Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 21, 22, 23, 25, 29, 30 July 1969
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald
Released: 26 September 1969 (UK), 1 October 1969 (US)
Available on:
Abbey Road
1
Anthology 3
Love
Personnel
John Lennon: vocals, rhythm guitar, handclaps, tambourine
Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass guitar, electric piano
George Harrison: lead guitar, rhythm guitar
Ringo Starr: drums, maraca
‘Come Together’, the lead song on The Beatles’ Abbey Road album, was conceived by John Lennon as a political rallying cry for the writer, psychologist and pro-drugs activist Timothy Leary.
It was a funky record – it’s one of my favorite Beatle tracks, or, one of my favourite 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!
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
‘Come Together’ was composed for Timothy Leary’s campaign to stand against Ronald Reagan as governor of California. Leary and his wife Rosemary had traveled to Montreal for John and Yoko’s bed-in for peace, which took place on 1 June 1969. The Learys participated in the recording of Lennon’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’, and were both namechecked in the lyrics.
Everybody’s talking about:
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna
Hare Hare Krishna
The following day Lennon offered to help Leary’s campaign. His slogan was ‘Come together, join the party’. Lennon sent Leary a demo tape of song ideas. However, the campaign ended when Leary was imprisoned for cannabis possession, allowing Lennon to record the song with The Beatles.
The thing was created in the studio. It’s gobbledygook; ‘Come Together’ was an expression that 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 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?
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Leary was bemused when he came to hear The Beatles’ recording of the song.
Although 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.
A Hard Day’s Write, Steve Turner
‘Come Together’ was Lennon’s last politicised stance in The Beatles, although much of it was shrouded in imagery: the song lampooned the hippy figureheads who would seek followers among the dropouts of society.
Musically, ‘Come Together’ took its cue from Chuck Berry’s 1956 song ‘You Can’t Catch Me’; both songs contain the lines “Here come old flat-top”. Lennon was later sued by Berry’s publisher Morris Levy. They settled out of court, and Lennon agreed to record more songs owned by Levy.
‘Come Together’ is me – writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing. I left the line in ‘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.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The result was his 1975 album Rock ‘N’ Roll, which contained Berry’s ‘Sweet Little Sixteen’ and ‘You Can’t Catch Me’, along with Lee Dorsey’s ‘Ya Ya’ (also recorded with the 11-year-old Julian Lennon on drums for 1974’s Walls And Bridges).
A version of ‘Come Together’ was included on The Beatles’ Love album. Its lengthy fade-out is augmented with elements from ‘Dear Prudence’. After the song, the “Can you take me back” snippet that followed ‘Cry Baby Cry’ on the White Album can be heard.
Paul did not sing on this track, as he himself complains about on the next page. Also, according to Emerick, while Paul composed the electric piano bit, John learned it and performed it on the record.
The harmony vocals certainly sound a lot like McCartney. I took the quote to mean that he wasn’t singing a duet with Lennon – ie at the same time, as they did on The Ballad Of John And Yoko. The version of Come Together on Anthology 3 shows how it was recorded at first with just Lennon on vocals.
However, it may be that Lennon double-tracked his vocals. Can anyone shed any light on this?
I’m fairly certain it is, in fact, Lennon’s voice slowed down on the vocals, an effect which usually makes him sound more similar to Paul than usual.
Aha – according to Geoff Emerick, John did his own backing vocals: https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/geoff-emerick-on-the-beatles-in-the-studio-219542
Paul is singing backup with John. Its obvious!
Wow, I always always thought it was Paul doing the low harmony backup vocals on “Come Together.” But Paul himself says he didn’t sing on it.
That puts the song in a whole new light for me now…
Anyone with a decent ear for music can tell that Paul is singing the lower backing vocal during the verses. The Beatles used to always record harmony vocals together in the booth live and Paul’a was an overdub… meaning it was added at a different time since he and Lennon were rarely in the studio together during the recording of Abbey Road.
In terms of what Emerick was saying, Lennon’s chorus vocals were double-tracked and both were his. Perhaps McCartney wanted in on the songs biggest hook
Paul is definitely in there in places.
I have to agree. This is my favorite song of all time and I was amazed when it was bandied about that Paul hadn’t contributed vocals at all. I thought I had a good ear for differentiating their voices and it does sound very much like Paul singing very much like he did on ‘Hey Bulldog’. Then there are places where it is only John double-tracked. But the verses sound like Paul. It is true that Paul did not sing in tandem with John. As Paul tells it, and was even well-known back in the ’70s when I first learned it, their relationship was at a point where they couldn’t even relate to each other. Pins and needles. Thus, Paul was really not confident to approach John and ask, ‘Can I sing with you?’ Very sad.
Paul did not sing on Come Together. he was quoted as saying that he was in the studio while John was doing the vocals but their relationship had deteriorated to the point even though he wanted to sing the harmony, he didn’t offer and John didn’t ask.
Sounds like Paul singing with John to me. I can tell the difference in their voices.
umm not what he says, read the page again. He didnt sing harmony with him live and was sad about that, did overdubs instead.
Paul is *definitely* harmonizing with John during the verses. If the evidence of your ears doesn’t convince you, these photos should:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160528223551/http://www.feelnumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/john-lennon-paul-mccartney-abbey-road-sessions-come-together-yoko.jpg
https://web.archive.org/web/20180920235351/http://www.feelnumb.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/john-lennon-paul-mccartney-abbey-road-last-recording-session-singing-the-beatles.jpg
Notice that John is clapping…
it sounded like Paul…but I read many times that the relation between them was so tense at that time that Paul was embarrassed to add harmonny…
even though, Paul piano and specially great Bass line makes a distinctive mark in the track
Paul and John both claimed that cool electric piano solo. I’m sure it was Paul. If you listen carefully, there are actually 2 electric pianos going. I think John played the basic chords and Paul did the fancy stuff. As he demonstrated on the Plastic Ono Band album, John was not much of keyboardist.
Well John was good enough of a piano player to write and play songs such as Imagine, Instant Karma, Mother, Real Love, and Grow Old With Me. What have you done in comparison?
He’s not saying that John couldn’t make a nice piano piece, just saying he was no virtuoso pianist, which isn’t hard to see. Paul was technically a better “technician” on instruments but that doesn’t take away from what John contributed to the Beatles which no amount of instrumental virtuosity could replace.
When did John claim he played any electric piano on “Come Together”? I know Emerick said John did, but in recent years, at a point when Emerick had memory problems to the point that he gave inaccurate details about how “A Day In The Life” was put together in his book. Fellow Beatles engineer Ken Scott publicly pointed out that Emerick didn’t have a good memory and, after all these years, details in his book didn’t make sense.
When John was rehearsing “Come Together” with Elephant’s Memory (for the One-To-One concert) in August 1972, he (John) clearly said the piano was very simple “otherwise Paul couldn’t have played it”, and that his (Paul’s) left hand was his right hand, meaning that the way the notes rolled were more towards the left. John also told to Adam Ippolito, the keyboard player for Elephant’s Memory, to take the record home and listen to how the piano is played.
Very interesting story. What is the source ?
Who plays the solo? The guitar’s tone sounds like John’s Epiphone Casino, but is it him playing?
Again a display of the genius John Lennon.
To me, those four verses are basically a description of the four Beatles, with a John-twist.
First verse: George (Holy roller, his Indian influence, hair down to his knees..)
Second verse: Paul (No shoeshine, Abby Road-cover, toe-jam football, rugby, monkey finger, how you hold your hand when you play bass)
Third verse John himself (Ono sideboard)
Last verse, Ringo (Got to be goodlookin’ cause he’s so hard to see(awesome line) as Ringo was standing behind the three Beatles)
How did John Know Paul wasn’t going to wear shoes on the cover?
Naah. “Monkey finger” is something entirely different from the way somebody might hold their hand when they play the bass.
After you put your finger somewhere, the way it is, is called “monkey finger”.
It’s the place you can do on your own, male or female. The person probably needed to pull his finger out. Enough said.
It’s more likely it is unintentional. No doubt John was influenced by those around him but I doubt this song was intended to define the four in verses. When you flesh out the lyrics entirely it quits holding up to scrutiny. For the first verse the actual line is ‘hair down to his knee’ (singular) – which I’ve always found to be peculiar, then the last part about being a joker and doing what he please doesn’t sound necessarily like George. The Abbey Road cover doesn’t support the ‘no shoeshine’ argument as numer9 notes. However, Paul did have a habit of being barefoot in the studio during those sessions. The rest of the second verse bears little resemblance to Paul IMO. The third going to John? Sure! In fact, they are probably all John in some fashion along with his usual flair for insane nonsense (read his books). The same with the last verse. John and George’s hair were both longer than Ringo’s and, in fact, John was practically unrecognizable frequently with his wild beard.
In final summation, John had this unique way with the English language to start with and this song is simply an extension of this gift. It’s actually hilarious if one doesn’t get too serious about it. Like many song writers John would try to search for words to put in a song and would frequently not have any particular worthwhile subject – thus gobbledygook.
My take is this:
First verse: George (grooving up slowly, joo-joo eyeball, got to be a joker he just do what he please)
Second verse: Ringo. (monkey finger, not sure on the rest…)
Third verse: John. (Ono sideboard, Walrus gumboot)
Fourth verse: Paul. (muddy water = Muddy Waters; bluesman, one and one and one is three, good looking = “cute Beatle”)
I think John does a bit of a disservice to the contributions of the other Beatles when he says “Lennon song” … Paul’s bass in particular really makes the song. And George’s guitar leads are great too.
Totally agree!. Paul was the ultimate Beatle giving it 100% to all songs whether his or not. I don’t believe there was a Beatle song he didn’t play on. With the possible exception of the rubbishy Revolution 9.
Paul did not play on She Said She Said.
Yes, and he didn´t play on “Not a second time”, “Within you Without you”, “Julia”, “Revolution 9” nor “Good Night”.
Actually, McCartney did play on “Not A Second Time,” according to most sources I’ve come across.
I’m pretty sure Paul played bass on She Said She Said.
He didn’t.
All four Beatles have said that Paul stormed out after an argument, leaving the other 3 to finish the song. George played bass.
.. turns out that She Said She Said was the end of the Revolver sessions…. Paul had a big argument with the other three and went home. you’ll never listen to the song the same way again… as you’ll notice that the bass is rather leadfooted. It’s George playing bass and singing backup for John.
That’s why i really don’t like She Said She Said!!!!
Julio, Alimony Slim and Rorschuch;
Paul did play the Bass on “She Said She Said”. Fab 4 Free For All did a Interview with Giles Martin for the new Revolver Box Set that is coming out the last week of October 2022. Giles said it was DEFINITELY Paul McCartney who play Bass on “She Said She Said”. Paul must had laid down the Bass before he walk out.
Julio, Yes, Giles Martin says it was definitely Paul who is playing Bass on “She Said She Said” in the interviews he gave talking about the New Revolver that came out this year in October .
“Revolution 9” rubbishy? Just because is not a pop song?
Absolutely for that Tobias comment. John started as the driving force but he resentfully had nothing left but to relinquish to Paul’s fountain of creativity which became the catalyst of their demise: John’s ego.
When making these comments neither John, Paul, or George were given the time necessary for an elobarate explanation.
John made contributions to songs that are described as a”McCartney Song” or a “Harrisong Song”.
To suggest that his opinion is a disservice to the other Beatles is a disservice to Lennon.
It was the task of everyone in the group to flesh out the vision of the author’s song with their contribution. Without the vision, all of the bass parts and guitar parts don’t mean a thing.
Does anyone know which kind of electric piano was used on the Abbey Road track?
It was a Fender Rhodes.
In reply to Arthur, I agree the 4 verses are about each Beatle but you mixed up Paul and Ringo. The second verse is Ringo(monkey fingers being drum sticks) and verse 4 being Paul who John called a mojo filter, roller-coaster(helter-skelter) and hard to see (understand) because he is good looking – which Paul is and Ringo is not in most opinions. Also, the positioning of the first 3 verses prior to the instrumental break was deliberate by John because it showed Paul that the others were with John(on Allen Klein) and that Paul was separate. That is why in the last verse John sings “One and one and one is 3” meaning Paul you can count that it is 3 against one so “come together over me”.Paul eventually responds on Ram with the song 3 legs. Pretty interesting play between them as they fought for control of the Beatles.
The Cute One is not good-looking?
During the guitar licks, I read somewhere that John is saying “Shoot Me” but the Me portion is buried in the hand claps.
I think it’s slightly easier to hear on the remastered version. A couple of times it’s very clear that he says “Shoot me”.
It’s most definitely “Shoot me”, according to the lyric track in The Beatles Rock Band. But I agree with Mark; it’s very hard to notice if you don’t know it’s there.
Most covers I’ve heard, including Michael Jackson’s and Aerosmith’s, replace the “shoot me” with a generic “shoop” sound.
Oddly enough though, when John sang it LIVE in 1972 he does not sound or appear to be singing ‘Shoot me’. But he messed up the rest of the words anyway.
It’s Paul playing the electric piano bit, and it’s defenitly him doing harmony vocals and the verses are like this:
1. George (Holy roller = indian influence, Hair down to his knees)
2. Paul (No shoeshine = Abbey road cover, Toe-jam football = Rugby, Monkey finger = Bass finger positioning)
3. John (Ono-sideboard = Do I need to explain this one?)
4. Ringo (Got to be goodlookin’ cause he’s so hard to see = People focusing mor on the other 3)
Who’s narrating that YouTube clip? Because unless it’s someone who was actually there, or who knows definitively that it was Paul on electric piano, it may just be supposition. The same with the vocals – they were recorded on different tracks, so it could still have been Lennon doing both. It’s hard to tell. Great clip though – thanks for sharing.
EDIT: I’ve found out it’s from this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mc0cc
The hosts were Richard Allinson and Steve Levine.
Wow! Thanks Jacob! It IS Paul singing background vocals! Had me for a loop there for a couple of weeks.
Your welcome!
According to Geoff Emerick (studio engineer on the last 5 Beatles albums) john did all of the vocals. He slowed down the backing vocals which made them sound a lot like paul.
I’m pretty sure Paul plays the EP part too. In Beatles Rock Band it shows him playing it, and I know it isn’t a reliable source, but if Lennon played it don’t you think they would show him playing it?
I remember reading in a Beatles biography years ago that the song was about the Maharishi. It’s not hard to construe that from some of the lyrics, but apparently it was a false assumption.
No; Sexy Sadie is the Maharishi song.
Another interesting thing about this song: when John brought it in it was an uptempo 12-bar piece. Paul suggested slowing it down and making it “swampy.” All the difference, and a great example of how their polar differences created musical alchemy.
And another bit of trivia: The first takes of Come Together were recorded the same day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
On the note about Epi Casino riff:
All the Beatles (Save Ringo) had purchased Casinos. It could be either John or George.
So…people doubt Geoff Emerick when he says that Lennon sang his own backing vocals? Odd…
Because Geoff Emerick is full of s***e, that’s why.
On paper, the idea of an insider penning a memoir describing how the Beatles made their magic would be irresistible. But Here, There, and Everywhere is not that book: it is a gossipy, self-serving, spiteful tome, filled with egregious errors of fact throughout – sort of a companion volume to Peter Brown’s The Love You Make.
It has been reported extensively that once Emerick secured a publishing deal, he frantically called up his colleagues, seeking anecdotes as his own memory was faulty and he really couldn’t remember much. It’s hard to doubt this because the book is filled with fanciful nonsense throughout. I leave it to engineer Ken Scott, who has openly called bullshit on this book, to give the particulars.
Then there’s the “Come Together” gem, since debunked.
It seems the more this man talks, the more senile he gets.
Ultimately as a fan, I think most Beatle fans would prefer the truth over an interesting new lie.
It is obvious Paul is singing backup. Mr. Emerick was either mistaken, or trying to spice up his book by giving an example of the stressful situation that existed between John and Paul. In light of this, I vote Paul’s vocal is properly credited.
Geoff is neither correct nor incorrect. John did do his own — at first. Paul overdubbed his later. Geoff does seem to be trying to give himself more of a role in the Beatles process as the years move forward. After all, it sells books, doesn’t it?
I wouldn’t say that Paul “composed” the piano part of the song. Maybe he had something to do with it but he just played the notes from the beginning of the song. And these were composed by Lennon.
It’s very clear to me: John double tracked his vocals in the refrain (choruses): “Come together, / right now, over me.” Paul didn’t sing harmony on those lines, is John himself. But Paul indeed overdub his harmony parts for the verses.
The electric piano part es interesting. Every source has stated it was Paul, and that John was very proud of Paul’s playing. And now we find this Emerick’s quote saying it was lennon instead.
I’ve been listening to the Beatles for 40 + years. I have never doubted it was Paul’s voice doing backup. When Emerick alleged in his book Lennon did ALL the vocals on “Come Together” I thought he was surely mistaken (daft). The aforementioned YouTube video confirms what I’ve known (heard) all along.
With regard to the electric piano part…it’s hard to say. It most certainly could have been Paul (the YouTube video states it’s Paul) however, the 2 to 3 (maybe 4) note chords are more indicative of John’s simplified piano playing style.
I thought it was Lennon who played the piano bit, I recall reading that Lennon got the piano idea from McCartney and later recorded it by himself
Yes, the idea came from Mcca but he took it from the material that John developed.
I’ve encountered that “Each verse describes one Beatle” premise before, and it’s never made any sense to me at all. If a guy is introduced in the first line, and every subsequent lyric begins with the pronoun “He…”, it’s pretty hard not to conclude that the song’s about ONE individual, and nobody else: “Old Flat-Top”, whoever THAT is.
This is from Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me’.
In this video you can hear the isolated vocal track. Even though the harmony sounds like McCartney due to the low register, John could also reach those low registers, for example in the song “(just like) starting over” or when he says “shoot me” in CT.
Also, in the chorus, the “come together” is in the low register but the “right now” emulates the lead vocal, clearly sounding like lennon.
Paul in “Many Years From Now” said he noticed a resemblance to “You Can’t Catch Me” when he first heard it and suggested slowing it down to obscure it a bit. But I agree with John that there’s very little similarity. Granted if you speed up “Come Together” to the same tempo, the first few bars sound a bit similar. But the key sections of each songs diverge after that. Hell, Chuck used the same musical formula for a lot of his songs, but despite the similarity, each song is a distinct classic. The same with this song, or Lennon’s “Ballad of John and Yoko” or “New York City” for that matter.
Any legs to the theory that “Come Together” is a sexual reference? Thought I read that somewhere, thought maybe even John himself alluded to that
It was used in a porno way back when in the 70’s. There was lots of winking and grins when this was first heard and appreciated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXXeM3g98mo
Thats paul
I think you should change the performance credits to include John on electric piano and harmony vocal due the fact that there is a lot of evidence to support it (I also firmly believe that the vocals are all lennon). When in doubt put both. Paul actaully says he did not sing harmony on this.
Well, you know, it sounds like Paul using the same kind of harmonic approach that he used on ‘Hey Bulldog’, but the session notes really do not indicate Paul singing on this song. Meanwhile, let us consider the oddity of the song. No one had that certain quirk like John. ‘Come Together’ has this very strange percussion from clear out of left field. Very original – but what is it? After decades of reverence pondering this song I have determined that it is a ‘rotary telephone’. Only John could take something so mundane and turn it into a total head trip. Genius, man!!
I think this percussion you’re talking about is simply John clapping his hands. As he clapped them and sang at the same time, voice was echoed, so it was natural for a microphone to make the claps echoed, too. Simple as that.
I’m not isolated on the hand clap alone. The whole ‘shoot –‘ followed by the hand clap echo and then Ringo’s rolling drum comes out sounding like an old rotary phone. Then John’s voice has this tinny compression which even resembles a voice over a phone. Perhaps unintentional – but I remain amazed that anyone would walk into a studio and intentionally manifest this. When this first came out I was instantly captured by the sound – it was like, what’s all this then? The Beatles always took the concept of what could be accepted as music and pushed it over the edge.
Finally– someone else who heard that “rotary phone” sound! The “shoot” sounds like when you pulled the dial around and the rest sounds like when you release the dial. For thirty years I thought that’s what they were doing until the internet came along and spoiled it by explaining what it really was, lol. Still, it’s a brilliant combination of bass, drums, guitar, and vocal that give us that wonderful sound.
I wrote a play for the Marion County Library, Ocala, Florida competition based on “Come Together” by The Beatles. And I won! The winning play was to be a “red carpet” event, with the performance being at the library. But sadly they were not able to follow through due to lack of auditions. The play featured Paul McCartney meeting Johnn Lennon at the library.
Well, that’ll teach me to take the title literally, as I’m pretty sure it was the Roy Thomas Carr book that stated it was a celebration of the simultaneous orgasm…
What bass guitar did Paul use to record this song? it’s the Rickenbacker? Correct me if i’m wrong.
Yes… what BASS did Paul use for this Riff of all Riffs??? I’ve recently discovered photos of him playing a left-handed Fender Jazz at these sessions; I always thought it was the Höfner violin bass but now I think it’s probably the Jazz bass… does anybody really know???
What bass guitar did Paul use to record this song? it’s the Rickenbacker? Correct me if i’m wrong.
I am not a copyright lawyer, but I play one on television. The differences between this song and You Can’t Catch Me by Chuck Berry, in the legal sense, defined by copyright law, are negligible. Listen to Rock and Roll Songs by Lennon and you will see that this was already a great song without any creative input by the Beatles.
What elevates this version is the vocal and guitar, but it is difficult to give Lennon much credit for the basic song. This was a great, great cover, probably Lennon’s second greatest cover ever, after Twist and Shout.
Yeah, I’ve always doubted that Lennon would’ve actually lost the case, had he actually taken the trouble to defend it in court – it was only 1 1/2 lines he borrowed, more of an obvious “homage” than anything sinister. (Same deal with “Run For Your Life”‘s opening line.)
Lennon wrote some great lyrics for this song. Chuck Berry surely got the tune from some old blues song from the long ago. Get over it.
Someone who plays a copyright lawyer on TV who now thinks he is a copyright lawyer and a musicologist.
But it is difficult for me to give you any credit for this priveleged information. That is, in the legal sense.
I think people sue too much, but listen to the version on Lennon’s Rock and Roll. It is fantastic in its own way, but it is no less dissimilar to the Berry song than is My Sweet Lord to He’s So Fine. I actually think that it is more similar, and Paul apparently warned John of this at the time they recorded it. Some changes were made but not enough to avoid a legal dispute. Obviously Come Together and My Sweet Lord are miles above their so-called inspiration but the music copyright lobby scrapes for every single penny of anything that remotely resembles anything else, or even where innocent mistakes are made. Ask the Verve about their experiences with Klein.
Both John and George largely came out ahead in these disputes, however, with John blocking a pirated copy by his former partners, and George winning a lawsuit against Klein and ending up owning He’s So Fine himself.
So there.
The main reason that Lennon got sued was because Chuck Berry didn’t own the publishing rights to You Can’t Catch Me.
Morris Levy owned the rights and went after Lennon.
That doesn’t really get to the point of the similarities of the songs, but I don’t disagree, from what I have read, that Morris Levy was an ornery sort, as was Klein, who actually violated a fundamental precept of lawyers by appearing on the other side of Harrison’s My Sweet Lord case, which was influential in Harrison’s ending up with the rights to both songs, if I remember correctly.
All that being said, the Beatles should have simply hired a lawyer and gotten the rights to publish Come Together as a similar song with a similar structure to the Berry song.
I don’t think that Lennon wanted to do that because at this point in their careers, the Beatles had done a shift and all of sudden thought it was demeaning to do covers.
It isn’t demeaning to do covers, and Come Together was as close to a cover as the Beatles would ever do after Beatles For Sale.
What you mean is that Klein violated a fundamental point of law named conflict of interest.
So is it “percussive echo” that makes that rattling sort of sound when Lennon sings “Shoot me”? Love the sound, never understood exactly how it was made.
Ywp. Just like I said in the earlier comment, John sang and clapped his hands at the same time, so it’s the clapping with echo making this sound. Very interesting, indeed!
When was the solo added, there is no solo on the anthology version (although there is maybe one on the basic track of the anthology version). The guitar in the anthology versionis very different from the guitars in the abbey road, was a similar guitar also in the abbey road version basic track and later edited out or did harrison on later takes play a different solo?
It is often reported that this song was inspired by Chuck Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”, and indeed it borrows a line from that song, but I believe it has more in common with “Drive My Car” and fittingly opens the album. Years later when Harrison recorded “This Song” in response to the “My Sweet Lord” fiasco he also recorded Cole Porter’s “True Love” which features a chord progression that also appears in “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (for you and I have a guardian angel = and when I touch you I feel happy…).
Who played guitar solos on “Come Together” ?
Just a general comment that applies to any other comments or opinions of many people posting on this forum. Making instrumental contributions or arrangements to a song does not constitute contributing in the songwriting or composing process. Composing and arranging and soloing are not the same thing. If Paul played a great bass part or George used a certain sound characteristic of his style. Well, it’s just that. Great contributions but not part of the songwriting process. I make this comment because many people in this forum seem to get confused with that.
I couldn´t agree more. Songwriting, especially in pop music, is just about melody and lyrics. That´s a song, originally, a poem composed to be sing. Everything else, the drums, de guitars, etcetera, come later, as the arrangements.
I agree! People tend to blur the lines between songwriting and arranging– even professional musicians. Don Felder of the Eagles wrote a chord sequence arrangement that Don Henley and Glen Frey created a song around called “Hotel California”. Even though the melody and lyrics were completely written by Frey and Henley (mostly Henley) Felder was given a songwriting credit, Things like that muddy the water, but what you said is still true.
Maybe its just the way I hear it…but the guitar solo in Come Together sure is reminiscent of the melody line in Cry For a Shadow.
Good call, S.B.! I can kind of hear it too. Nice bookend. Maybe Tony Sheridan played this solo too?
read what paul said. his backing vocals were overdubbed. he sang the verses with john….not the chorus
he wished he could have sang at the same time….not overdubbed after
I was surprised to hear Paul say: “On Come Together I would have liked to sing harmony with John and I think he would have liked me to but I was too embarrassed to ask him”.
Too embarrassed to ask him !?!
The question if Paul of John did the backing vocals on this one is fascinating. I always thought it sounded like Paul but I read he didn’t do them.
Today I stumbled over a nice piece [broken link removed] which takes on the question and answers it, mostly by providing an isolated vocal track with Paul doing the backing vocals.
Interestingly Geoff Emerick talks in detail about how JOHN did “all his harmony vocals and overdubs” on this one.
I saw there is already a comment here about the “quality” of Emericks book.
Really disapointing that one of my Beatle-heroes would come up with nonsense stories, just to point out how distressed their relationship was – the more stress the better, because it will make for more attention…
Still glad to hear I can trust my ears!
Great John Lennon song to open The Abbey Road album. Loved it from the time I got Abbey Road in 1978.Great driving John Lennon vocals and lyrics in unison with outstanding drums, bass and lead guitar.
In this interview, John Lennon actually sings a bit of the Timothy Leary version “Come Together.” (1:53) What’s amazing is that it’s a totally different song. John also talks a bit about his being sued.
lets mess everyone up. it could b NICKY HOPKINS playin the piano part. in his site he claims to have done alot of piano overdubs on Beatles songs uncredited.
interesting that paul contributed most on abbey road but come together and i want you, the two tracks that most represent progressive rock at that time were by lennon.
There are handclaps?
There are 2 eighth note handclaps on the first beat of the measure that correspond to the lyric “shoot me.” they are followed by a sixteenth note quadruplet on the hi-hat on the next beat and a similar tom-tom roll that completes the remainder of the measure. There is an extreme amount of echo and spring reverb on the handclaps that obscure the words “shoot me” and the bassline tends to be mixed slightly above the volume level usually associated with a vocal part. The Fender Rhodes piano is mixed rather dry and the drums are muffled with towels. Considering that this is late 1960’s 8-track analog tape technology I find the quality of the whole album to be a tribute to the production genius of George Martin, the obvious genius of the Beatles songcrafting abilities not withstanding.
Feeling very anorakish after reading about 8 years worth of comments on the sounds of Come Together. I found the comments interesting because said track has such amazing, reverberating sounds. Much enlightened by previous replies and thanks to Spotify for my ease of access to tune libraries.