Come Together

Food and drink ('He shoot Coca-Cola') get more attention here than the Beatles usually do in a pop lyric, alongside the motifs of character and surrealism. The lyric is written in stream of consciousness. 27 songs use it, the first of them 6 years before this one. There is wordplay in the writing ('Toe-jam football', 'walrus gumboot'), which also turns up in 'Matchbox', 5 years earlier. The title is sung again at the end and is an instruction, and the writing takes after the drug culture and Chuck Berry. Chance or not, the line "I can tell you is" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'Revolution'. In 1969, more of their songs give an instruction in the title than in any other year: 4 of them, 'Carry That Weight', this song, 'Don't Let Me Down', and 'Get Back'.

This track is one of 3 Beatles songs in D minor (the earliest of them is 'The Fool on the Hill' in 1967), a blues rock and rock and roll piece taken at about 83 BPM. The tune carries musical quotation, a quotation from another tune (Chuck Berry - You Can't Catch Me), 6 songs use it, the first of them 6 years before this one. Also, listen for the defining riff, bass figure across the verse. The record features a melodic bass and singing across the solo ('Come, come, come, come, come' during solo). Its chorus is short next to the verse, which is uncommon for them (only two short lines).

Tracked in Studio 3 over eight takes with take six marked best, then overdubbed in Studio 2 with handclaps, tambourine, wah-wah lead and ADT chorus vocals, 28 songs use it, the first of them 4 years before this one. The Rickenbacker 4001S was McCartney's bass. Eight Beatles recordings use vocal effect in all, this among them. Counting the 30 songs they began recording in 1969, this was the 24th, and the 207th they ever made.

The track was written and sung by Lennon, who plays electric piano on four Beatles records in all, such as 'The Night Before' and 'I Am the Walrus'. The drums have tea towels over the toms to damp them. You can hear 'Shoot me' whispered between sections on it.

The record was issued as a double A-side with 'Something', and it topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached #4 in the UK. In the running order it opens Abbey Road. The BBC would not play it, having banned it for naming a brand ('Coca-Cola'), which its rules barred from airplay. The Beatles have 4 songs written by a Beatle for another artist to record, and they are 'I Wanna Be Your Man', 'I Call Your Name', 'Something' and this one. This song was the 25th of the 26 records they released in 1969, and the 201st in the order they were recorded.