The evidence comes from a tape recording made on September 8, 1969, at Apple Corps headquarters in London, of a meeting between Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The recording exists because drummer Ringo Starr was unable to attend. He\u2019d been taken to the hospital with intestinal complaints \u2014 Starr had a history of abdominal ailments and food allergies \u2014 and the recording was made for his benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cRingo,\u201d Lennon explains on the tape, \u201cyou can\u2019t be here, but this is so you can hear what we\u2019re discussing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as the tape shows, Lennon wasn\u2019t merely thinking about one more Beatles album and single \u2014 he was planning a future strategy for the group.<\/p>\n
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The key evidence is his plan for how he, McCartney and Harrison \u2014 the group\u2019s main songwriters \u2014 would share space on future albums. He planned that each of them should be allowed four songs per album, with another two reserved for Starr, if he wished.<\/p>\n
\u201cRingo, you can\u2019t be here, but this is so you can hear what we\u2019re discussing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 John Lennon<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we get into the studio, I don’t care how we do it, but I don’t want to think about equal time,\u201d he said. \u201cI just want it known I’m allowed to put four songs on the album, whatever happens. I don’t have to say, \u2018Should we do it now?\u2019 because I think we’ll all get fed up in three weeks, or actually the album will be full because we did two of Paul\u2019s last week or one of Ringo’s or one of George\u2019s, whatever, and, well, it’s too late now. Next album.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lennon was also eager to abandon what he called \u201cthe Lennon and McCartney myth\u201d about their songwriting partnership. While the two men had occasionally written together in the past \u2014 going back to their earliest days as teens <\/a>struggling to play acoustic guitars<\/a> \u2014 they mostly composed alone. Despite this, each of their songs was credited to Lennon-McCartney, regardless of who wrote it. Lennon suggested that, moving forward, only the sole writer should get credit.<\/p>\n One might think McCartney would have been thrilled by the suggestion to record a new album. He\u2019d been despondent over Lennon\u2019s lack of interest in the group and had corralled the Beatles and their producer, George Martin, back into the studio to record Abbey Road earlier that summer.<\/p>\n But he said very little in the meeting, aside from rejecting Lennon\u2019s suggestions for a more equitable division of songs and a more accurate assigning of songwriting credits.<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n Lennon\u2019s suggestion to give Harrison a larger share of each album\u2019s real estate was in recognition of the younger guitarist\u2019s growth as a songwriter. Over the previous year, Harrison had contributed \u201cOld Brown Shoe<\/a>,\u201d \u201cSomething\u201d and \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d to the group\u2019s catalog, each song as good as anything Lennon or McCartney created.<\/p>\n The Beatles felt strongly enough about \u201cOld Brown Shoe\u201d that they made it the B-side of their single \u201cThe Ballad of John and Yoko,\u201d released the previous May 30. As for \u201cSomething,\u201d it would become Harrison\u2019s first, and only, Beatles A-side (albeit a double A-side) when it was released with \u201cCome Together\u201d on October 6, 1969.<\/p>\n I mean, we\u2019ve never offered George B-sides; we could have given him a lot of B-sides, but because we were two people, you had the A-side and I had the B-side.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0John Lennon<\/p>\n The fact that Harrison could score placement on two singles within a matter of months, while McCartney was left out in the cold, was proof that he had become a stronger songwriter and that, moreover, his bandmates and producer had taken note.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always carved the singles up between us,\u201d Lennon said to McCartney. \u201cWe have the singles market, [George and Ringo] don\u2019t get anything! I mean, we\u2019ve never offered George B-sides; we could have given him a lot of B-sides, but because we were two people, you had the A-side and I had the B-side.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also possible that Lennon was thinking about Harrison\u2019s abrupt decision to quit the group the previous January 10 during a dustup with McCartney while making Let It Be<\/a>. Following Harrison\u2019s departure, Lennon and McCartney had a conversation, recorded without their knowledge at Twickenham Film Studios, about what Lennon referred to as the “festering wound” of Harrison\u2019s discontent after years of having his songs ignored. As Lennon saw it, Harrison\u2019s resignation wasn\u2019t a sudden decision but the inevitable culmination of years of feeling marginalized.<\/p>\n John and Paul’s Private Conversation | Transcription | Get Back – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n To ensure only the strongest songs made Beatles albums, Lennon suggested they give away tunes that would be better suited to other performers. All three had already been doing this to some extent: Lennon had released \u201cGive Peace a Chance\u201d with his and Yoko Ono\u2019s Plastic Ono Band project; McCartney had given his songs \u201cGoodbye\u201d and \u201cCome and Get It\u201d to Apple Records artists Mary Hopkins and Badfinger, respectively; and Harrison had passed his White Album reject \u201cSour Milk Sea\u201d over to Apple signee Jackie Lomax.<\/p>\n In making his argument, Lennon specifically mentioned McCartney\u2019s \u201cOb-La-Di, Ob-La-Da\u201d and \u201cMaxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer,\u201d a pair of old-timey singalong tunes Lennon was known to have reviled.<\/p>\n “Wouldn\u2019t it be better \u2014 because we didn\u2019t really dig \u2018em, you know? \u2014 for you to do songs that you dug and for \u2018Ob-La-Di\u2019 and \u2018Maxwell\u2019 to be given to people who like music like that. Like Mary [Hopkins] or whoever it is that needs a song. Why don\u2019t you give that to them?<\/p>\n “The only time we need something vaguely of that quality is for a single, and for an album we can just do only stuff that we really dug. It\u2019s a drag to put that song on an album that nobody dug, including the guy who wrote it, just because it was going to be popular. \u2018Cause the LP doesn\u2019t have to be popular in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n In fairness, McCartney never said he didn\u2019t like either song, but Lennon\u2019s point was clear: The Beatles should choose the material most representative of them as a collective, rather than serve as each other\u2019s backing band, a practice that had begun with the White Album and continued during the making of Abbey Road, in particular with \u201cMaxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer\u201d and McCartney\u2019s side-two medley.<\/p>\n Sadly, rather than discuss the merits of Lennon\u2019s suggestions, the three Beatles descended into a debate about Harrison\u2019s songwriting \u2014 McCartney said his tunes had only improved that year, while Harrison argued that they\u2019d been written even earlier \u2014 and whether or not Lennon had participated enough in recording Harrison\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of my tunes, I never had the Beatles backing me,\u201d Harrison falsely complained.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, c\u2019mon, George! We put a lot of work in your songs, even down to \u2018Don\u2019t Bother Me,\u2019\u201d Lennon responded, referring to Harrison\u2019s first song, which appeared on 1963\u2019s With the Beatles. \u201cWe spent a lot of time doing all that, and we grooved. I can remember the riff you were playing, and in the last two years there was a period where you went Indian<\/a> and we weren\u2019t needed!\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, c\u2019mon, George! We put a lot of work in your songs, even down to \u2018Don\u2019t Bother Me.\u2019 And in the last two years there was a period where you went Indian and we weren\u2019t needed!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was only one tune,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cOn the last album [the White Album] I don\u2019t think you appeared on any of my songs. I don\u2019t mind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you had Eric, or somebody like that,\u201d Lennon replied defensively, referring to Eric Clapton\u2019s electric guitar<\/a> contributions on \u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps,\u201d recorded with Harrison\u2019s \u201cLucy\u201d 1957 Gibson Les Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s remarkable that neither Harrison nor McCartney seemed to grasp that Lennon was, for the first time in at least a year, showing his commitment to the group\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
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