WHAT'S THAT BEATLE SONG
REALLY ABOUT?
WHAT SOME BEATLE SONGS WERE REALLY ABOUT
Liverpool roots inspired anthems to post-war working-class life
The Beatles may have moved to London as soon as they could but Liverpool remained a key source of inspiration, especially during the band's most creative period in 1967.
Intended for the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club album, "Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane" was instead released as a double A-side single - highly unusual for the time. It was also unusual for having a picture sleeve and was accompanied by a ground-breaking "promotional film" - the forerunner of the modern pop video.
On "Penny Lane", Paul McCartney evokes perfectly the atmosphere of post-war working-class life in a humdrum provincial suburb.
But alongside the images of blue suburban skies are some risqué references. "Finger pie" and even the fireman who "keeps his fire engine clean" have since been outed as sexual slang. The song turned Penny Lane into an international tourist destination.
Eleanor Rigby,
A McCartney composition, was inspired by a name on a grave in St Peter's Churchyard in Woolton, close to the Strawberry Field children's home which was itself just around the corner from John Lennon's Aunt Mimi's home in Menlove Avenue, now owned by the National Trust. Paul has not admitted this, it must be subconscience. The grave is there! (I believe he denies this, some say it might be a subcious memory. the church is where John and Paul met).
Many of the Beatles' early songs were conventional stories of young love and attraction. As the band matured, the stories grew darker and more true to life.
"Norwegian Wood",
from the 1965 album Rubber Soul, described an affair Lennon was conducting with an unnamed girl during his first marriage to Cynthia.
"She Came in Through The Bathroom Window",
on Abbey Road, describes how fan Diane Ashley broke into Paul McCartney's house using a ladder which she put up against the window of the smallest room.
The song was recorded as part of a medley of song fragments on the album, made in 1969, along with
"Polythene Pam" - another reference to a fan. This was Pat Hodgetts, who used to watch the band during their early days at the Cavern in Liverpool and was nicknamed Polythene Pat because she always ate from a plastic bag.
Other songs, such as "Michelle",
were not about specific girls. In the case of "Michelle", the song dates back to the time in the band's early history when John Lennon used to pretend to be French at parties. None of the band had learned the language (as can be seen from Paul McCartney's accent on "Ou est le soleil" from his 1989 Flowers in the Dirt album). *(An email from Melissa: I went to Neil Young's Bridge School Benfit Concert in October 2004 where Paul McCartney performed, he said that he was the one who pretended he was French at parties he went to with John).
You Never Give Me Your Money
A musical marriage disintegrates
The relationship between Lennon and McCartney was the beginning, the middle and the end of the Beatles story. When it went well, McCartney's optimism provided the perfect foil for Lennon's cynicism. But in the end their spectacular falling out became the defining feature of the band.
On the later albums, there were only oblique references to each other - mainly to confuse fans who were overanalysing their lyrical content. In "Glass Onion", Lennon says the "Walrus was Paul", possibly a reference to the dispute over the relegation of "I am The Walrus" to the B side of "Hello Goodbye" - a McCartney track.
In "You Never Give Me Your Money", the Beatles' dispute over who should manage them - McCartney's father-in-law, Lee Eastman, or the rest of the band's choice, Allen Klein - spilled over into the recording studios.
But it was not until Lennon recorded Imagine in 1971 that he really hit out. "How Do You Sleep?" was a direct attack on his former bandmate: "Those freaks was right when they said you was dead." Lines such as "The only thing you done was yesterday" tried to belittle McCartney's songwriting achievements and "Since you've gone you're just another day" was a swipe at his post-Beatles work.
Why the death of Guinness heir Tara Browne was immortalised in a song
The Beatles' most lavish song, performed by a 41-piece orchestra, dressed in formal wear, which wove together two distinct songs, one by each writer, linked by an ambitious orchestral crescendo scored by Sir George Martin.
Central to the song's narrative - what there is of it - is Tara Browne, the Guinness heir who died in a car crash. Browne, the son of the 4th Lord Oranmore and Browne and Oonagh Guinness, was a friend of many rock stars at the time, including the Rolling Stones, and it was suggested he died while under the influence of LSD.
Lennon read a coroner's report of the accident in the Daily Mail and was prompted to write: "He blew his mind out in a car, he didn't notice that the lights had changed."
Although the song contains many haunting and compelling images, perhaps the most enduring is that gleaned from another newspaper report, this time on the condition of highway repairs in a northern town in the Daily Mail's news in brief column. This inspired Lennon to muse on "4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire" and how many holes it would "take to fill the Albert Hall".
She Said, She Said
An off-screen role for American film star Peter Fonda
The BBC banned "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" amid concern that it promoted drug use. Not so, said Lennon, who insisted the source of the fantasy was a drawing by his son Julian of a nursery classmate, Lucy O'Donnell.
"She Said She Said", on the 1966 Revolver album, however, was the real thing. It was inspired by John Lennon's second acid trip, which he did with Peter Fonda and George Harrison. The actor reassured Harrison when he started having a bad trip, telling him: "I know what it's like to be dead" - a reference to a shooting accident when Fonda was 10.
Doctor Robert, another track from Revolver, was about drug dealer to the stars,Robert Freymann, the so-called speed doctor from New York. "Fixing a Hole", from Sgt Pepper, was also widely considered to be about drugs. But McCartney said it referred to repairs to his farm in Scotland.
Sexy Sadie
Mantras, mysticism and a quarrel with the Maharishi
Written by Lennon after he had fallen out with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, many Beatles fans consider "Sexy Sadie" to mark the moment that the Fab Four began to unravel.
Shocked by the self-proclaimed holy man's predatory sexuality, and his claim to 20 per cent of the band's income, Lennon put him into a song on the White Album, but fearing legal action, he substituted Sexy Sadie for the word Maharishi. The bitter sentiment of "she made a fool of everyone" makes his feelings clear.
Lennon wrote "Tomorrow Never Knows" after listening to himself reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead while on LSD. "Across the Universe" on the 1970 album Let it Be contains the mantra jai guru deva om (I give thanks to Guru Dev). George Harrison, who enjoyed a lifelong interest in eastern religions, first explored them musically in "Within You Without You" on Sgt Pepper.
For the Benefit of Mr Kite
How John Lennon was affected by the power of advertising
"Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite", with its swirling steam organ music supplied by George Martin, was one of the most atmospheric songs on Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and helped bolster the album's central "concept".
Its lyrics and feel were inspired by an 1843 poster acquired by John Lennon which detailed a forthcoming appearance by one Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal at Town Meadows in Rochdale, Lancashire.
"Happiness is a Warm Gun", from the 1968 White Album, was inspired by another advertising legend. This time spotted by Lennon in a magazine article, it was the slogan of the US National Rifle Association. Described by Lennon as "a sort of history of rock'n'roll", "Happiness" fell foul of the BBC which considered the gun imagery to be sexual.
Thanks to © Jonathan Brown
Some facts about Sgt. Pepper
The Beatles put a collage of people they admired on the album cover. That included every one from Edgar Allen Poe to Bob Dylan.
Many fans thought "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was written about the illegal drug LSD because the initials of three words spelled that out. However, John Lennon insisted he took the name of the song from the title of a drawing his son Julian made of his friend Lucy.
For years, fans were skeptical about that story. However, Julian later published the drawing he made as a child. So Lennon's account was true.
"A Day in the Life" came from two songs; one that John wrote and one that Paul wrote. It was Paul's idea to link them together with an orchestral section.
The only Beatle to ever perform in the Express-Times coverage area was Ringo Starr, who played at the State Theatre in Easton in 2003. During the show one of the Beatles songs he played "With a Little Help from My Friends" from "Sgt. Pepper."
Some facts about Abbey Road
It was the last album the Beatles ever recorded. Although "Let it Be" was released later, "Abbey Road" was the final music the Beatles made together.
The Beatles originally were going to call the album "Everest" and planned a trip to the Himalayas to shoot the album cover.
But in the recording studio someone suggested the band be photographed outside the studio. So the Beatles walked across the street wearing the same clothes they wore to the studio.
For years, fans wondered about the secret meaning of the song "Octopus' Garden." But there wasn't any.
Ringo came up with the idea for the song during a vacation on a boat. While on a tour, a sea captain told him how octopuses lived and went around the sea bed colleting objects to build gardens.
George Harrison wrote the song "Here Comes the Sun" in Eric Clapton's garden. Frustrated by business dealings with his bandmates, he asked for day off to spend a day at his friend's home. Thrilled by the sudden appearance of the sun, he composed what would become one of the Beatles' best-known songs.
1. Martha My Dear: Martha was Paul's sheepdog.
2. Dear Prudence: Prudence was Mia Farrow's sister, who while in India was too shy too leave her room often.
3. Got To Get You Into My Life: Song was about marijuana.
4. Come Together: Started out as a song for Timothy Leary's run for president. 5. Hey Jude: Originally called Hey Jules for Julian Lennon, who Paul wrote the song for when John and Cynthia divorced.
6. I Wanna BE Your Man: Written for the Rolling Stones.
7. Here, There and Everywhere: Written for the Beach Boys.
8. Savoy Truffle: George saw a box of candy on Eric clapton's table called Savoy Truffles.
The Recording of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'
July, 1968. During the early days of the White Album, George Harrison had been particularly patient when it came to recording his own material. His latest song, 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' would change considerably from its initial conception to completion. On July 25th, 1968 the Beatles rehearsed several takes with an acoustic version also recorded the same day. This solo vocal and acoustic guitar track was to later appear on the Beatles Anthology collection. This acoustic version at the time only served as a demo for the rest of the Beatles and by now George had decided the he wanted the song to appear on the White Album in a totally different form. This song was to be one of the first eight-track Beatles recordings at Abbey Road. With some of the backing completed, the existing tracks were mixed in stereo and transferred to an eight-track recorder so that 6 tracks could be used for more overdubs. After this was done, George worked by himself and attempted to record a backwards guitar solo that in the end was scrapped. It was around this time that Eric Clapton become involved with the song.
On September 5th, 1968 more work was done on the dubbed eight-track recording. Additional tracks were added but George didn't like the result and the whole track was scrapped. The Beatles then started work on a fresh take with take 25 out of 28 deemed as being the best take. The next day saw Eric Clapton involved in the song, although this was quite by accident. Eric was giving George a lift from Surrey where they both lived into London that day and on the way in George suggested that he might want to contribute to the song. The track was put down with a minimum of fuss with Eric's excellent solo played on a Les Paul guitar. Paul played fuzz bass guitar, George the organ, Ringo percussion, and George - with Paul adding backing harmonies - taped his lead vocal. Chris Thomas, now a famous record producer, had the wonderful job of wobbling the oscillator for Eric Clapton's guitar while it was being mixed. Clapton had insisted that his guitar should sound a bit different to the normal Clapton sound. The keyboard track was a flanged organ which made it sound very whiny and slightly out of tune. The Recording of 'Hey Jude'
Recording of 'Hey Jude' began on the 29th of July, 1968. Although recorded around the time of the White Album, it was to be released as a single and would be one of their longest. Most pop singles during the sixties lasted a maximum of three minutes but the Beatles being the Beatles, decided that rules were meant to be broken. The single released of 'Hey Jude' ended up being 7'11" long. Three complete takes were recorded on the the 29th of July with take one lasting 6'21", take two 4'40" and take six 5'25". This session was more like a rehearsal than a recording of the real thing. On the 30th of July, another 18 takes were recorded, although these sessions were also treated as rehearsals. Sessions at Trident, another recording studio in London, had been booked for the purpose of recording the final track, with an orchestra booked also for that session. At the end of this session on the 30th, George Martin would take away a stereo mix so that he could arrange the song's orchestral score.
On the 31st of July, recording began at Trident. Both Paul and George had already been involved with some other artists at Trident before this session. George had been busy producing Jackie Lomax in between Beatles sessions. Paul was doing the same with Mary Hopkin and had been popping in on the odd James Taylor session. What attracted the Beatles to Trident was that it was independent, like Apple Records, and had an eight-track recorder. Abbey Road was still four-track, at least that was what the members of the Beatles thought. Abbey Road did have an eight-track but it just hadn't been installed yet due to internal paperwork. Using the eight-track, the Beatles did several takes with Paul on piano, George on electric guitar, John on acoustic guitar and Ringo on drums. George had wanted to play an answering guitar phase after each 'Hey Jude' vocal line but it was later vetoed.
'Hey Jude' was recorded very quickly in the end. On the 1st of August, overdubs were recorded with Paul putting down a bass guitar track and a lead vocal while the other Beatles put down backing vocals. (Listen out for an undeleted expletive at 2'59" into the finished record!) The 36 piece orchestra was then recorded for the musical build-up during the song's long refrain. In addition the members of the orchestra were asked if they wouldn't mind contributing hand claps and backing vocals (nah, nah, nah's) for the powerful build-up in the refrain. Most said yes but there was one person who walked out of the session saying "I'm not going to clap my hands and sing Paul McCartney's bloody song!".
With the final mixes done, 'Hey Jude' would be Apple Records' first real release. Released on the 30th of August, 1968, it would go on and sell in excess of eight million copies worldwide and top the US charts for nine weeks.
The Recording of 'Strawberry Fields Forever'
Recording of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' began on November 24th, 1966. Born under the influence of certain well known chemicals that were freely available at the time, John Lennon's 'Strawberry Fields Forever' would represent everything that the Beatles had learnt in the studio up until this point. Strawberry Field was an old Salvation Army home in Liverpool, situated around the corner from where John grew up. The song seemed to evoke childhood memories through a hallucinogenic, dreamy haze.
The song would prove to be amongst the most difficult and complicated the Beatles would ever record and would change shape in the studio several times before completion. Take one was completely different from the final track recorded with the only similarity being the song's mellotron introduction. The mellotron was very similar to the modern day sampler in that it contained tapes which could be programmed to imitate other instruments, in this particular case flute. It was made mostly for producing sound effects but it also had flutes, brass and strings sounds. The Musicians' Union at the time tried to ban it because it reproduced sounds real musicians could play. The Beatles did several takes on the 24th but these were never used and still remain in the vaults to this very day. The version recorded on this night came to a full ending with the mellotron. The entire take was also recorded at 53 cycles per second so that it sounded faster on playback but it still only lasted 2'54".
Towards the end of November, 1966, 'Strawberry Fields Forever' would go through several changes before it became what the public would eventually hear. George Martin would later recall: "Before the very first recording of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' John stood opposite me in the studio and played me the song on his acoustic guitar and it was absolutely wonderful. Then when we actually taped it with the usual instruments it started to get a bit heavy. John didn't say anything but I knew it wasn't what he had originally wanted. So I wasn't totally surprised when he came back to me a week or so later and suggested we have another go at recording it, perhaps even bringing in some outside musicians.Together we worked out that I should score the song for trumpets and cellos."
On December 8th, 1966, the Beatles would rerecord 'Strawberry Fields Forever" with the cellos and trumpets added as an overdubs a week later. First the Beatles had to record the new rhythm track which was recorded by Dave Harries as George Martin and Geoff Emerick had tickets to the premiere of Cliff Richard's film 'Finders Keepers' and wouldn't be back until 11 o'clock that evening. Dave Harries recalls: "Soon after I had lined up the microphones and instruments in the studio that night, the Beatles arrived hot to record. There was nobody there but me so I became producer/engineer. We recorded Ringo's cymbals, played them backwards, Paul and George were on timpani and bongos, Mal Evans played tambourine, and we overdubbed the guitars. When George and Geoff came back I scuttled upstairs because I shouldn't really have been recording them."
There was still along way to go before 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was ready for release but Harries' version - or part of it, anyway - was a vital part of that record. By the end of the session 15 more takes had been recorded, all of them rhythm tracks with two of the incomplete takes used to take the song to the next stage. Before the end of this session George Martin and Geoff Emerick edited together the first three-quarters of take 15 with the last quarter of take 24. An attempt to mix down the two four-track edits was started but was left until the next day.
There was still a lot of overdubs to add to 'Strawberry Fields Forever' so on the 9th of December, the previous night's work was mixed down to to one track and called take 25. This left three tracks to record a series of overdubs. Onto track two Ringo added some percussion, which included some very heavy drum sounds, and George added a swordmandel, which was an Indian instrument that sounded a lot like a table harp. Backward cymbals were also added with the pattern of the song worked out and then written down in reverse so that when recorded and the tape was played backwards the sounds would fit the bars precisely. It's amazing to think this particular song was all done on a four track recorder. 'Free As A Bird' used a total of 48 tracks!
On the 15th of December, three cellos and four trumpets which were scored by George Martin, were added to this remake of 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. The trumpets and cellos were then mixed down to another four track which would become take 26. Onto this John would add two separate vocal takes with John muttering 'cranberry sauce' twice at the end of the second take. One 'cranberry sauce' even made on some foreign pressings of the song. Some even think it was John muttering the words 'I buried Paul'. 'Strawberry Fields Forever' was now almost complete. With its frantic strings, blaring trumpets, heavy drum sound and two, extremely fast Lennon vocal takes, it seemed to be finished. But was Lennon was still unhappy with the result.
On the 22nd of December, John would approach George Martin with an interesting assignment. George Martin remembers: "John told me he liked both versions of 'Strawberry Fields Forever', the original, lighter version and the more intense, scored version. He said to me "Why don't you join the beginning of the first one to the end of the second one?". I told him that there were two problems. One was that they were both in a completely different keys and two was that they were both running at different tempos. He said "Well you can fix it!". So George Martin and Geoff Emerick set about the task at hand. First they established that the difference between the two versions was, in musical terms, a semitone and that it could be done if they speeded up the remix of the first version (take seven) and then slow down the remix of the second version (take 26). "With the grace of God, and a bit of luck we did it" says George Martin. All that was left was to edit the two pieces together and the song would be finished. "We gradually decreased the pitch of the first version at the join to make them fit together," says Geoff Emerick.
They did it so well that few people even know exactly where the edit point is or that there was an edit! "That's funny," says George Martin, "I can hear it every time. It sticks out like a sore thumb to me!". If you listen very closely, the edit point can be found about 60 seconds into the song. But be careful: you may not hear the song the same way again. Released on the 17th of February, 1967, 'Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane' would fail to reach number 1 on the UK charts. It would sell as many copies as most other Beatles singles but it couldn't overtake 'Release Me' by Engelbert Humperdinck. You can hear a complete version of 'Strawberry Fields Forever' along with another great Beatles song, 'Penny Lane' on 'Magical Mystery Tour'.
The Recording of 'Free As A Bird'
Yoko Ono set the ball rolling in 1993 when she handed the three remaining Beatles a handful of tapes John Lennon had recorded just before he died. Suddenly rumors surfaced about a possible Beatles reunion with the recording sessions to take place at Paul's private recording studio. Two songs, 'Free As A Bird' and 'Real Love', would be chosen to add addition instrumentation and voices to. 'Free As A Bird, written by Lennon in 1976 just after he received his US Green Card, was completed by the remaining Beatles in February, 1994. Starr comments on the original recordings made by Lennon: "The problem with John's original recording was that John was singing along to a piano, and recording it in mono on a normal cassette player. The recording wasn't all that great either and you couldn't just pull a fader up or down and change the level of the piano or voice. All we had to work with was what we heard and it wasn't in time either.
Included as a producer in these new Beatles sessions was Jeff Lynne, a former band member of ELO. Jeff had been recommended by George Harrison, as they had worked together on George's 1987 album 'Cloud Nine'. Jeff would initially spend some time cleaning up the original Lennon tapes, especially 'Real Love'. Jeff recalls: "The problem with 'Real Love' was not only was there a 60 cycles mains hum going on, there was also a terrible amount of hiss, because it had been recorded at a low level. It also sounded like it was a third generation copy. So I had to get rid of the hiss and mains hum , and there were clicks all the way through it as well. There must of been at least 100 clicks throughout the original recording which we cleaned up with a computer program. It took about a week before it was even usable and transferable to a DAT (Digital Audio Tape)". 'Free As A Bird' was only a quarter as noisy as 'Real Love' and only a bit of equalisation was needed to fix most of the problems".
John Lennon seems to have been fascinated with the human psyche throughout his creative life. The Beatles' very first album featured There's A Place, an inward-looking miniature that was uncharacteristic of the brash, universalistic tenor of the songs that surrounded it. Glass Onion is a later exploration of the theme.
An onion is a multi layered thing, complex and delicate. Its layers are often semi-transparent, but no two of them are visible simultaneously. Each one must be peeled away singly in order to disclose its complex cellular patterns and striations. As such the onion is reminiscent of the human psyche, which also consists multiple layers, whether conscious or unconscious. Bearing this in mind, it can be surmised that the image of the glass onion represents John's ideal of a state where all those levels of consciousness are revealed in the same instance, giving a totality of being, a comprehensive knowledge of self. He was probably tantalised by the his experiences in taking LSD, which can give glimpses of such a condition by throwing up aspects of ourselves of which we are usually unaware.
With the phrase, "Looking through the bent back tulips, to see how the other half live," John reiterates his desire to see what lies beneath a visible layer. When we speak of "seeing how the other half live" we are usually referring to the upper class, living a life of privilege out of sight of the general populace; here the "other half" is the fragile beauty of the stamen, revealed when the petals of a tulip are peeled back.
Glass Onion harks back to several other songs in The Beatles canon: Strawberry Fields Forever, There's A Place, Within You, Without You, I Am The Walrus, Lady Madonna, The Fool On The Hill and Fixing A Hole. What these have in common is that they all refer in some way to the actvities of the human mind.
John has already "told you about Strawberry Fields." There he came to terms with alienation from those who cannot see the world as he does and willingly embraces his inner life. Now he speaks of another calm sector of his consciousness where "everything flows," but in the subsequent reference to I Am The Walrus he goes on to admit that others can understand him and share his vision to some extent. The walrus who appears here is both himself ("we're as close as can be, man") and Paul, his collaborator and sometime soulmate. Further appreciation of the inner life of others is seen in the references to Lady Madonna, who, we remember "[listened] to the music in her head," and to The Fool On The Hill, whose simple acceptance gave him an enviable harmony with both himself and the natural world.
Which is all very well, but the song also hints at conflict, at the existence of a darker region of his nature that is omnipresent, however much he might wish to subdue it. He may want to surrender himself to the place "where everything flows", but finds himself standing on the harsh reality of the "cast iron shore," an ugly, unforgiving place. Here the place "where everything flows" is transformed into an ocean that may be lost unless he "[fixes] the hole" in it.
He ends on a note of uncertainty, "Trying to make a dovetail joint," indicating his desire to reconcile the disparate components of his personality. A dovetail joint is a wonderfully solid and attractive way of joining two pieces of wood together, but it is a very difficult thing to get right. Perhaps John, who was never a neat worker, was harking back to the agonies of trying to make the pieces fit in woodwork lessons at school.
"Across the Universe" ~ The images in this song came to John while he was laying in bed. He couldn't stop thinking about them, so he got out of bed to write them down. John has several times called this song his best work, and said Paul didn't spend as much time on it as it deserved. It absolutely is a beautiful and under rated song, originally recorded for a save the wild life campaighn (with the bird wings).
"Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" ~ Inspired almost word for word by a circus poster that John saw at an antique shop.
"Blackbird" ~ While with the Maharishi, Paul was awakened by a blackbird. He wanted to make a song that sounded like the bird's song. Paul, ever the diplomate, also claims the song is for black rights, a hot topic in the 60s.
"Blue Jay Way" ~ George was waiting in a house rented on a street called Blue Jay Way in L.A. People were supposed to come to his house, but they apparently got lost. George wrote this while he was waiting for themm to arrive.
"Come Together" ~ Timothy Leary was running for a president and asked John to write a campain song for him, with "Come Together" as his slogan.
"A Day in the Life" ~ Based on articles in a newspaper. The first verse was about the Guiness heir who was killed in a car crash. The last verse was about the potholes in the roads of Blackburn, Lankashire.
"Dear Prudence" ~ While meditating with the Maharishi, Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, who would not come out of her room.
"Good Morning Good Morning" ~ Inspired by a Corn Flakes commercial.
"Here Comes the Sun" ~ George wrote this in Eric Clapton's garden in the morning, after much stress filming Let It Be.
"Hey Jude" ~ Paul wrote this song for John's son, Julian, during John and Cynthia's divorce. It was initally going to be called "Hey Jules." John, however, thought it was written for him, supporting his relationship with Yoko.
"Let It Be" ~ This was based on a dream Paul had, in which his deceased mother Mary told him that everything will be alright. Paul admitted he knew Christians would think of The Mother Mary.
"Octopus's Garden" ~ While Ringo vacationing on a boat. The Capt told him about the octopuses who collect beautiful things and put them in gardens.
"Piggies" ~ This song was inspired by the money-crazed businessmen at the newly formed Apple company, but became an anthem for anti-establishment.
"P.S. I Love You" ~ Paul wrote this for Dot Rohne, his girlfriend at the time.
"Two of Us" ~ Some say it is about Paul and Linda. Others think it is about Paul and John. Paul says it's about Linda and that he knew some would think it was about him and John.
"While my Guitar Gently Weeps" ~ George opened up a book and saw the phrase "gently." He wrote this song around it.
"Wild Honey Pie" ~ Paul started singing "Honey Pie, Honey Pie." Pattie Harrison liked it, so he made it into a song.
"Yellow Submarine" ~ As Paul was falling asleep, strange thoughts began popping into his head. He started thinking, "We all live in a yellow submarine..."
"Yesterday" ~ Paul woke up with a tune in his head. When no one knew what song it was, he realized he dreamed it up. He added words and it became "Yesterday," after he couldn't make the original lyrics work: 'Scrmabled Eggs.'
"You Know My Name (Look up the Number)" ~ Based on the British phone company's slogan.