one knows? I
decided to go with the one song that I am proud to know the words to!
This is a
fascinating piece of music, its lyrics are very open to interpretation and I
really do think that people misjudge Lennon’s mish mash of words. It’s about a
politician and yes that politician did get arrested for possession of marijuana.
Come Together
has no chorus and is entirely constructed of verse which at the time was
unheard of. It reached number 1 in the US but only #4 in the UK due to the BBC
ban on the song.
It is in essence
“gobbledygook” as Lennon puts it, but this “gobbledygook” was a
hit that reached #202 on Rolling Stone’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
& #9 on the 100 Beatles Greatest Songs. The continued fascination with it
has led to it being covered so many times that it is undeniable.
Yes, I am very
proud! I know all the words to this “gobbledygook” but I like it and it
makes me smile! What song do you know all the words to? Hey I admitted the
Carly Rae Jepson thing!
THE BEATLES
"Come Together"
(Lennon/McCartney)
Here
come old flattop, he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball, he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please
He wear
no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger, he shoot coca-cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me
He bag
production, he got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me
[Right!
Come, oh, come, come, come.]
He
roller-coaster, he got early warning
He got muddy water, he one mojo filter
He say "One and one and one is three"
Got to be good-looking cos he's so hard to see
Come together right now over me
Oh
Come together
Yeah come together
Yeah come together
Yeah come together
Yeah come together
Yeah come together
Yeah come together
Yeah oh
Come together
Yeah come together
Songfacts:
-
Timothy Leary was a psychologist who became famous for
experimenting with LSD as a way to promote social interaction and raise
consciousness. Leary did many experiments on volunteers and himself and felt
the drug had many positive qualities if taken correctly. When the government
cracked down on LSD, Leary's experiments were stopped and he was arrested on
drug charges. In 1969, Leary decided to run for Governor of California, and asked
John Lennon to write a song for him. "Come Together, Join The Party"
was Leary's campaign slogan (a reference to the drug culture he supported) and
was the original title of the song. Leary never had much of a campaign, but the
slogan gave Lennon the idea for this song.
-
After Timothy Leary decided against using this song for his
political campaign Lennon added some nonsense lyrics and brought it to the
Abbey Road sessions. Paul McCartney recalled in Rolling Stone magazine's 500
Greatest Songs: "I said, 'Let's slow it down with a swampy bass-and-drums
vibe.' I came up with a bass line, and it all flowed from there."
-
In a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine, John Lennon said:
"The thing was created in the studio. It's gobbledygook. 'Come Together'
was an expression that Tim Leary had come up with for (perhaps for the
governorship of California against Reagan), 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?"
-
John Lennon was sued for stealing the guitar riff and the line
"Here comes old flat-top" from Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch
Me." The lawsuit did not come from Berry, but from Morris Levy, one of the
music industry’s most infamous characters. He owned the song along with
thousands of other early rock songs that he obtained from many poor, black, and
unrepresented artists. Levy sued the Beatles, or more accurately, John Lennon,
over the song around the time the Beatles broke up. For years, Lennon delayed
the trial while he and the Beatles tried to sort out all the legal and business
problems that plagued Apple Records. Finally, in an attempt to avoid the court
room as much as he could (Lennon felt like he was appearing in court more often
than not), he settled with Levy. In return for dropping the suit, Lennon agreed
to record his Rock N Roll album, which was just a series of covers of songs
Levy owned. Lennon always wanted to make a cover album and was thrilled to have
the opportunity, and Levy wanted the value of his songs to increase, and when a
Beatle re-records a song that is just what happens. To make a long long long
story short, Lennon recorded the album over the Lost Weekend, a year-or-two
period when he was separated from Yoko Ono and lived in LA. During that time he
was often drunk or high, and was rather sloppy and useless. Levy was getting
frustrated with the lack of progress. Phil Spector was the producer, but in a
fit of madness (which was not too unusual for Spector) he ran away and stole
the recording session tapes. Levy invited Lennon to his upstate NY recording
studio, and that is where he finally recorded the album.
-
The whispered lyric that sounds like "shoot" is
actually Lennon saying "shoot me" followed by a handclap. The bass
line drowns out the "me."
-
The Beatles recorded this on July 21, 1969 and it was the first
session John Lennon actively participated in following his and Yoko's car
accident 3 weeks earlier. John was so insistent on Yoko being in the studio
with him that he had a hospital bed set up in the studio for her right after
the accident, since she was more seriously injured than he was.
-
The line "Ono sideboard" refers to Yoko.
-
The British Broadcasting Company (The BBC) banned this because
of the reference to Coca Cola, which they considered advertising.
-
This has one of the most commonly misheard lyrics in the history
of popular music: "Hold you in his -armchair- you can feel his
disease." It's actually "Hold you in his arms, yeah, you can feel his
disease." All published sheet music had the "armchair" lyric,
including the inner sleeve of the 1967-1970 compilation, which contained lots
of other errors too, notably on "Strawberry Fields Forever." After
John heard that his lyric was incorrect in the sheet music and other folios, he
decided he liked "armchair" better and kept it.
-
The Beatles released this as a "double A side" single
with "Something."
-
In 1969, this won a Grammy for best engineered recording.
-
When rumors were spreading that Paul McCartney was dead, some
fans thought the line "One and one and one is three" meant that only
George, John and Ringo were left. The line "Got to be good lookin' cuz
he's so hard to see" was supposed to be Paul's spirit. A rotary phone was
used to make the sound heard before each verse and after the chorus. The sound
was accompanied by the bass Paul played. Kids, ask your parents or grandparents
what a rotary phone was. (thanks, Patrick - Tallapoosa, GA)
-
Aerosmith recorded this song with Beatles producer George Martin
for the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which turned out to
be one of the worst films ever. Aerosmith appeared in the film performing this
song, agreeing to the role only because they couldn't resist the chance to
record a Beatles song with George Martin. The weren't the only big names in the
film - Peter Frampton and The Bee Gees were also in it.
-
The Aerosmith version of "Come Together" made #23 in
the US when it was released as a single.
-
In 2001, Beck, Moby, Marc Anthony, and Nelly Furtado were
scheduled to put on a tribute concert in Radio City Music Hall called
"Come Together: A Night For John Lennon." Due to the terrorist
attacks on America, it was postponed and dedicated to the people of New York
City, with proceeds benefiting victims of the attacks.
-
Nortel used this in commercials, as did Macy's.
-
On an early demo version of "My Monkey" by Marilyn
Manson (whose vocals were sped up to sound like "a demonic toddler"),
Manson sang the second verse as an opener. It appeared on Demos in Lunchbox by
Manson's former band, The Spooky Kids.
-
This has been covered by Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Meat
Loaf, Guns N' Roses, Soundgarden, Marilyn Manson, Nazareth, and Oasis.
-
Though Ringo is best known for playing on Oyster Black Pearl
Ludwig drum kit, he used for this his Ludwig "Hollywood" maple-finish
equipment, with a 22" kick. Starr produced his distinctive late '60s drum
muffling sound on tracks like this by wrapping tea towels (dishtowels) around
his snares and toms.
-
The Arctic Monkeys performed the song during the London 2012
Olympic Games opening ceremony. Their version reached #21 on the UK singles
chart in the week after the event.
To hear this
amazing song you only have to buy one of the best albums ever made:
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