come together

[donegal]

the song 'come together' by 'the beatles '. What is it all about?

[buddalove]

Come Together

This song was written by John Lennon during his and Yoko's bed-in in Montreal on the 19th Floor of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel,  in May 1969. It came about when their friend, Timothy Leary, the LSD drug mahatma and self proclaimed liberator of the world's collective mind, showed up at the bed-in. At this time, Leary had made a decision to run for political office, and came up with the campaign slogan of "Come Together." With this slogan in mind, he asked John to write him a song using it, that his followers could sing on the campaign trail. Lennon's take on the slogan was to come together and join the party, and wrote the song. Before Leary could use it, he was arrested and went to jail. As a result of Leary being gone, Lennon figured his obligation to him was no longer in force, thus he and The Beatles recorded it.

[kempie]

He got walrus gumboot.

I think that it is self-explanatory. ;-)

[andy hughes]

It isn't 'about' anything - it's just Lennon indulging in his love of word-play as evidenced by his books such as A Spaniard In The Works.

Lennon loved to use words simply for the pleasure of their sound, not because they connected to each other, or even made coherent sentences - and this is a good example. Listen to Lennon rolling the words around his mouth as he sings - it's just the sound he's after - meaning is secondary, or in this case, irrerlavent.

[surfer mike]

• Generalising a bit there andy, yes lennon was a lover of nonsense verse but he also wrote some of the most meaningful and heartfelt lyrics of all time..

Timothy Leary was a psychologist who became famous for experimenting with LSD When the government cracked down on LSD, Leary's experiments were stopped and he was arrested on drug charges. In 1969, Leary decided to run for Governor of California, and asked John Lennon to write a song for him. "Come Together, Join The Party" was Leary's campaign slogan (a reference to the drug culture he supported) and was the original title of the song. Leary never had much of a campaign, but the slogan gave Lennon the idea for this song.

[andy hughes]

I take your point surfer mike, I think I didn't make myself clear that, this is Lennon word-playing just in this one soing - and that's not to infer that this is how he composed all his songs. As a major fan of Lennon's Beatles and solo work, I am well aware of his sublime lyrical skill in other areas. 

[surfer mike]

fair enough comment Andy

[Ouisch]

The first line was lifted, sort of, from an old Chuck Berry song called "You Can't Catch Me."  The lyric in Berry's song was:

"Here come a flat-top, he was movin' up with me"

Lennon was ultimately sued and settled out of court - recording the "Rock and Roll" album was part of that settlement, I believe.

[Ward-Minter]

i think it is linked to the mythical "Paul is Dead" story. Come together (over the grave)?