Two of Us

Travel is one of its subjects ('Riding nowhere', 'Sunday driving'), along with the motifs of friendship and nostalgia, a thing the Beatles returned to 23 times across 7 years. The lyric turns to anaphora. One to notice, the title carries a number ("two") and also is sung in the chorus, a thing they had done before, on 'Revolution 1' eight months earlier. Chance or not, the line "You and me" turns up in 5 Beatles songs, among them 'Martha My Dear', 'Old Brown Shoe' and 'Octopus's Garden'.

'Two of Us' is a folk rock song, Everly Brothers influences showing through (two-part vocal homage), played at roughly 112 BPM in the key of G major. There is no bass guitar anywhere on it, rare for a Beatles record. The harmony takes in a 7sus4 chord, which turns up on nine of their records, such as 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'I Don't Want to Spoil the Party'. The key moves (Bridge modulates to B♭ major). By accident or design, the chords run D → C → G → C → G, the same move 'She's a Woman' makes as E7 → D7 → A7 → D7 → A7. One more thing, 'She's a Woman' plays E7 → D7 → A7 → D7 → A7 and 'I've Just Seen a Face' plays E → D → A → D → A, the same progression in different keys, which this song also makes.

The tape rolled at Apple Studios, captured live in the studio with George Harrison playing the bass line on a six-string Fender Telecaster. Phil Spector, the producer, later prefixed Lennon's spoken introduction. Harrison used the Fender Rosewood Telecaster here, his six-string Telecaster, used as the bass, one of 19 across the catalogue, 1969 being the year for it. It shares its session day with one others, the 193rd and 194th of their career.

McCartney wrote it and shares the lead with Lennon. There is a role swap on it, Harrison on bass-register lead guitar, with whistling filling it out, which turns up on three Beatles records in all, such as 'Cry Baby Cry' and 'The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill'. It has only the four of them playing on it, true of 12 of the 30 songs they cut in 1969. Phil Spector, the producer, added the spoken intro in post-production.

This song reached listeners on May 8, 1970, as one track among many on Let It Be. It opens the album. This track was the 3rd of 12 released in that year, and the 205th in the Beatles' whole run.