Written by: Lennon
Recorded: c.20-28 May, 4-5 July 1971
Producers: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Phil Spector
Released: 8 October 1971 (UK), 9 September 1971 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, piano
George Harrison: slide guitar
Nicky Hopkins: piano
John Tout: piano
Ted Turner: acoustic guitar
Rod Linton: acoustic guitar
Andy Davis: acoustic guitar
Klaus Voormann: bass guitar
Alan White: drums
The Flux Fiddlers: strings
Available on:
Imagine
John Lennon Anthology
Wonsaponatime
The most notorious song on John Lennon's Imagine album was an attack on his former bandmate Paul McCartney.
It's not about Paul, it's about me. I'm really attacking myself. But I regret the association, well, what's to regret? He lived through it. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about these things and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. Him and me are okay.
Imagine (film)
Although Lennon later described Imagine as "Plastic Ono with chocolate coating", there was no such sweetening on How Do You Sleep?. The song was an unbridled response to the slights Lennon perceived on Paul and Linda McCartney's Ram album, as well as mutually-aimed jibes in the British music press.
I heard Paul's messages in Ram - yes there are dear reader! Too many people going where? Missed our lucky what? What was our first mistake? Can't be wrong? Huh! I mean Yoko, me, and other friends can't all be hearing things. So to have some fun, I must thank Allen Klein publicly for the line 'just another day'. A real poet! Some people don't see the funny side of it. Too bad. What am I supposed to do, make you laugh? It's what you might call an 'angry letter', sung - get it?
Crawdaddy magazine
Lennon believed there were several coded messages in the lyrics of Ram, notably in the songs Too Many People, Dear Boy, Three Legs and The Back Seat Of My Car. The back cover of the album also featured a photograph of two beetles copulating, which was interpreted as a commentary on the former members' treatment of one another.
In a 1984 interview with Playboy magazine, McCartney denied that much of Ram was aimed at Lennon.
I was looking at my second solo album, Ram, the other day and I remember there was one tiny little reference to John in the whole thing. He'd been doing a lot of preaching, and it got up my nose a little bit. In one song, I wrote, 'Too many people preaching practices,' I think is the line. I mean, that was a little dig at John and Yoko. There wasn't anything else on it that was about them. Oh, there was 'You took your lucky break and broke it in two.'
Playboy
Whereas McCartney's lyrics had been allusive and non-specific, Lennon's were direct and pointed. He accused McCartney of being surrounded by sycophantic 'straights', having achieved nothing more than writing Yesterday, and trashing his recent works as "muzak to my ears". To ram the point home, he suggested those believers of the 'Paul is dead' myth were actually right.
So what if I live with straights? I like straights. I have straight babies. It doesn't affect him. He says the only thing I did was Yesterday. He knows that's wrong. He knows and I know it's not true.
Melody Maker
In its original draft the lyrics contained the couplet "The only thing you done was Yesterday/You probably pinched that bitch anyway". Lennon's manager Allen Klein suggested its replacement, "And since you've gone you're just another day" - a reference to McCartney's 1971 single Another Day - in a wish to avoid a libel action from McCartney. In another studio outtake Lennon spat out the words: "Tell me, how do you sleep, you cunt?'
It definitely would be interesting to find out what those other lyrics were.
I remember reading somewhere that some of the original working lyrics made fun of Paul's Little Richard "oohs" that Paul used to do all the time.
I remember when this song first came out and my friends and I (all die hard Beatles fans since '64) were shocked at what John was saying about Paul. It was so un-fab.
The RAM references really hadn't been brought out.
I think the fact that John, years later, had to eat some humble pie on this song was good for him. I mean, does anyone really believe John's line about "It's not about Paul, it's about me. I'm really attacking myself." ?
I'm sure it's a little bit about John, but he admitted in the interviews before he died that he used his resentment against Paul to write a song.
I think I believe that John wrote that more about himself than about Paul more than John believed that. Ultimately, this is a song about John's bitterness. Although it was outwardly directed at Paul, he was really exposing his own character, or at least a side of it. Vindictive, hurt, biting. All writers end up doing this: Attempt to comment on the world, end up revealing ones own character flaws. At the very least, it's as much about Lennon's immaturity and insecurity as it's about McCartney's penchant for silly little love songs.
It`s really a beautiful story: John & Paul, Peace & Love, Hate & War.
That Allan Klein "another day" lyrical substitution was actually pretty clever - surprised he didn't try to take a co-writing credit for it.
I really hate Chapman for taking John from us. I'm sure there'd have been more to come from the Lennon/McCartney partnership. It's nice to know they were always really close right up until John was shot.
No I don't think so. In the book Memories of John Lennon there's a story from Klaus Voorman where he is sharing what happened when Klaus went to visit John after Sean was born. John said that too much had happened between he and Paul for there ever to be a reunion, but maybe as the 90's came around things would have changed. I guess we'll never know.