The John Lennon-penned “Come Together” could have been a memorable opener for Abbey Street, however it was really one of many final songs The Beatles would start engaged on. In contrast to the vast majority of the songs on the album, which had first been dropped at the group throughout January’s “Get Back” periods, “Come Together” was written as soon as Abbey Street was underneath approach.
Unlikely origins
The track’s origins had been linked to an unlikely marketing campaign within the US. Timothy Leary was greatest referred to as the “turn on, tune in, drop out” advocate of LSD who had turn out to be such a preferred pied piper of psychedelics that Richard Nixon labeled him “the most dangerous man in America.” When John and Yoko recorded “Give Peace A Chance” of their Montreal resort room throughout their bed-in for peace, their second such occasion after their honeymoon in Amsterdam, Leary was not solely a part of the refrain, sat on the foot of the mattress, however was even namechecked within the track’s lyric.
Leary, like Lennon, knew the ability of a catchy slogan. Having determined to run towards Ronald Reagan for governor of California, he requested John if he’d write a track round his catchphrase “Come together – join the party.” John obligingly busked one thing shortly onto a tape, which was then broadcast on underground radio stations.
“You couldn’t have a campaign song like that”
“Leary attacked me years later,” Lennon advised Playboy journal in 1980, “saying I ripped him off. Well, I had written another little thing called ‘Come Together And Join The Party…’ It never got further than that. And they never came back to ask for the song. I didn’t rip him off. I had the song there waiting for him.” Describing the track he wrote for The Beatles, Lennon remembered, “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 backs up Lennon’s story: “Though the new version was certainly a musical and lyrical improvement on my campaign song, I was a bit miffed that Lennon had passed me over this way… When I sent a mild protest to John, he replied with typical Lennon charm and wit that he was a tailor and I was a customer who had ordered a suit and never returned. So he sold it to someone else.”
“I suggested that we tried it swampy”
It was from this unlikely seed that the opening monitor for Abbey Street grew. Leary could have accused Lennon of pinching his slogan, however his declare wouldn’t acquire half the traction that one other accusation of plagiarism would garner.
Paul McCartney had observed that, in its authentic type, “Come Together” bore greater than only a passing resemblance to one thing by considered one of their early heroes. “He originally brought it over as a very perky little song, and I pointed out to him that it was very similar to Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me,’” McCartney recalled. “John acknowledged it was rather close to it, so I said, ‘Well, anything you can do to get away from that?’ I suggested that we tried it swampy – ‘swampy’ was the word I used – so we did, we took it right down.”
To resolve a authorized dispute, John recorded “You Can’t Catch Me” on his Rock’n’Roll album. As he defined, “‘Come Together’ is me – writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing. I left the line in ‘Here come 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.”
Having slowed the track to a funkier groove, the band recorded “Come Together” at Abbey Street over six periods, beginning on July 21, and the track was launched as a single on October 6. The key to the track’s success lay in its simplicity. The efficiency was tight and undoubtedly had a swampy funkiness to it. As John recalled in 1980 to Playboy, “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’d buy it!”
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