The Paul McCartney Diss Track John Lennon Recruited George Harrison To Play On
A one-on-one fight between friends is always hard to watch, but add another person to one side, and it turns even more vindictive—something perfectly encapsulated by the Paul McCartney diss track John Lennon recruited George Harrison to play on. To be fair to Lennon and Harrison, McCartney had technically thrown the first musical punch.
Nevertheless, watching the former Beatles (sans Ringo) blow off steam was a somewhat saddening development in their artistic legacies.
The Paul McCartney Diss Track John Lennon and George Harrison Recorded
John Lennon put “How Do You Sleep” on his 1971 record, Imagine, one year after the first unofficial breakup rumors and messages began popping up around the Beatles. The song features George Harrison on slide guitar and seems to directly refer to their former bandmate, Paul McCartney, which Lennon would later say was a direct response to McCartney’s track “Too Many People,” released the same year.
“Too Many People,” from the 1971 album Ram, doesn’t name anyone specifically. However, it’s hard not to pick up on the subtext in McCartney’s lyrics post-Beatles breakup. Too many people going underground, too many reaching for a piece of cake, he begins. That was your first mistake, you took your lucky break and broke it in two. Now what can be done for you? You broke it in two.
“I heard Paul’s message in Ram,” Lennon told Crawdaddy. “Too many people going where? Missed our lucky what? What was our first mistake? Can’t be wrong? Huh! I mean, Yoko Ono, 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?”
Source: Melanie Davis/americansongwriter.com