"COME TOGETHER"

(John Lennon – Paul McCartney)

The compositions of John Lennon had evolved rapidly throughout one decade. From innocent subject matter concerning teen relationships in the earlier Beatle years, mostly the result of his budding partnership with Paul, to pushing the envelope both lyrically and musically as he progressed to solo composer in the group's later years.

Examples begin as early as 1965, where he goes as far as to threaten murdering his lover if it became known that she was “with another man” in “Run For Your Life.” The single-chord droning of “Tomorrow Never Knows” from 1966 revealed his infatuation with LSD to the world, all but advocating its use. His 1967 composition “I Am The Walrus” received a ban from British radio because of its then scandalous sexually explicit lyric “Boy, you've been a naughty girl, you let your knickers down.” And how can anyone forget John's “musique concrete” sound collage “Revolution 9,” which many fans and music critics loved to hate in 1968.

He may have gotten used to ruffling feathers with his solo composition for The Beatles, but one thing that Lennon had not experienced yet was an accusation of plagiarism. While the inspiration for most popular songs can easily be traced back by their composers, these sometimes even being discernible to perceptive listeners, professional songwriters especially need to be cognizant about limiting their artistic influence to “inspiration” alone, not going as far as to infringe on another composer's copyright. It happened to George Harrison with his 1970 song “My Sweet Lord,” but Lennon crossed this line first in 1969 with “Come Together.” This was dialed back by Paul in the studio in an effort to avoid this problem, as we'll see later, but John was still called to account for getting a little too close in content to a classic hit by one of his rock 'n' roll idols.

Songwriting History

The original seed of the idea that resulted in the classic Lennon-penned "Come Together" dates back to early June 1969 from a somewhat unlikely source. This source was Timothy Leary, an outspoken proponent of LSD, who decided to run for governor of California against Ronald Reagan in the 1970 election.

Unrelated to this, Timothy Leary, along with his wife Rosemary, accepted an invitation to attend John and Yoko's second and final "bed-in" for peace in Montreal, Canada. They had arrived to meet with the celebrated couple on the sixth day of their “bed-in” on June 1st, 1969. Right there, in room #1742 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel (also known as the "Hotel Le Reine Elizabeth"), Timothy and Rosemary Leary were coaxed into joining in on the chorus of the recording of “Give Peace A Chance,” this being released shortly thereafter as the first single by the “Plastic Ono Band.” In the celebratory spirit of that event, John included their names (“Timmy Leary / Rosemary”) in the final verse which names those present on that day.

In thanks for their cooperation in the impromptu recording of this new song, John asked Timothy Leary the following day, June 2nd, 1969, if there was anything he could do to help his candidacy. “The Learys wanted me to write them a campaign song,” Lennon told Rolling Stone magazine, “and their slogan was 'come together.'” Timothy Leary later stated, “There was obviously a double meaning there. It was 'come together and join the party' – not a political party but a celebration of life.” The phrase “come together” is said to have originated with Timothy Leary as a reference to its inclusion in the “I Ching,” the Chinese book of changes.

John immediately picked up his acoustic guitar and started writing “a chant-along thing,” as he told to Rolling Stone magazine. What Lennon came up with, according to Steve Turner's 1994 book “A Hard Day's Write,” consisted of lyrics that included this: “Come together right now / Don't come tomorrow / Don't come alone / Come together right now over me / All that I can tell you is you gotta be free.” After rehearsing various different renditions, all of them containing similar lyrics, John recorded a demo version of the song right there and then, undoubtedly using the same recording equipment used the previous day for “Give Peace A Chance,” and immediately offered it to Timothy Leary who, being very pleased, accepted the tape and had it played on alternative radio stations throughout California in promotion of his campaign, viewing the song as his own.

Unfortunately for Timothy Leary, his campaign ground to a halt in December of 1969 because of his being charged with marijuana possession. As Ian MacDonald explained in his book “Revolution In The Head,” Timothy Leary's primary opponent took advantage of this occurrence. The 1994 book states: “Implacably opposed to LSD, (Ronald) Reagan saw to it that his challenger was denied bail on a marijuana charge and kept in the Orange County Jail for the duration of the election.”

In the meantime, Lennon recognized the song's potential and brought it into EMI Studios only seven weeks later to be a contribution for “Abbey Road,” his group's final album. John said to Playboy Magazine in 1980, “'Come Together' was an expression (Timothy) Leary had come up with when he was running for President. They asked me to write them a campaign song. I tried and tried and tried and just could not come up with it. But I came up with 'Come Together,' which would have been no good for them. They could not have had a campaign song like that, right? But (Timothy) Leary attacked me years later, saying that I ripped him off. Well, I had written another little thing called 'Come together and join the party...' It never got further than that. And they never came back to ask for the song. I didn't rip him off. I had the song there waiting for him.”

Timothy Leary was quite surprised when he first heard the song on a local radio station while in prison. “Although this new version was certainly a musical and lyrical improvement on my campaign song,” he stated in the book “A Hard Day's Write,” “I was a bit miffed that Lennon had passed me over this way...When I sent a mild protest to John, he replied with typical Lennon charm and wit that he was a tailor and I was a customer who had ordered a suit and never returned. So he sold it to someone else.”

When Lennon first brought the song into the studio, he apparently had a good amount of work to do on it lyrically. “The thing was created in the studio,” John told Playboy in 1980. “The lyrics are gobbledygook.” One general theme incorporated into Timothy Leary's original slogan idea came from one of John Lennon's longtime idols. “It's me, writing obscurely around an old Chuck Berry thing” John explained, referring to the artist's 1956 classic hit “You Can't Catch Me." In 1970, Lennon related how the writing developed as it did: "I was doing that ("You Can't Catch Me") and when I got to (the refrain), I stopped and then said - it just came out 'come together' 'cause 'come together' was rolling around in my head."

The opening lyric of "Come Together" is, “Here come old flat-top / he come grooving up slowly,” which is remarkably similar lyrically and in meter to a phrase in “You Can't Catch Me,” “Here come a flat-top / he was moving up with me.” This inclusion had been meant as a tribute to John's childhood hero, as Lennon stated in 1970: "I think it's a compliment to Chuck Berry, not a f*cking...I mean we resurrected him." Paul explained in an interview, concerning the line "here come old flat-top," "That was a lyric John could NOT let go of. And he could not better it, so he just used it. And I said, 'Well, it's a bit of a nick, isn't it?' He said, 'No, it's a quote.' I said, 'OK, fair enough."

This similarity caught the notice of publisher Morris Levy who owned the rights to the Chuck Berry recording. Shortly after the Beatles song was released, he filed a lawsuit against John Lennon for plagiarism. While Timothy Leary did walk away quietly, this was not the case with Morris Levy. He smelled financial gain.

A settlement was reached in 1973 which stipulated that Lennon would record three songs owned by Big Seven Music Corp, Morris Levy's publishing company. The three songs that Lennon picked were “Ya Ya,” which he released on both his 1974 “Walls And Bridges” album and his 1975 “Rock And Roll” LP, “You Can't Catch Me,” which was also included on the “Rock And Roll” album, and finally “Angel Baby.” Since this third song did not get released at that time, Morris Levy sued John again and was awarded a total of $6,795 in damages eventually.

“Though it's nothing like the Chuck Berry song,” John said to Playboy in 1980, “they took me to court because I admitted this once years ago. I left in one line...'Here come old flat top.' I could have changed it to 'Here comes old iron face.' The song remains independent of Chuck Berry or anybody else on this earth.” This quote may lead one to believe that there were even more Chuck Berry lyrics incorporated into the song originally but, possibly due to Paul's suggestion, these were changed when it was recorded in July of 1969.

Interestingly, Lennon has intimated yet another reference to an early rock and roll pioneer within the framework of “Come Together.” At the end of each refrain, John worked in a break in the song to draw attention to the words “over me,” this becoming a parody of many early Elvis Presley songs that did the same thing, musically in “Teddy Bear” and lyrically in his "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)." "'Over me' was meant to be a joke, like Elvis doing 'over you,'" as John stated in 1970.

Another lyrical feature of the song was John's barely audible “shoot me,” which can be heard repeatedly throughout the track. This was borrowed from a song that he was formulating with The Beatles earlier that year during the making of the “Get Back / Let It Be” project. Lennon's composition was informally called “Watching Rainbows” and had been rehearsed by the band (minus George Harrison) on January 14th, 1969 in Twickenham Film Studios. Upon listening, we hear Lennon exclaiming “shoot me” repeatedly in the same fashion as heard on “Come Together.”

Although John describes the lyrics of the track to be "gobbledygook," there are various phrases heard in the song that various writers attribute meaning to. Some interpret each of the song's four verses to each individual Beatle. Verse one could be referring to George, his spiritual interests branding him as a “holy roller” with “juju eyeball(s).” The third verse may be attributed to Lennon himself, “Bag production(s)” being a corporation he and Yoko recently set up, “Ono sideboard” referring to her constant attendance at his side (“sideboards” are also another name for “sideburns,” which John sings on various takes of the song), and “spinal cracker” possibly referring to his recent car accident that he and Yoko were then recovering from.

The fourth verse could refer to McCartney as a “roller coaster,” his current hit composition “Get Back” being publicized as “a song to roller coast by,“ while the phrases “muddy water” and “mojo filter” could be in reference to Paul's fondness for playing guitar licks inspired by bluesman Muddy Waters, whose most famous song was “I Got My Mojo Working.” “Got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see” (originally conceived as "He's got to get injections because he's so hard to see," this being sung during several takes of the song) could be in reference to Paul being popularized as the “cute” Beatle. These speculations are endless, none of which have ever been confirmed.

Even though Paul played a sizable part in presenting the song in the studio as we will see later, and lyrical ideas being shot around the studio at times when songs were being recorded ("I wrote two lines to 'Come Together,'" George stated in a 1987 interview), this song is generally attributed to John as its sole composer. As to the time of writing, with Lennon's “shoot me” being utilized within a song back in January and the lyrics being finalized in the studio when it was being recorded, “Come Together” can be said to have been composed between the dates of January 14th and July 21st, 1969.

Recording History

The earliest recording of anything that could be considered as "Come Together" would have happened on June 2nd, 1969, as a demo that Lennon recorded at the request of Timothy Leary for his California gubernatorial campaign for 1970, as detailed above. This recording was played on alternative radio stations in California in 1969 and hardly resembles the finished song as The Beatles recorded it later that same year, John himself demonstrating this vocally during a 1970 interview.

It was on July 21st, 1969, that John first brought “Come Together” into EMI Studio Three as a contribution for “Abbey Road.” The session began at 2:30 pm, “Come Together” being the first new song John brought in for the group to record since April's “The Ballad Of John And Yoko.” In fact, Mark Lewisohn noted, in his 1988 book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” that John “kept a low profile during recent Beatles recording sessions,” even refusing opportunities to contribute to the sessions at all.

But on this day, he was up and raring to go. “John was in a pretty good mood that day,” engineer Geoff Emerick explained in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” this being the engineer's first official day back in EMI Studios after being requested by Paul to help work the group's final album. Geoff Emerick added about John: “He seemed to come to life when we were working on one of his songs, rather than one of Paul's or George's. True, all three of them exhibited a lack of patience if it wasn't their song - there was always a definite drop-off in interest whenever any one of them was working on another Beatle's song - but John was consistently the most flagrant offender.”

Upon arriving at EMI Studios on this day, according to Geoff Emerick, John exclaimed, “Okay, lads, I'm ready. Time to let yer hair down and play some rock and roll.” Geoff Emerick recalled: “It was nearly three weeks into July, and two weeks after the prodigal son had returned to the studio when we had finally heard those words said from a fully recovered John Lennon.” What Geoff Emerick was referring to here was a car accident that John was in three weeks earlier, on July 1st, during a holiday in Golspie, North Scotland, with Yoko, her daughter, Kyoko and his son Julian. With John driving, their car “careered into the ditch by the side of the road...at the tongue area of Sutherland,” according to a news report. Lennon ended up in the hospital and received seventeen stitches while Yoko, being pregnant, was being monitored more closely.

“'Come Together' was one of the last ones to be recorded,” stated George Harrison in late 1969. “John was in an accident, so he was off for a period of time. Then when we got back, which was only a week or so before we finished the album, we did this one. I think John wrote it only a month or so ago, so it's very new. It's sort of a twelve-bar type of tune.”

John “was about to run The Beatles through a new song,” Geoff Emerick added, “the second of his to be recorded for 'Abbey Road' (they'd done some work on 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' before the band's summer sessions had commenced) - and we all waited with bated breath to see what he had come up with. 'Come Together' may not have been a masterpeice, but it was a catchy hooky tune. Even though it clearly owed a lot to Chuck Berry, its abstract, somewhat risque lyric had that distinctive Lennon stamp. The first time he played it for us, chugging away on his acoustic guitar, it was a lot faster than the final version that made it to the album.”

John explained in 1969: “'Come Together' changed at a session. We said, 'Let's slow it down. Let's do this to it, let's do that to it,' and it ends up however it comes out. I just said, 'Look, I've got no arrangement for you, but you know how I want it to be.' I think that's partly because we've played together a long time. So I said, 'Give me something funky,' and set up a beat, maybe, and they all just join in.”

Paul explained this a bit differently in a 2021 Hulu documentary series they called "McCartney 3,2,1": "It really happened quite organically in the studio. My famous occasion with the bass radically altering the whole attitude of the song is when John came in (with his song 'Come Together'). I said, 'Ah, ah, ah, wait a minute, wait a minute, that's Chuck Berry's song!' There's a Chuck Berry song which was called 'You Can't Catch Me,' which not only was identical to that (rhythmically), the opening line is 'here come old flat top.' That actually IS the Chuck Berry song! So I said, 'Oh, man, y'know, look, it's a great song, I love it, but we gotta do something to get away from that.' So I suggested we slowed it down, which now gave it a kind of realy nice 'swampy' back up. And it changed his attitude to it (vocally)." In his book "Many Years From Now," Paul added: "I laid that bass line down which very much makes the mood. It's actually a bass line that people now use very often in rap records. If it's not a sample, they use that riff. But that was my contribution to that." Geoff Emerick agreed. “It was Paul who suggested it be done at a slower tempo, with that 'swampy' kind of sound, and Lennon went along with it uncomplainingly; he always took well to constructive criticism.”

Even though Lennon's head was back in the game on this day, this session was not nearly as focused as one would think. “Despite Lennon's improved frame of mind,” Geoff Emerick continued on, “there were clearly still underlying tensions and old wounds that hadn't healed. The band kept breaking into long and pointless jam sessions, as they had done frequently throughout their 'White Album' sessions, and I could see that John was treating Paul in an off-hand manner.”

Nonetheless, throughout the rehearsals and jam sessions, Lennon led The Beatles through eight takes of the rhythm track to“Come Together,” these being recorded onto a four-track machine. Author Mark Lewisohn, who had the privilege of hearing all of these takes in preparation for his book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” related: “Take one was a magnificent version, marked by a supreme Lennon vocal free of the massive tape echo applied later. Freed too from the restrictions of a guitar, he was able to sing while simultaneously clapping his hands (again, later applied with tape echo) immediately after each time he sang the line 'Shoot me!' There's only one guitar on the tape at this stage and that was George's. Also, Paul played bass and Ringo played drums. John tapped a tambourine part-way through, too.” The four-track tape was filled up with Paul on bass (track one), George on guitar (track two), Ringo on drums that were covered with tea towels to dampen the sound (track three), and John's vocal, hand-clapping and tambourine (track four).

"Take one," as described above, can be heard in its entirety on the 1996 “Anthology 3” album. Lennon's very energetic vocal stands out, all of the song's lyrics being in place right from the first take, the exception being when he flubbed the lyrics in the fourth verse ("He's not to get some bobo, he's just ho-hard to please"), which prompted Ringo to go into a triplet beat for the refrain that followed, knowing this take was ruined. As the take winds down, John exclaimed, "Take it easy baby, Eartha Kitt, man." Interestingly, on "take two," "take six" and "take eight," John replaced his reference to vocalist Eartha Kitt with Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director who had overseen the filming of what was to become the "Let It Be" movie.

Regarding the above mentioned vocal effect, Lennon explained the following in a 1969 interview: “It's me going “Shooo...(claps hands twice) on tape echo...It's not compressed...I was sort of going (claps again) through me hands like that.” In the 1988 book "The Beatles Recording Sessions," Geoff Emerick related: “On the finished record you can really only hear the word 'shoot.' The bass note falls where the 'me' is.”

Three of the eight "Come Together" takes did not make it to the end of the song, these being "take four," "take five" and "take seven." The final moments of "take four," as released in the "Super Deluxe" edition of "Abbey Road," showed John bringing the song to a halt, exclaiming, "Ha, ha, stop." After an engineer can be heard saying "hold on," Lennon described someone's flub: "He shut his eyes and came out on 'wear no sh*t falls.'" Paul then encouraged John: "Don't worry if you don't get the vocals - just keep on," McCartney recognizing that Lennon is just going to add proper lead vocals later as an overdub. Lennon answers, "Ok, sorry. Yes. I get very involved, y'know," which prompts himself to count down "take five," which nearly makes it through to the end of the song.

It's apparent, however, that John's voice is giving out on him, lines such as "you just got to be free" and "he hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease" noticeably falling apart as he vocalizes them. This take ends just as the fourth verse begins, John singing "early warning, he's got Doris duckers" as it all grinds to a halt. Paul inquired, "early warning?" John answered, "Yes. A man like him would have it," which inferred that this fictional character would indeed have bad breath, the term "early warning" being slang for this condition. John then poked fun at his own lyrics by singing, "He's got teenage lyrics, he's got hot rod baldy." Then, after recognizing his deteriating vocal quality on that day, said, "uh - I'm losing my cool!"

While "take eight" was complete, John complained that there had been "a few toe-jam footballs" in it, so the previous complete "take six" was designated to be the best. The recording session concluded at 9:30 pm, but their engineering staff transferred the four-track tape over to the EMI Studio Two control room for making a tape copy of "take six" onto an eight-track machine for further overdubbing, this copy being designated as "take nine." This only took a half hour to accomplish, everyone involved vacating the building by 10 pm.

The next day, July 22nd, 1969, after Paul attempted a lead vocal for the previously recorded “Oh! Darling,” the group took to adding overdubs onto the newly copied eight-track tape of “Come Together” in EMI Studio Three, the session beginning sometime after 2:30 pm. Lennon re-recorded his lead vocals and hand-clap effects onto track four, replacing the lyrics "got to get injections" with "got to be good looking" in the process. Tape delay, or "repeat echo" as the tape box described it, was added to Lennon's vocals and hand-claps as he performed them.

Other overdubs to the song at this session were Lennon on Fender Rhodes electric piano with George on rhythm guitar (track five), and then John on Epiphone Casino guitar with Ringo on maracas (track six). John can be heard saying "the guitar sounds so great" on the eight-track tape after hearing the overdubs performed on this day. “Paul came up with the electric piano lick,” Geoff Emerick recalled, “that pretty well defines 'Come Together.' John even made a point of playing the piano line, once he'd looked over Paul's shoulder and learned the part. That would have never happened in the old days: both men knew that Paul was the better piano player, and he normally would be manning the keyboards even if they were recording a Lennon song. Finally, in some frustration, (Paul) blurted out, 'What do you want me to do on this track, John?' Lennon's reply was a diffident 'Don't worry, I'll do the overdubs on this.'”

Geoff Emerick added: “Paul looked a bit hurt, then angry. For a moment I thought there was going to be an explosion. Instead, Paul contained himself, shrugged his shoulders, and he simply walked out of the studio - one of the few times he ever left a session early. Paul had to have felt somewhat humiliated, but rather than having a fight or an argument about it, he chose to just get up and leave, without any dramatics. The next day, he returned, and nothing further was even said about it.” As it turned out, this day's session ended at 9:30 pm with yet more work to be done on the song.

“Come Together” was touched on again the next day, July 23rd, 1969, The Beatles entering into EMI Studio Three sometime after 2:30 pm. After yet another attempt by Paul at nailing down a lead vocal for “Oh! Darling,” John also decided to have another go at the lead vocals for “Come Together,” his voice undoubtedly being in better shape on this day to hit the higher notes. The band then began work on “The End,” which took up most of the session on this day, it ending at 11:30 pm.

July 25th, 1969, was the next session that attention was given to Lennon's “Come Together,” this 12-hour session beginning at 2:30 pm in EMI Studio Two. After the group performed overdubs for the “Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard” portion of the “Abbey Road” medley, "vocal harmonies" are then recorded for "Come Together" on this day according to Mark Lewisohn's 1988 book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.” But who provided the harmonies?

“Lennon not only sang the lead, but also did all the backing vocals on 'Come Together' by himself,” Geoff Emerick claimed. “He didn't ask either Paul or George to join in with him, and neither of them volunteered. Harrison didn't seem to care one way or the other, but I could see that it was getting to Paul.”

In a McCartney interview with the “Evening Standard” in 1970, he appeared to concur with Geoff Emerick. “I would love for The Beatles to be on top of their form and to be as productive as they were. But things have changed. They're all individuals. Even on 'Abbey Road' we don't perform harmonies like we used to. I think this is sad. On 'Come Together' I would have liked to sing harmony with John and I think that he would have liked me to but I was too embarrassed to ask him and I don't work to the best of my abilities in that situation.” However, upon listening to the isolated background vocal track for "Come Together," which is available from various sources, it's obvious that it was indeed McCartney who performed these background vocals. While this is debated among many Beatles enthusiasts, this author's ears identify Paul as singing these vocal lines. Also, according to Paul's book "Many Years From Now," Barry Miles related that, during the recording of "Come Together," "Paul recorded a lot of heavy breathing on the end but it was buried so deep in the mix as to be inaudible."

After Paul and John provided this vocal work for “Come Together” on this day, The Beatles started work on the “Polytheme Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” section of the “Abbey Road” medley, their session ending at 2:30 am the following morning.

More work on John's "Come Together" happened on July 29th, 1969, in EMI Studio Three, the session stipulated to have begun at the usual 2:30 pm. The first order of business on this day was the addition of some harmonized lead guitar work in the instrumental section as well as during the chorus of the song, both parts presumably played by George because of the similarity of the melody lines used to what is heard in the song's conclusion, which is stipulated to have been played by George. With this guitar work being recorded onto track seven of the eight-track tape, more attention was given to the “Sun King / Mear Mr. Mustard” medley section before they ended the session at 10:45 pm.

The finishing touches were added to “Come Together” on July 30th, 1969, in EMI Studio Three starting at 3:30 pm. Harrison's ending lead guitar lines were recorded on this day, presumably onto the open spaces remaining on track seven where George performed his guitar harmonies in other parts of the song. When this was done, extensive work began on what was to become the side-two medley of “Abbey Road.” This session was complete at 10:30 pm, which immediately morphed into a stereo mixing and editing session inside the EMI Studio Two control room, this session finally ending at 2:30 am the following morning.

The Beatles were all very happy with the finished product. "Great record," Paul remarked in the "Beatles Anthology" book. "It's one of the nicest sounds we have got, actually," George explained in 1969, adding, "Nice drumming from Ringo. And it's sort of up-tempo. I suppose you'd call it a rocker. Rocker-beat-a-boogie." John was especially happy with how it came out, as he expressed in his 1980 Playboy Magazine interview, calling this "a funky record. It's one of my favorite Beatle tracks, or one of my favorite Lennon tracks, I'd say. 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!"

The stereo mix for “Come Together” was created on August 7th, 1969, in the control room of EMI Studio Two, by George Martin and engineers Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald and John Kurlander. It took them three-and-a-half hours to create this stereo mix, mixing out George's harmony guitar parts performed in the chorus in the process. Ten attempts were made but, in the end, they decided that the very first attempt at this mix was the best.  No mono mix was needed since mono album releases were phased out of existence by 1969.

On August 30th, 1972, a pair of live performances of “Come Together” by John Lennon and the band Elephant's Memory were recorded at New York City's Madison Square Garden for their "One To One" benefit concerts, there being an afternoon and evening show both featuring the identical set list. The earlier recording of the song, both of which being performed in E minor instead of D minor as on the Beatles recording, was posthemously included on the album “Live In New York City” that was released on February 10th, 1986.

Then, sometime during 1996, George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned to the original “take one” of the song as The Beatles recorded it on July 21st, 1969 to create a mix for the compilation album “Anthology 3.”

George Martin then returned to their finished master tape sometime between 2004 and 2006 and, along with his son Giles Martin, created a new mix of the song for inclusion in the Cirque du Soleil show and soundtrack LP “Love.” This track, titled “Come Together / Dear Prudence,” comprises a vibrant new stereo mix of “Come Together” with elements of both “Dear Prudence” and “Cry Baby Cry” at the end of the track, which makes for interesting listening.

Giles Martin later returned again to the master tapes of the song, along with engineer Sam Okell, in Abbey Road Studios sometime in 2015 to create a new stereo mix for inclusion on the newly remixed “Beatles 1” compilation album. Then they created yet another new mix of "Come Together" sometime during 2019 for inclusion on the 50th Anniversary editions of "Abbey Road" that were released that year, along with a mix of "take five" as they recorded on July 21st, 1969, this being included on some editions of this 50th Anniversary release. As for the official 2019 mix, some noticeable differences include the late fading in of guitar swells during the final "shoot me" section of the song, and leaving John's double-tracked vocals in place to reveal additional Lennon mutterings as the song fades out.

Sometime in the year 2025, Sean Ono Lennon took it upon himself, along with engineers Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon, to produce both live performances of "Come Together" as recorded by his father on August 30th, 1972 for inclusion on various Capitol releases of "Power To The People: Live At The One To One Concert." New HD multitrack transfers were made by Rob Stevens, the mixes being mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios, some degree of pitch correction being applied to John's vocals in the process.

Song Structure and Style

The structure chosen for "Come Together" consists of the following: 'riff/ verse/ riff/ verse/ refrain/ riff/ verse/ refrain/ riff/ verse (solo)/ verse/ refrain/ riff/ conclusion' (parsed out as ababcabcabbcad). John keeps to a very steady 4/4 time signature throughout the entire song, something unusual for him in these later Beatle years, this being an indication that Paul and the others had more than the usual influence on a John composition this time around.

The distinctive eight measure riff begins with John's word “shoot” sung through clapped hands and treated to tape echo, this appearing directly on the downbeat of the opening measure as well as the third, fifth and seventh. This portion of the song was actually a four-times repeated two-measure musical segment from the three instruments performing on the rhythm track, these being Paul's deep bass line, Harrison's electric guitar passage and Ringo's drums. As for the drums, Ringo accents the first two quarter-beats with kick drum and cymbal, followed by four beats on slightly closed hi-hat played in triplet form, and then the second measure is filled with triplet beats on his toms which are heard as thuds because of the tea-towels that cover these drums. All of these bass-heavy elements combine together to create a very “swampy” effect indeed!

The first verse appears next, which is sixteen measures long as all of the other verses are. The same three rhythm track elements are the only ones heard in this verse, George plodding through electric rhythm guitar chords, his instrument adjusted to create a suitable bassy tone, Paul on bass continuing the riff he had invented for the opening section of the song, and Ringo keeping strictly to the kick drum and toms while never straying from the quarter-beats. This continues for the first twelve measures of the verse, only adjusting accordingly for the changing chord in the ninth measure. Then, on measure thirteen, the guitar and bass drop out entirely while Ringo crashes a cymbal and performs a simple pattern only on his kick drum. All the while, Lennon's distinctive single-tracked lead vocal cuts through like a razor, tape-echo to the fore. Directly after John's final words “do what he please,” we detect a faint voice that seems to say “yeah,” possibly Paul's voice bled over from the rhythm track, and then a guitar neck squeak as George places his left hand in position for the second riff that directly follows this.

The second riff and verse that follows next are identical in instrumentation and playing from those previous with one exception: Paul has now overdubbed harmony vocals on the lyrics “toe jam football,” “monkey finger” and “coca-cola.” As a side note, The Beatles didn't think twice about incorporating the brand-name “coca-cola” in the lyrics of a hit song, unlike The Kinks the following year who were asked to change the lyrics to their international hit “Lola” from “coca-cola” to “cherry cola” for the single version to avoid any problems.

The first refrain appears next, this being four measures long as the remaining ones are. Lennon's vocals are now double-tracked on the phrase “come together,” the majority of this line preceding the downbeat of the refrain, while Paul joins in on harmony vocal. Ringo now plays half beats, hitting the snare drum for the first time in the song on the three beat of the first three measures, Paul's booming bass notes making the snare drum spring rattle because of both the drums and bass being recorded at the same time during the rhythm track, the snare drum microphone possibly being turned up in the mix at this point.

An overdubbed rhythm guitar, added on top of Harrison's guitar from their rhythm track, gives the refrain a heavier edge than the rest of the song so far, making this stand out more prominently. Everything cuts out on the downbeat of the fourth measure, creating a trademark “Beatles break” that they have been incorporating into their arrangements as far back as their first-ever EMI recording session with “Love Me Do.” After John's isolated double-tracked line “over me,” the group goes into yet another eight-measure riff, the only noticeable difference from the previous riffs being Paul altering his bass pattern in the final measure.

This is followed by another verse and refrain, both being a virtual repeat instrumentally and arrangement-wise of the second verse and refrain that we just witnessed. The only noticeable difference is that John's last line in the refrain, “over me,” was single-tracked this time instead of double-tracked as in the first refrain. This is followed by another riff section which is only four measures in length this time and concludes a bit differently. As a transition to the instrumental section that follows, Ringo puts in a drum fill and John shouts “Right!”

Next arrives a simple but stellar twenty-measure instrumental verse that somewhat mimics the structure that we heard in the previous verses along with the riff section that follows after. Ringo plays a straightforward 4/4 rock beat while, for the first time in the song, riding on a cymbal throughout, also adding in drum fills in measures eight, twelve and sixteen. A couple of rhythm guitars appear here, one from the rhythm track and one overdubbed, as Paul thumps away on bass and John plays his electric piano. Paul's heavy breathing accentuates the two- and four-beats of each of the first eight measures while John vocalizes “come” in the eighth measure as well.

As the chord changes in the ninth measure, John's electric piano is reduced to simple chords performed sporadically while two simple harmonized lead guitar overdubs bring us through the next eight measures. Also evident here is Lennon repeating the word “come” more quietly in measures nine, twelve, fourteen and sixteen. Then, as the last harmonized guitar riff fades out in measure seventeen, the drums disappear and reveal doodling by rhythm guitar, electric piano and bass guitar through measures seventeen to twenty. The last sound to be deciphered appears to be the up-and-down squeaking of a guitar neck, this sound undoubtedly being a harmonized guitar overdub that just finished playing, finding an ending note on the downbeat of the final verse that follows.

Next is the final verse, which is instrumentally another virtual repeat of the previous two, Lennon deciding to double-track his closing phrase this time around, the lyric being “got to be good looking 'cause he's so hard to see.” John continued the double-tracked vocals throughout the identical refrain that follows, one last riff section coming directly afterward. This eight-measure riff section is unique in that it features a volume-swelled guitar overdub that occurs in the later half of each of the four-times repeated phrases that make up this section. Ringo puts in another drum fill in the eighth measure while John exclaimed “Ahhh!” to usher in the song's concluding section.

A forty-seven measure conclusion then appears, three guitars, Rhodes electric piano, bass guitar and drums bringing the song home while John sings the song's title and the word “yeah” repeatedly for effect. George plays subtle but effective lead guitar lines throughout, alternating the identical melodic phrase over and over but bending the final note of each phrase in imitation of many of the great blues guitarists he had come to know. Ringo rides on the cymbal and puts in various drum fills as he had done in the instrumental verse while Paul bounces around on bass and John vamps on electric piano. And so we all witness a masterfully mature Beatles song fade off into the sunset. "That's a groove, isn't it?," Paul stated about the song in his Hulu "McCartney 3,2,1" documentary. "We sort of knew that we had got something funky, and that was always the aim. Like, if you could take whatever little song that you had and just put in that little extra of something."

American Releases

On October 1st, 1969, the final recorded Beatles album was released in America, this being simply titled "Abbey Road." Their "Let It Be" album, which was released later on May 18th, 1970, was pretty much in the can at the end of January 1969 but was ultimately held back in order for it to be released in conjunction with the motion picture of the same name that contained the music from the film. "Come Together" was the opening track for the "Abbey Road" album, thereby setting the tone for the rest of the LP. The album took only three weeks to jump into the top spot on the US Billboard album chart, raking in a grand total of eleven weeks in the #1 position.

It first appeared on compact disc on October 10th, 1987, and then as a remastered release on September 9th, 2009. A newly mixed 50th Anniversary vinyl edition of the LP was released on September 27th, 2019, not to mention an opaque green vinyl edition coming out on October 10th, 2025 as an exclusive release made available only at Target Department Stores in America. 

On October 6th, 1969, or five days after “Abbey Road” was first released in the US, the first two tracks on the LP were released as their new single, “Come Together” and “Something,” the latter being placed as the a-side due to its overwhelming commercial appeal. However, “Come Together” also received extensive attention on American radio stations, even eclipsing “Something” at times. On November 15th, 1969, the Billboard Hot 100 had “Come Together” at #2 and “Something” at #3. Two weeks later, Billboard changed their policy of charting b-sides separately and, since both sides of this single were still very popular, the November 29th, 1969 issue of Billboard saw both sides of this record at #1 on the Hot 100. 

Their next official release of the song was on April 2nd, 1973, on the second of the two double-compilation albums that were released on that day, “The Beatles / 1967-1970” (aka, the “Blue Album”). “Come Together” was featured as the second track on side four, which happened to be in between both Harrison songs from the “Abbey Road” LP, “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something.” This #1 album was first released on CD on October 5th, 1993 and then as a remastered CD re-release on October 19th, 2010 and on vinyl on October 31st, 2014.

Sometime in 1978, Capitol Records re-released the "Abbey Road" album as a picture disc. Side one had the iconic front cover while side two contained a close-up of the wall photo of the back cover minus the song title listings. This picture disc was then re-released with the new Giles Martin mix on 180-gram vinyl on September 27th, 2019.

An interesting US vinyl edition of “Abbey Road” was released on December 28th, 1979, this being created by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in Chatsworth, California as the first Beatles installment in their "Original Master Recording" series. Their practice was to prepare a new master utilizing half-speed mastering technology from the original tapes, in this case utilizing the leased sub-master from Capitol. Hype stickers on the shrinkwrap proclaimed this album as being “A Brand New Experience,” which proved to be the case. This version of the album sounded superior to all previous British and American pressings at that time. Unfortunately, this excellent edition of “Abbey Road” was only available for a short time and is quite collectible today.

On October 11th, 1982, Capitol came out with the album “20 Greatest Hits” featuring “Come Together” because of its status of reaching the #1 spot in America, the song not making the cut for the British release of this album. This album made it convenient for record buyers who wanted a disc that contained the biggest selling Beatles songs that spanned their whole career instead of having to buy two double-albums as was the only option on the market during that time. This LP only reached #50 on the American charts, however. 

Capitol re-released the original "Come Together / Something" single in January of 1994 on their “For Jukeboxes Only” Cema series, this single being printed in limited supply on blue vinyl and highly collectible. 

The original “take one” of “Come Together,” as recorded on July 21st, 1969, was released on the compilation album “Anthology 3” on October 28th, 1996. This great version, as outlined above, displays Lennon's initial excitement at recording this new composition of his, vocal flubs and all. Note John's anticipatory phrase “look out!” that introduces most verses, something he also exclaimed just before “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” begins, this song also appearing on that same "Abbey Road" album. 

With the “20 Greatest Hits” album long out of print, Apple does this LP's concept one better by releasing “Beatles 1,” which contains every Beatles song that topped the charts either in Britain or America all on one disc. It was released on November 13th, 2000, this concept taking much better hold than did that of its predecessor, topping the charts and selling over 31 million copies the world over. A remastered version of the CD was released in September of 2011, while a newly re-mixed version was released on November 6th, 2015. 

The above described new mix / mashup of “Come Together” was contained on the November 20th, 2006 release “Love,” this being created by George Martin and his son Giles Martin to be utilized in conjunction with the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. They titled the new track “Come Together / Dear Prudence (with Cry Baby Cry transition),” elements of the latter two songs being heard toward the conclusion of the track. This album proved to be a great success, peaking at #4 on the Billboard album chart.

On September 9th, 2009, in promotion of the remastered Beatles catalog, the "09.09.09 Sampler" compact disc was distributed to retailers and radio programmers, "Come Together" being featured therein. This has become quite the find for collectors.

On September 27th, 2019, various new editions of "Abbey Road" came out in order to commemorate the LP's 50th Anniversary that featured interesting renditions of "Come Together." The "Deluxe" set, which was made available in a 2CD set, a "Triple Vinyl" album set, and their "Super Deluxe" 3CD + Blu-ray edition, all contain the newly created Giles Martin mix of the entire album and the never before heard "take five" of "Come Together" as recorded on July 21st, 1969.

A 50th Anniversay edition of the compilation LP "The Beatles / 1967 - 1970" ("The Blue Album") was released on November 10th, 2023, the Giles Martin stereo mix of "Come Together" as detailed above, being included. This new expanded release included 12 additional songs for a grand total of 38 tracks, and was made available as a double CD and as a triple vinyl release on both black and blue vinyl.

Not to be forgotten is John Lennon's live rendition as recorded at New York City's Madison Square Garden on August 30th, 1972 and released on the album “Live In New York City.” This album didn't come out until February 10th, 1986, but reached a respectable #41 on the Billboard album chart, undoubtedly helped out by video footage of this live appearance being in rotation on MTV at the time.

John's live performance of "Come Together" was also included in various editions of Capitol's "Power To The People: Live At The One To One Concert" that were released on October 13th, 2025. The afternoon performance of the song as detailed above is featured on both the "Deluxe" and "Super Deluxe 3" editions, while the never-before-released evening performance of the song appears on the single CD, double vinyl, "Deluxe" and "Supter Deluxe 3" editions.

Live Performances

The Beatles, of course, never performed the song live, but "Come Together" was one of only a small handful of Beatles tracks (six to be exact) that John Lennon ever performed on stage without The Beatles. (The others were "Money (That's What I Want)" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" in Toronto in 1969, "Yer Blues" at the "Rock And Roll Circus" in 1968 and also in Toronto in 1969, and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "I Saw Her Standing There" with Elton John in 1974.)

On August 30th, 1972, by request of friend Geraldo Rivera, John Lennon agreed to play two shows at New York City's Madison Square Garden as a benefit for the Willowbrook State School for retarded children. Also on the bill for what was called the “One To One” concerts, were Stevie Wonder, Melanie Safka, Roberta Flack and Sha-Na-Na. In August of the previous year, George Harrison had organized the first-ever benefit concert at this same venue called “The Concert For Bangladesh,” which Lennon had initially signed on to be a part of, George stipulating that his former Beatle partner would appear solo without Yoko. After Yoko objected, John bowed out at the last minute, only to be the headlining act of another set of benefit concerts, also at Madison Square Garden, the following year.

On stage with Yoko and his backing band Elephant's Memory, John performed a set list of eighteen songs, most being selections from both John's solo career and Yoko's releases with the exceptions of Elvis's “Hound Dog” and his Beatles hit “Come Together.” In the first of the two shows, John introduced this song by saying, “You might remember this better than I do...Something about a 'flat-top,' that's all I know.” After flubbing a good portion of the lyrics, Lennon concluded by stating, “I need to get all the words right too...I have to stop writing those daft words, man. I don't know what I'm saying. I'm getting old!”

This legendary performance, along with thirteen additional songs from the opening concert of this day, was released on a concert video on VHS in 1986 while, as detailed above, a total of eleven songs from this performance were issued as an LP with the title "John Lennon Live In New York City," "Come Together" being among them. These two concerts on this day were John Lennon's last full concert performances ever, and the last time he was on a concert stage with either Yoko or the band Elephant's Memory.

While McCartney never attempted "Come Together" throughout his solo performance career, Paul has demonstrated John's original Chuck Berry-like original version of the song on acoustic guitar during his 2021 Hulu documentary "McCartney 3,2,1." Paul also demonstrated his iconic bass playing on his Hofner violin-shaped bass guitar on this documentary.

Conclusion

Being arguably the most identifiable song on the "Abbey Road" album, and one of the most identifiable Beatle songs of their later catalog, "Come Together," right from its introductory first few seconds, typifies the new, albeit short-lived, direction of the group.

Ian MacDonald described the initial impact of the song on the world scene in “Revolution In The Head” as follows: “Enthusiastically received within campus and underground circles, 'Come Together' is the key song for the turn of the decade, isolating the pivotal moment when the free world's coming generation rejected established wisdom, knowledge, ethics and behavior for a drug-inspired relativism which has since undermined all the intellectual foundations of Western culture.”

This same sentiment is well described, but by using street smarts instead of intellectualism, in The Temptation's song titled “Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today),” this being released only a few months afterward. “Segregation, determination, demonstration, integration, aggravation, humiliation, obligation to our nation” were all sung about here, also including “population out of hand, suicide, too many bills, hippies moving to the hills, people all over the world are shouting, 'end the war.'” And right along with all this, they felt it appropriate to highlight that “the Beatles new record's a gas!” Their phrase “Come Together,” intentional or not, was viewed by a good many as a call-to-action of sorts as we were entering the new decade. The Beatles spoke, and everybody listened!

Song Summary

“Come Together”
Written by: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

• Song Written: January 14 to July 21, 1969
• Song Recorded: July 21, 22, 23, 25, 29 and 30, 1969
• First US Release Date: October 1, 1969
• First US Album Release: Apple #SO-383 “Abbey Road”
• British Album Release: Apple #PCS 7088 “Abbey Road”
• US Single Release: Apple #2654 (b-side to “Something”)
• Highest Chart Position: #1
• Length: 4:16
• Key: D minor
• Producer: George Martin
• Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, John Kurlander

Instrumentation (most likely):

• John Lennon - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (1965 Epiphone ES-230TD Casino), Electric Piano (1968 Fender Rhodes Seventy-Three Sparkle Top), handclaps
• Paul McCartney - Bass (1964 Rickenbacker 4001 S ), backing vocals
• George Harrison - Lead and Rhythm Guitar (1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard)
• Ringo Starr - Drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple)

Written and compiled by Dave Rybaczewski

"Clarity" by Dave Rybs

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