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Sat 13 September 2025 14:15, UK
When The Beatles split up at the end of the 1960s, and fans soon realised that a growing shitstorm between John Lennon and Paul McCartney was at the heart of it, it felt as though the parents of global music were getting a divorce.
Suddenly, fans were shitting themselves between a rock and a hard place. Between one icon and another, as they were forced to choose a camp to support as the pair ramped up the feud with the penning of the diss tracks. They wondered whether or not there was any legitimacy in the fact that Lennon and McCartney, once partners, did, in fact, as the rumours said, dislike each other.
Well, all curiosity was squashed when McCartney released ‘Too Many People’ on his 1971 album RAM. Taking aim at what he considered to be entitled lecturing from Lennon, the more fun-loving McCartney wrapped up what many would consider a typically sweet melody of his, with the scathing sentiment of “Too many people preaching practices.”
The stage had certainly been set, and all that was required now was a response from Lennon. As much as it pained fans caught in between the two, this was all-out war. Lennon responded with ‘How Do You Sleep?’ by mocking McCartney’s artistic achievements while labelling him somewhat of a puppet to other people’s influence.
Despite the fact that both artists considered one another fair game, the wounds would have certainly cut deep. But it would have arguably been worse for McCartney, given the fact that Lennon had enlisted George Harrison for the recording of the track, confirming that if there was indeed a side to be chosen, the guitarist had gone his way.
“It was nerve-wracking, as usual,” Harrison remembered of the recording, but not necessarily because of the relationship rift it might cause, but from the general anxiety of recording with Lennon. He continued, “Previously, I’d worked on ‘Instant Karma’. At that time, very strange, intense feelings were going on. Sometimes people don’t talk to each other, thinking they’re not going to be the one to phone you up and risk rejection. “
But when it came to sleighting McCartney, well that was no issue to Harrison, who of the four bandmates, seemed to often have an issue with Paul and his creative methods. So in terms of the song’s sentiment, well that brought joy rather than nervousness.
“I turned up and he was openly pleased I came. I enjoyed ‘How Do You Sleep?’; I liked being on that side of it with Paul, rather than on the receiving end,” Harrison laughed. “Moreover, I was earnestly trying to be a slide guitar player at that time, but I always blacked out at solos, especially live ones. I seemed to have no control over what was happening and my mind’d go blank. That was one of them where I hit a few good notes, and it happened to sound like a solo. We did all that work in one day.”
It didn’t take long for the dust to settle and the songwriting pair to laugh at the ridiculousness of their musical jabs. While Harrison wasn’t a part of that and faced no requirement to justify his position, he perpetually added fuel to the fire of their warring narrative by veiled digs like the above.
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