[69] Coleman, McCartney: Yesterday . . . and Today , 6-7.
[70] Ibid. See also Garbarini and Baird, “Has Success Spoiled Paul McCartney?” (1985), 62.
[71] “Paul McCartney and John Lennon at the Tonight Show,” May 15, 1968. Discussion in Winn, That Magic Feeling , 166.
[72] “Paul and Linda McCartney Interview,” Playboy , (1984), 107.
[73] Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 2. Or Paul played the tune to Alma, and her mother walked in and asked, “Would anyone like some scrambled eggs?” According to this tradition, Paul immediately took that as a title and added the legs line off the cuff. Coleman, McCartney: Yesterday . . . and Today , 9-10. However, elsewhere, Paul seems to remember the “Scrambled egg” lyric coming with the dream. Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: an Oral History , 193.
[74] Coleman, McCartney: Yesterday . . . and Today , 8-9.
[75] Ibid., 10-11.
[76] Ibid., 15-16. See above.
[77] Ibid. Matthew, “Interview with Paul McCartney & John Lennon,” (1967).
[78] Coleman, McCartney: Yesterday . . . and Today , 19-20.
[79] Ibid.
[80] Ibid., 42-43.
[81] Gambaccini, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” also Gambaccini, Paul McCartney In His Own Words , 17. Read, “McCartney on McCartney,” episode 2. Williams, “Produced by George Martin” (1971). Pritchard and Lysaght, The Beatles: an Oral History , 192.
[82] Wyndham, “Paul McCartney As Songwriter.”
[83] “Paul McCartney and John Lennon at the Tonight Show,” May 14, 1968.
[84] Gambaccini, Paul McCartney In His Own Words , 17. Similar: Paul in Rowland, “The Quiet Wilbury” (1990): “I wrote ‘Yesterday’ singlehanded and not only do I share it—now with Yoko—but the Lennon name comes before mine.”
[85] Wenner, Lennon Remembers , 81.
[86] Coleman, McCartney: Yesterday . . . and Today , 94.
[87] Matthew, “Interview with Paul McCartney & John Lennon,” March 20, 1967.
[88] Coleman, McCartney: Yesterday . . . and Today (1995), 19-20, working from interviews with Paul, says that Paul came up with the title and final lyrics when he was on the Portugal vacation with Jane. He came back to England, and “When he told his Beatles colleagues that he had re-named ‘Scrambled Eggs’ as ‘Yesterday’ and completed the lyric, there was little response.”
[89] “Paul McCartney and John Lennon at the Tonight Show,” May 14, 1968.
[90] Dawson, “Lennon’s Eye View,” p. 13.
[91] Robbins, “Interview with John Lennon.”
8
“He’d say, ‘Nowhere land,’ and I’d say, ‘For nobody.’ It was a two-way thing” —
RUBBER SOUL
T his album marked a major watershed for the Beatles. Though their previous albums and songs had been generally superb, and showed signs of the songwriting ambitions of the two lead songwriters, Rubber Soul seemed a quantum leap forward, both in its unique and personal lyrics and in its musical depth and creativity. Instead of producing standard boilerplate love lyrics, Paul and John started to write songs that were enigmatic and unsentimental. Some of the love songs that were on the album, such as “In My Life,” “Girl,” and “Michelle,” were unique and deeply felt. There are hints of the innocent, exuberant early Beatles on Rubber Soul , and suggestions of the mature Beatles that were to come.
With Rubber Soul the Beatles made a conscious effort to shed their “teen-age” image. “Rubber Soul for me is the beginning of my adult life,” Paul said, in 1966. [1] “You don’t know us if you don’t know Rubber Soul ,” John said in the same year. “All our ideas are different now.” [2] In fact, the songs on this album are generally more mature, more complex, and simply better than most of the songs on the previous albums. Perhaps as a result, song attribution in later interviews became more conflicted. One of the most disputed songs in the Beatles canon is Rubber Soul ’s “In My Life.”
“That Means A Lot / My Prayer” single — P. J. Proby, September 17, 1965
That Means a Lot — (McCartney-Lennon)
(recorded on April 7, 1965)
Paul and John wrote this for Help! . “The song is a ballad which Paul and I wrote for the film,” John said in 1965. [3] Though this early evidence points to collaboration, John later ascribed the song to Paul, so the collaboration probably came from a song Paul had started, or he dominated the writing session. [4]
The Beatles did record this, on February 20 and March 30, 1965, but it didn’t make it into the Help! movie or album. John’s story was that he and Paul didn’t sing it very well. Paul said they just weren’t that keen on the song. [5] It never appeared on a Beatles album until it was released on Anthology 2 .
Then John ran into one P. J. Proby at a nightclub one night. Proby (an American, born James Marcus Smith) had a moderately successful singing career in England from 1964 to 1966, and was a friend of the Beatles, especially John. Proby asked John to write him a song, and John agreed. They met a week later and John gave him “That Means a Lot.” [6] Proby’s recording of it went to number 24 in England.
Working from the available evidence, one could view this as a pure Paul song (based on John’s late evidence), as a collaboration dominated by Paul (based on John’s early evidence), or as a John song (which seems to be Proby’s view). My vote goes for option two, as major or minor collaboration was characteristic of early Beatles songs. In addition, this is the earliest evidence.
My Prayer (Georges Boulanger, Jimmy Kennedy)
Rubber Soul album, December 3, 1965
Drive My Car — (McCartney-Lennon)
(lead vocals: Paul and John) (recorded on October 13, 1965)
As Paul tells the story, he worked out the melody to this — “the tune was there, I’d done the melody” [7] — and had a basic idea of a “bitchy girl” talking to the narrator about gold rings. He took the song to John, but he didn’t like the ring idea — “Crap!” [8] — and Paul realized that the lyrics were “disastrous.” So they spent hours trying fruitlessly to get something better. It seemed like they were going to have to admit defeat and end up with a “dry” writing session (a rarity for them), when they came up with “‘Baby, you can drive my car.” Then the lyrics and the story fell into place. For Paul, it was a perfect example of how he and John could work together successfully. [9]
In 1971, John described the song as collaborative. [10] But in 1980, he ascribed it to Paul, and couldn’t remember if he’d added anything to it. “His song, with contributions from the . . . eeahhh, don’t know if I put anything in.” [11]
This is mostly Paul’s song, but both Paul and the earliest evidence from John show that it was finished with collaboration. John’s editing and feedback were crucial for the lyrics. It’s another example of the new Beatle songs whose lyrics weren’t hackneyed romantic clichés. In fact, these new lyrics were often enigmatic, as the next song would show.
Norwegian Wood — (Lennon-McCartney)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on October 21, 1965)
Apparently John had the opening lines to this song — “I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me” — in 1964. [12] He started to put music to the words while he was on a skiing holiday in Switzerland with Cynthia, and George Martin and his wife, from January to February, 1965. He filled out the first verse, developing lyrics reflecting an affair he was having. So he had to be careful to make sure that the relationship would not be explicit. [13]
According to Paul, when John came back in England, he and Paul had a work session on the song at Kenwood. John played the first stanza, and they developed the song from there. [14] Paul added the middle eight, then had the idea to burn down the flat at the end. [15] The song was finished.
In some interviews John claimed this song, denying collaboration. In 1980, he described it as “my song completely.” [16] In 1968, he had put it in the list of personal songs “that really meant something to me.” [17] In other interviews, he affirmed Paul�
�s contributions. In 1970, he said that Paul helped with the middle eight, [18] and the following year he said “Me, but Paul helped me on the lyric.” [19]
Paul never denied that John was the main songwriter for the song, but always stated that the song was finished with collaboration. For example, in 1973, he said that “Norwegian Wood” was “mainly John’s,” but was nevertheless co-written, and one of the co-written songs he really liked. [20] Six years later he explained that it was one of “certain ones John wrote and I just helped a little bit.” [21] In some interviews, he emphasized the collaboration more. [22]
I conclude that this was a song started by John, but finished with substantial collaboration, including Paul contributing much of the middle section.
The sitar is a remarkable feature of the recorded song. According to Lennon, he asked George to play it, and in one interview, George agrees. In another, he said that he picked the sitar up and tried it when they were looking for a new, unique sound. Indian culture had entered the Beatles’ music for the first time. [23]
You Won’t See Me — (McCartney)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on November 11, 1965)
Paul remembered writing the tune for this song against a descending chromatic scale. “I changed it but it was still a two-note thing but instead of it going down I pushed it up and then came down again; just a slight variation.” [24] It was very Motown-influenced, with its James Jameson bass lines. [25] According to Merseybeat journalist Bill Harry, the lyrics reflect that Paul wrote this at a time when Jane Asher wouldn’t answer his calls. [26]
Both Paul and John agree that this song was written by Paul. [27]
Nowhere Man — (Lennon-McCartney)
(lead vocals: John) (recorded on October 21 and 22, 1965)
One day John was at his house, trying to write a song, and nothing would come. So he gave up, frustrated, and went to lie down. He thought of himself doing nothing and going nowhere — the nowhere man. Then the words started to come. [28]
In 1984, Paul said, “That was John after a night out, with dawn coming up. I think at that point in his life, he was a bit wondering where he was going.” [29] He thought it reflected John’s dissatisfaction with his marriage, living in the suburbs. [30]
John claimed this song, [31] and Paul generally agreed. However, in two late interviews he described contributing to it. In 2000, he said that it “was one of John’s” and that “he’d already got most of it.” But “I maybe helped him with a word here or there.” One of the characteristics of their collaboration was that they liked each other, Paul said. “He’d sing something and I’d say, ‘Yeah,’ and trade off on that. He’d say, ‘Nowhere land,’ and I’d say, ‘For nobody.’ It was a two-way thing.” [32]
And in a 2005 interview, after describing how he and John wrote together, face to face, with acoustic guitars, he said,
If he was in C, I’d go to C, and maybe a little idea would come though that one of us had, or something might pop in to your head to the chords. Sings, “He’s a real nowhere man / Living in. . . dah dah dah.” Write it down, write it down! And, it’d start flowing. Middle eight. Hey! Now we go somewhere . . . and y’know, that just became the system. [33]
I conclude that this is a song by John, finished with minor collaboration from Paul.
Think For Yourself (Harrison)
(lead vocals: George) (recorded on November 8, 1965)
This is George’s best song yet, but he couldn’t recall much about writing it, or even what it was about, beyond, possibly the Government. [34]
The Word — (collaboration, John emphasis)
(lead vocals: John, Paul and George) (recorded on November 10, 1965)
John and Paul wrote this at Kenwood. Though they usually didn’t use drugs during songwriting sessions, this time they smoked some pot, said Paul, “then we wrote out a multicoloured lyric sheet, the first time we’d ever done that.” [35]
In 1971 John remembered working with Paul on this and put it on a list of collaborative songs. [36] But in 1980, while not denying that collaboration was there, he claimed it as mostly his own: “‘The Word’ was written together, but from my — mainly mine, let’s put it that way.” [37] In his last interview, John emphasized that the song came from his realization: “It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer, when I was younger, on the Beatles’ Rubber Soul album. My first expression of it was a song called ‘The Word.’ The word is ‘love.’. . . [this] seemed like the underlying meaning to the Universe.” [38]
Paul, however, always seemed to remember substantial collaboration in this song’s creation. In 1965, he said, “To write a good song with just one note in it — like ‘Long Tall Sally’ — is really very hard. It’s the kind of thing we’ve wanted to do for some time. We get near it in ‘The Word.’” And thirty years later, Miles wrote, “It was a song that John and Paul wrote together at Kenwood.” [39]
I conclude that the song was a collaboration with John emphasis.
Michelle — (McCartney-Lennon-Vaughan)
(lead vocals: Paul) (recorded on November 3, 1965)
In its musical form “Michelle” was one of Paul’s older songs; it dates back to his years at the Liverpool Institute grammar school (from 1953 to 1960). [40] He would play it as a joke song at “arty, bohemian” parties. “We’d be hanging out and being very far out,” Paul said. “So there’d always be a guy in the corner with a guitar. So I used to pretend I was French.” [41] It became his “French joke, on guitar.” [42] He played it for years, as an instrumental, as a country-western tune in “Chet Atkins’ finger-pickin’ style. . . . based on Atkins’ ‘Trambone.’” [43] It was recorded in a Beatle rehearsal tape in summer 1963, without the later middle eight. [44]
But as the Beatles were preparing songs for Rubber Soul , John suggested that Paul resurrect this. “John said, ‘D’you remember that French thing you used to do at Mitchell’s parties?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Well, that’s a good tune. You should do something with that.’. . . So I did.” [45] Without John’s encouragement, this song may have never been developed. The joke tune became a haunting ballad.
Paul worked on “Michelle” and came to a songwriting session with the beginnings of the song. In 1966, John said, “he just sort of had a bit of a verse, and a couple of words, and the idea. . . . He just brought it along and just sort of started fiddling around trying to get a middle-eight.” [46] John thought of Nina Simone’s version of “I Put a Spell on You,” [47] in which she repeats, “I love you” four times, and they developed a version of that for the middle section. [48]
Paul and John often added to the lyrics of a song in informal sessions with friends, and in this case, Paul worked out the French lyrics with Jan Vaughan, a French teacher, the wife of his friend Ian Vaughan, who had introduced Paul to John on that fateful day in July 1957. [49]
I said, “I like the name Michelle. Can you think of anything that rhymes with Michelle, in French?” And she said, “Ma belle .” I said, “What’s that mean?” “My beauty.” I said, “That’s good, a love song, great.” We just started talking, and I said, “Well, those words go together well, what’s French for that? Go together well.” “Sont les mots qui vont très bien ensemble .” I said, “All right, that would fit.” And she told me a bit how to pronounce it, so that was it. I got that off Jan, and years later I sent her a cheque around. I thought I better had because she’s virtually a co-writer on that. [50]
George Martin wrote the guitar solo, which was played by George Harrison. [51] And the song was finished.
Paul often claimed this. “Most of the ballady stuff I wrote on my own. ‘Yesterday,’ ‘Michelle,’ ‘The Long and Winding Road,’ ‘Let It Be,’ ‘Eleanor Rigby,’” he said, before 1989. [52] In the same year, he said, “‘Yesterday,’ ‘Michelle’ and some of those very McCartney ones I’d written on my own because they’d come quickly and I hadn’t had time to take them to John. I just started on my own at home and it had all happened. Like premature ejacul
ation. By the time I’d taken them to John it might just be one little word he’d want to change.” [53] He remembered bringing the song in and “showing the guys how it went.” [54]
John readily agreed that the main song was by Paul, but he always mentioned that he contributed to the middle section, with the Nina Simone “nick.” “I wrote the middle with him,” he said in 1971. [55] In 1967, John had said, “I think Paul wrote that one. I remember saying, Why don’t you pinch that bit from so and so’s song, and he said, Right.” [56]
The main song was written by Paul, then, and the chorus was collaborative, with John. In addition, there were important additions from Jan Vaughan and George Martin.
SIDE TWO
What Goes On — (Lennon-McCartney-Starkey)
(lead vocals: Ringo) (recorded on November 4, 1965)
This country-western ditty apparently started off as a very early song by John, which he then worked on with Paul in Liverpool, perhaps at 20 Forthlin Road. As he considered using it for Rubber Soul , it was unfinished, lacking a middle eight, and Paul supplied that (with a minimal contribution from Ringo, according to Ringo: “About five words.” [57] ).
John correctly attributed this to Lennon-McCartney-Starkey. “Me,” John said in 1971. “A very early song of mine. Ringo and Paul wrote a new middle eight together when we recorded it.” [58] Neil Aspinall, in 1966, stated that it was a co-written song, and that Paul made a demo of it for Ringo. “John and Paul wrote it years ago in Liverpool. Then Ringo added things, including some new lyrics, when he’d heard Paul’s special tape.” [59] An early press report said that Paul wrote it, “a five-year-old country and western song,” but this is not first hand. [60]
Who Wrote the Beatle Songs Page 14
