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+--- Thread: Deciphering The Beatles ..............Nine.............Come Together (/showthread.php?tid=5567)
Deciphering The Beatles ..............Nine.............Come Together - gryphon - 14-07-2011
Deciphering The Beatles ..............Nine.............Come Together
Lyrics
Here come old flattop
He come groovin' up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knees
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 knees
Hold you in his armchair
You can feel his disease
Come together, right now
Over me
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
'Cause he's so hard to see
Come together, right now
Over me
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah uh
Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah
The documentation on this suggests that this is a song which was destined for another use other than the one it had........... Come Together was originally going to be a campaign song .......well Wiki you tell........... The song's history began when Lennon was inspired by Timothy Leary's gubernatorial campaign for governor of California titled "Come together, join the party" against Ronald Reagan, which promptly ended when Leary was sent to prison for possession of marijuana
Also Johnny Lennon owes a debt for this one:
Check this out ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLPbWExCevg
Tut Tut!! Johnny still it is a catchy song. John was later sued for the resemblance and had to make amends by recording some songs from the Levy catalogue which was part of the reason why e recorded Rock and Roll..........................
So what is it all about...........................??????????
Well............... It makes me sad to listen to this song ..........................The opening vocal effect is John hissing..............SHHHOOOT ME ! .............Wish he hadnât !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well there is something left over from the campaign song................The campaign was to be called
âCome Together, Join The Partyâ ......The party being drugs !
Next a quote from Song Facts.............. 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."
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 (see our interview with Tommy James for more on Levy). 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.
So we have our verses ...........One for each Beatle ............as usual they are rather obtuse but we can make the following sense of it............
George
Here come old flattop
He come groovin' up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball
He one holy roller
He got hair down to his knees
Got to be a joker
He just do what he please
The âHere come old flattop He come groovin' up slowly He got joo-joo eyeball is taken from the Chuck Berry song directly............In the early Days Each Beatle used to try an imitate one of their heroes on stage.........One of Georges as Chuck Berry so that is the link ( George could also be Carl Perkins..............Paul could be Elvis ! and Little Richard )
He one holy roller George was the spiritual one, ( It as also interesting to note that when he died George requested a Christain funeral )
He got hair down to his knees......looking at the photoâs of that time...this was true !
Got to be a joker ........He just do what he please...............My Take on this is that George came back into the Beatles circle for Abbey Road having hung out with Dylan ( The Joker! )
Ringo
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
Ringo was the Happy go lucky Beatle so : He wear no shoeshine ! ( To cover anything up !)
He got toe jam football
He got monkey finger
?????????????????
He shoot Coca Cola
The Beatles drink of the 60s was Cokarama ..........Whisky and Coca Cola and I believe Ringo rbrought that to them.
One thing I can tell you is
You got to be free
My Take on this was he as the first to try and leave the Beatles...............Ringo left during the time of The White Album because he believed that he was not good enough.
This is John ! :
He bag production
He got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard
He one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knees
Hold you in his armchair
You can feel his disease
John formed Bag productions an offshoot of Apple so He bag production.........
He got walrus gumboot.................John as The Walrus !
He got Ono sideboard...........IN Johnâs Apple offices was an strange thing......kind of loike awhite Hi-Fi.He called it The Plastic Ono Band.............It looks like aside board and is picture like one against a wall.
He one spinal cracker...............I think that this is John acknowledging how sarcastic he could be.
He got feet down below his knees............Eveyone has but I think that this is John saying he fely he still ad his feet on the ground despite all the madness.
Hold you in his armchair
You can feel his disease
This is so commonly misquoted............It is actually Hold you in his arms there.
You can feel his disease ( Even John accepted Hold You in his arm chair )
Might be are reference to his pain ....................Many of Johnâs songs about now start to reflect his psychoanalysis ...........He underwent Primeval screen therapy and of course heroin withdrawal ..........
Paul
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
'Cause he's so hard to see
He roller coaster Reference to Paul writing Helter Skelter.......
He got early warning........I think John could see that Paul knew The Beatles were breaking up.
He got muddy water He one mojo filter........................Iâm really guessing here..........Muddy Waters ?
I Know there are a lot of references among blues men to âMojo Filtersâ ( Cigarettes ???) Paul also performed for a charity event under that name ..........
He say one and one and one is three...............THE There Beatles John, George and Ringo upon hearing the news that Paul wanted to leave the Beatles did try to get Klaus Voorman to replace Paul and go on as and called â The Ladders â
Got to be good looking
'Cause he's so hard to see
Reference to an Apple Joke................It was really hard to get an appointment to see Paul and so the joke went that Got to be good looking 'Cause he's so hard to see................Thanks to The Apple Scruffs for that one !
Overall I think John knew that the end of he Beatles as just a matter of time so he used this song as rallying cry !
Deciphering The Beatles ..............Nine.............Come Together - SteveO - 14-07-2011
Great Beatle song story again !!! Thanks, Gryph !
Interesting how John plagerised Chuck's You Can't Catch Me ! No doubt intentional ?
When I first heard the song I had no idea what the words meant ! I just liked the song. Now by reading your analysis it becomes crystal clear !
SteveO
Deciphering The Beatles ..............Nine.............Come Together - CRAZY-HORSE - 14-07-2011
thanks again Gryphon with all four verses being about the Fab 4.
for anyone interested The Smokin' Mojo Filters (paul mccartney,paul weller,noel gallagher)
[video=youtube;8jPO2-zvSQ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPO2-zvSQ0[/video]
Deciphering The Beatles ..............Nine.............Come Together - superiorinferior - 01-08-2011
Love this thread, love this band, love this song! I've always found this song insanely confusing but that's never stopped me from listening to it.