Together with “Strawberry Fields Forever’s” mellotron intro and “A Hard Day’s Night’s” opening chord, the bass/drum-roll intro of “Come Together” ranks as one of the most iconic introductions in The Beatles’ rich repertoire. While Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr provided bass and drums respectively, “Come Together” was written by John Lennon. But what’s the meaning behind Lennon’s classic?
The Origin Behind the Song
In its origin, The Beatles’ “Come Together” is a cry for unity. In 1969, John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono participated in several protests against war, most famously the Bed-ins for Peace. During their second bed-in in Montreal, counterculture figure Timothy Leary asked Lennon to write a song around the campaign slogan “Come Together and Join the Party!” (Leary planned to run for Governor in California).
Lennon immediately began writing a song around the phrase and recorded a quick demo for Leary. Thereafter, he promised Leary he would finish the song and record it. Despite Lennon’s efforts, he was never able to properly write a campaign song for Leary. “I tried and tried, but I couldn’t come up with one,” Lennon stated. “But I came up with ‘Come Together’, which would’ve been no good to him – you couldn’t have a campaign song like that, right?” Not that Leary ever needed a campaign song, by the way, because due to legal problems he never ran for governor.
The Meaning of the Song
According to John Lennon, the lyrics of “Come Together” are ‘gobbledygook’. Nevertheless, the song has sparked multiple interpretations over the years. Some suggest the song refers to John Lennon’s marriage with Yoko Ono, while others believe each verse of the song discusses one member of The Beatles.
Following the second interpretation, the first verse of the song would represent Ringo Starr, the second verse would represent George Harrison, the third verse would represent John Lennon, and the fourth verse would represent Paul McCartney. Lennon has never confirmed this interpretation.
Writing the Song
“Come Together” was mostly created in the studio during the recording sessions of The Beatles’ Abbey Road. For the song, Lennon wrote around Chuck Berry’s 1956 song “You Can’t Catch Me”. Upon hearing “Come Together”, Paul McCartney noticed the resemblance.
“He originally brought it over as a very perky little song, and I pointed out to him that it was very similar to Chuck Berry’s ‘You Can’t Catch Me,” McCartney said in his biography Many Years From Now. “John acknowledged it was rather close to it so I said, ‘Well, anything you can do to get away from that.’ I suggested that we tried it swampy – ‘swampy’ was the word I used – so we did, we took it right down.
The band slowed the tempo of the song down and McCartney added his iconic bass line. Despite slowing the song down, Chuck Berry’s publishing company Big Seven Music would later file a lawsuit claiming “Come Together” was too similar to Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me”. Although admitting the influence, John Lennon felt the lawsuit was nonsense.
“Come Together’ is me – writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing,” Lennon stated. “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.”
Read more: The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’: Every Song Ranked
The case was eventually settled when John Lennon promised to record 3 songs from Big Seven Music on his next studio album. (although Big Seven Music later sued Lennon again).
Come Together’s Legacy
On 26 September 1969, The Beatles released Abbey Road with “Come Together” as its opening track. A few days later, on 6 October 1969, the song was released as a double A-side single together with “Something”. The single was a worldwide top-10 hit and topped the US Billboard Hot 100.
Over the years, “Come Together” grew out to be one of The Beatles’ most popular songs. “It was a funky record,” Lennon reflected. “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!”
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